How To Rule Your High School

Chapter 25: Madison the Stalker

                 

"Is there a problem?" I asked, dropping the spoon back into my cereal bowl as I returned Brett's scowl. He said nothing, choosing instead to pound back the full glass of orange juice that Rosa had set in front of him.

"Madison missed curfew last night," he said, watching as my mother folded down the newspaper at his words. She looked from Brett to me, her eyebrows raised. My jaw had dropped open, only for me to snap it closed as I desperately thought of a way out of this one.

"I was only a few minutes late!" I protested, as my mother's botoxed eyebrows came as close together as her immobilized forehead muscles would allow.

"That is no excuse!" she said, setting down the paper for real this time. I shot Brett a glare so ferocious it should've physically injured him.

"Ask her who she was with," Brett continued, leaning back in his chair with a frown.

"Were you with that surfer boy again?" mom practically shrieked. Deciding I'd had quite enough of the breakfast inquisition, I shoved my chair back and stood.

"No, I was not with the surfer boy again," I snapped, "I was with one of the football guys,"

That shut my mom right up as she shot Brett a questioning look.

"Yeah, the biggest dick on the football team," Brett fired back. But I'd already made my way to the back stairs. I flipped him the finger as I took the stairs two at a time, unable to hear my mom's reply.

If that jerk thought he would get me grounded again, he had another thing coming.

I jumped on my phone as soon as I'd slammed my bedroom door as loud as I could. I ignored the late night text from Courtney telling me how much she wished I was at the party and instead scrolled down to Ethan's name.

I need to get out of here. Can I come over?

The text bubble showing that Ethan was typing a reply popped up almost immediately.

Can't get enough of me? I have that effect ;)

I snorted.

Seriously. I'm coming over.

There was silence for longer than I'd liked before the typing bubble came up again.

No can do Buttercup. Busy today, sry. Call u later.

With a growl, I chucked my phone down onto my bed. I was guessing my mom would come marching upstairs any second now to confiscate my phone and my car keys thanks to Brett's sabotage, so I resorted to my old faithful of weekend morning pastimes.

My poor Nikes hadn't seen a proper run in awhile. I layered a zip hoodie over my long sleeved shirt against the morning chill, but my breath still came in hazy plumes. The sun was up, but not high enough to warm the air yet as I pounded my way down the driveway.

It hadn't been easy falling asleep last night. Between the look on Tyler's face when he wanted to punch Ethan at the game, to the words Brandon had let out when he'd assumed I'd left, I'd been replaying the events of the evening over and over in my head. And that's not even counting Ethan and everything that had happened with him. Heat rose into my cheeks every time I thought about that part of the evening.

A part of me knew I really should've given Tyler a chance to explain himself, but now that I'd gone and made out with Ethan I wondered if I really wanted to know. Throw Brandon into the mix and I had no idea what to think. To top it all off, now Brett was even more mad at me than I'd assumed he was. If I'd known that leaving with Ethan and no-showing at the after party would've fired him up this much, I probably would've made a bigger effort to be home by curfew.