“I like it. It’s . . . applicable.”

I arched an eyebrow.

He chuckled, and I did, too. Thunder rolled, grumbling all around us, and the wind picked up.

Weston lifted his chin. “Smells like rain.” His cell phone chirped. He took one look at it and stuffed it back into the front pouch of his hoodie.

I took a sip of my Mountain Dew. “Erin?”

“Yep.”

“You’ve never seemed like . . .”

“Her type?”

“No,” I said, chuckling and shaking my head. “Not at all.”

“I guess I’m not. My parents sure like the idea of it.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. They like the idea of a lot of things.” He leaned back, using his arm as a pillow as he looked up at the sky.

I did the same, noticing that the only patch of clear sky was directly above us. “Will they want you home any time soon?”

“Nope. Do you need to be?”

“Nope.”

Weston took a deep breath, and we just lay there for the longest time. Neither of us felt the need to fill the silence as we watched the storm clouds slowly close in on the stars above.

Chapter Four

Walking into third period gave me pause. A familiar face with kind blue eyes and perfectly glossed lips looked up at me. “Hi, there. Come on in.”

Julianne Alderman stood behind Mr. Barrows’s desk, nervously shuffling papers. “Oh, my. I’m not very good at this.”

I just watched her as the other students filled the desks. They barely noticed her and were talking and laughing loudly.

“What the . . . what are you doing here?” Alder said, frozen in the doorway. Her eyes were wide.

Julianne smiled. “Obviously they were very desperate for a substitute.”

Alder rolled her eyes and scampered to her seat, ducking down. “This is so freaking embarrassing, Mother. Jesus.”

“Erin,” Julianne warned, although there wasn’t even a glimmer of anger in her eyes. Gina would have climbed over the desk at me by then.

Julianne’s shiny brown hair bounced as she walked around the classroom, passing out papers. As a child, I fantasized about what it would be like to grow up with a mother like her. Alder always showed up to school on Halloween in a gorgeous, homemade princess costume, complete with a pink pointy hat and ribbon flowing from the top. Sam and Julianne were always at the games that Alder cheered at to support her, wearing buttons on their jackets featuring her cheer picture. For her sixteenth birthday, they bought her a shiny new Honda Accord, which she hated. She didn’t know she was lucky to take those things for granted, that everyone didn’t get the same love and attention that she did, so I didn’t really hold it against her. Even though I wanted to.

Julianne sat in Mr. Barrows’s chair and grinned, her blue eyes sparkling. We had similar coloring, the same heart-shaped face, similar dark hair and blue eyes, so I hoped I still looked as young and beautiful as she did when I was her age.