And maybe they were really stupid and dumb, but that didn’t mean it didn’t make Dakota’s stomach feel sick every time she overheard the whispers.
Those were bad enough.
But it was the loud ones that hurt the worst.
When someone said something like Mason did and everyone laughed, half of them in her face and others trying to pretend like they hadn’t.
She didn’t take the walkway up to the house, and instead, she wound around the side of it, following the path that ran along the back fence and led to the small stream in the woods behind their property.
There was a big tree with a branch that hung close to the ground, so low she was able to crawl up and sit on it.
She unwound the straps of her backpack from her shoulders and let it fall to the grass, then she began to carefully climb up the slanted branch, finding the spot where she could wedge herself into a nook and use it as a seat.
She closed her eyes tight and listened to the babbling of the water and the birds in the trees. Hugged herself hard as she focused on the soft breeze skimming over her hot, fiery skin.
Here was where she could pretend like she could just disappear.
Only she startled when she heard the snap of a twig behind her, and she whirled around in shock, a sound squeezing from her throat when she did.
Then she whipped back around when she remembered her entire face was a mess of snot and tears. She couldn’t let him see her like this.
Yet he didn’t go away.
He climbed up beside her.
Sniffling, she ran the sleeve of her shirt over her face like she could mop up all the evidence.
“What’s wrong?” Ryder asked, trying to peer around her to look at her face.
She shifted farther to the side and mumbled, “Nothin’。”
“I don’t think it’s nothin’ if you’re crying.”
She sniffled again, wishing he would go away all while wishing he would stay. She both hated and liked being around him. Hated and liked the butterflies that flew in her belly when he looked at her. The heavy, strange sensation she got in her chest.
It made her feel shy, but also like she didn’t want to be anywhere else.
“Hey,” he said when she didn’t answer, and he set a hand on her arm and tried to turn her toward him. She finally gave in, looking up at his eyes that were the same color as the night. Twinkling like they had stars in them, but so dark she couldn’t tell how deep they went. “Tell me what’s wrong. You know you can tell me anything. Is someone being mean to you?”
Her teeth grabbed onto her lip, and she bit down to stop herself from admitting it.
“It’s fine,” she said.
“No, it’s not fine if someone is being mean to you, Dakota.” His voice got hard.
She turned away and drew up her legs, hugging her knees to her chest. “Lots of people are mean.” She mumbled that like a dirty secret.
“Who?” he demanded.
“Mostly this dumb boy in class.” She choked over that, and the tears started coming harder again.
“What’s he saying to you?”
She buried her face in her knees, hating the way it hurt to breathe. “I brought cookies into class to share for Paisley’s birthday.”
“That’s cool.”
She shook her head. “At lunch, Mason said I was a fat Betty Crocker.”
Anger moved through him. She could feel it. “He’s nothing but a jerk, Dakota. Everybody’s got their own size. Look at your brother. He’s two times the size of me. You don’t listen to people like that. Besides, my mom says you’re the prettiest girl she’s ever seen.”
“Really?”
Did he think that, too?
“Yeah. He’s probably just jealous of you because he doesn’t get to have all the awesome stuff you make. And who the heck is Betty Crocker?”
She almost laughed, but she was still crying full force, and it made her hiccup instead. “She’s a baker. My favorite one. My mom gave me her old cookbook.”
She’d learned every single one of the recipes inside, and she’d started changing them a bit, making them her own.
Her mom said she had a special talent.
A gift to share with the world.
She wasn’t so sure about that right then.
“Well, whoever this Betty Crocker is, I bet she’s not half as cool as you.”
She knew he was just trying to make her feel better, but he didn’t get it. How everyone had laughed. Even some of her friends.
Not Paisley, though.
Paisley had threatened to punch Mason in the nose. Dakota had kind of wanted her to.