Chapter 34: Paradise ... and trouble

QUINN

I'd spent my first two years of high school dreaming about being Leo's girlfriend. I'd built some amazing fantasies about what that would look like.

None of those dreams even began to touch how wonderful it was.

Over that winter, after football ended, we fell into a routine. Leo picked me up for school each day. We ate lunch together, and if I didn't always feel entirely comfortable with his football friends, that was a very small price to pay.

Nate wouldn't eat with us, though. The first time I'd asked him, he'd looked at me like I'd sprouted a second head.

"You want me to eat with Mike Anders and Brent Collins? No, thanks."

I'd felt that familiar tearing sensation, the one that hit me whenever Nate wanted me to do one thing and Leo asked me to do another. I hated having to choose between them.

But before I could say anything else, Nate had added, "Don't worry about me. I'm going to start working in the computer lab over lunch anyway."

I convinced myself that he wou