Page 67 of Fighting Fate

“I don’t think I should go to homecoming with you,” he says.

I let out a breath in relief. “Oh, yeah, totally.”

Griffin chuckles. “You look relieved. I thought you’d be a little bummed out.”

I worry my bottom lip between my teeth. “Well…”

“It’s okay,” he says. “I know you’d rather go with Hunter.”

I shake my head, venomously denying. “No. Why would you think that?”

He raises an eyebrow. “Because I see the way you look at him. And I see the way he looks at you. You’re trying to deny it, for whatever reason, but it’s clear that the two of you belong together.”

I don’t know aboutthat.

“Hunter doesn’t like me like that,” I tell him.

“He does, Cove.”

I don’t know what to say, so I don’t say anything at all.

“And I know you love him,” Griffin says. “And if you deny it, you’re only lying to yourself.”

I resist the urge to cover my face. I want to tell Griffin to stop talking, that Hunter is in the closet, listening to our every word. But I can’t.

“Go to homecoming with him, Cove. You’ll have more fun than you would have with me,” he insists. “If you kiss him, he will kiss you back. I know you don’t have confidence in yourself, but you’re quite the catch.”

I glance over toward the closet, the back at Griffin.

“I’m going to go back to East Raven. But we can still be friends. I’d like that, actually,” he says.

I nod. “Sure.”

But all I can think about is how humiliated I am about what he’s saying.

“I’ll walk with you. I’m heading to Harper’s dorm anyway,” I tell him, knowing that if I wait, Hunter will tell me no.

I need to not be around Hunter right now. After what he heard, I can only imagine what he’s thinking. I hope he doesn’t think it’s true. But what if he does? How will I ever face him again if he knows the truth?

Griffin and I walk through the hall together. He doesn’t say anything and I wonder what he’s thinking. We part ways as I stop by Harper’s room.

He waves at me. “I’ll see you around, Cove.”

“Bye.”

Pathetic.

As I knock on Harper’s door, all I can think is that Hunter is going to kill me. My hope is that he’ll be so distracted by the fact that I left the room without him that he won’t even think about the things Griffin said.

I will pretend that conversation never happened.

Before Harper can open the door, Hunter comes up behind me. Wanting to avoid him, I try to open Harper’s door, but it won’t turn. It’s locked, so she must not be here.

Hunter starts to say something, so I take off running down the stairs. Maybe I’m acting completely mental, but I don’t care. I don’t want to hear how pathetic my crush on him is—I already know that he is way out of my league.

I run toward the boys’ dormitory and straight for Liam’s room. I don’t knock, I just twist the handle. It’s also locked. I knock on the door, hoping that he’s inside.

“Are you looking for Liam?” A boy asks, as he’s walking by.