“Sounds like you got a beef with them,” I say as I pull open my locker.

She chews on her bottom lip. “Well, I hooked up with Hunter once. It was the biggest mistake of my life, something I realized right after, when he told me to take care and left me lying in bed naked. He didn’t even wait for me to get dressed before ditching me. And we were at his house, and he just took off, and …” She clears her throat. “Anyway, I should’ve known better, because that’s what Hunter does. He uses girls and everyone knows this, yet I somehow convinced myself that I’d be the one to change him.”

“I’m sorry … I can kind of see how you fell for him, though. He seems really …” I waver for the right word. “Charming.”

“You’ve talked to him?” she asks, and for the strangest second, I detect a hint of jealousy in her eyes.

I nod, my guard going up even more. If she is jealous, then that means she’s not over him, and I don’t need any jealous girl drama on top of the drama Dixie May is going to cause for me.

“Yeah, he was in the main office this morning when I picked up my schedule.” I choose my words carefully. “He just said hi, but I wasn’t really that interested in him.”

Her brows elevate. “Seriously?”

“Yep.”

“How? I mean, you did see him, right?”

I nod. “Yeah.”

She gapes at me. “And you didn’t think he was hot?”

“No.” Not a total lie. Yeah, I thought he was pretty, but I’m not about to tell her that aloud.

She shakes her head, her jaw practically hanging to her knees. “You really are crazy, aren’t you?”

I bump my locker shut. “I think we already established that, didn’t we?”

Grinning, she points a finger at me. “You know what? I think you and I are going to be good friends.”

That’s the second time someone has said that to me today, but that doesn’t mean I’m hopeful. No, I’ve had friends before. However, they ended the moment my parents died. For anyone else who thought to be my friend, they quickly reconsidered after they found out the truth. And I know it’ll always be that way, because no one wants to be friends with a murderer.

Her lips part then close, her forehead creasing as she retrieves her phone from her pocket. She reads a message then curses. “Shit. I forgot I was supposed to meet the counselor at lunchtime.” She stuffs her phone into her pocket. “I gotta go, but if you want, you can sit by my friends at lunch. They sit at the table near the far back doors.” She backs away from me, moving down the hallway. “Most of them will have sketchbooks out, ’cause we’re all art nerds. But we’re cool. I promise.” She throws me a wave then spins around, her shoes squeaking against the linoleum as she hurries off.