Free The Comeback by Marlene Perez Page A

hide that they got along.
    â€œYou are giving me massive sibling envy, you know. And indigestion.”
    I scanned the cluster of guys who were bare-chested in the California sun, but I didn’t see Dev.
    But I did see Angie Vogel, sitting in the opposite bleacher. She was with Stephanie Blake. Why hadn’t Stephanie called me? I waved at her and she gave me a halfhearted salute in return.
    â€œWhat’s Angie doing here?” I said.
    â€œWe’re playing Eisenhower, her old school,” Monet said. “She probably knows someone on the team.”
    It seemed like she knew everyone on the team. I wondered if Connor knew where his girlfriend was. My question was answered when he showed up and took a seat next to her.
    Monet nudged me. “Dev’s up,” she said. “And besides, you’ve been glaring at Angie for the past five minutes.”
    I don’t know why, but the sight of them looking so happy made my stomach churn. I was over him, but that didn’t mean I wanted my face rubbed in his obvious bliss. It was like a slap in the face every time I saw them together.
    Turning my attention back to Dev, I was disappointed to note he had on a full-body-suit thing, like a wet suit.
    â€œWhat is he wearing?”
    â€œSome new swimwear,” Monet replied. “Dev said it’s supposed to make him faster.”
    â€œYeah, but he might as well be wearing a muumuu for all the skin you can see. Even his chest is covered.”
    Monet bristled. “Why are you interested in seeing Dev’s skin?”
    Damn. She sounded mad. “Keep your voice down,” I said, glancing over at where Dev stood with his teammates.
    â€œYou’re going on about how you can’t see enough of him.”
    â€œI’m not,” I said, faking a shudder. “I mean in general .”
    But it wasn’t true. I wanted to see what Dev looked like in the worst way, and not in a general way but in a very specific way.
    I’d never so much as looked at another guy when I had a boyfriend. Now I was practically drooling over Monet’s brother, for God’s sake. I seriously needed to find a date.
    It was Connor’s fault. Connor and Angie’s. I glanced over at them and caught Angie’s eye. I smiled sweetly and waved. You know the old saying, Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. It was time to get closer to Angie.

Chapter 12
    I hadn’t expected it to be easy to get next to Angie, but it proved to be even more difficult than anticipated. I didn’t want the whole world to know what I was doing.
    I knew she ate lunch at Wicked Jack’s, sometimes even without Connor, but that wasn’t an option. I still couldn’t bring myself to show my face there. Not after the dance humiliation, although that scandal had died down a bit, thanks to an STD. The victim was varsity cheerleader Jackie Johnson, the abstinence queen who used to hand out sexual Just Say No pamphlets at lunch.
    They couldn’t shut up about it in English class. We had a sub. Sometimes we got lucky and had substitute teachers who really wanted to teach, but today’s candidate assigned us to read a chapter and then promptly got out his newspaper.
    â€œDid you hear about Jackie?” Olivia whispered.
    â€œYes,” I said. “What’s the big deal?” Don’t get me wrong, I was delighted that the focus was off me and the debacle at the dance, but I wasn’t going to revel in someone else’s misfortune, especially not with that harbinger of doom Olivia Kaplan. I had a pretty good suspicion she was the one who had plastered posters of me all over school.
    â€œShe has crabs,” Olivia replied indignantly.
    â€œOlivia, that could happen to anybody,” I said. “It could even happen to you.”
    I didn’t think it was humanly possible, but for some reason, that shut her up.
    I finished reading the assigned chapter in about ten minutes and had