Page 104 of Keeping Score

And most of all, I wanted Maggie.

To sit beside me, with her hand on my thigh under the table. To ask me what we had for snacks when we got home. To whisper something in my ear that had even me blushing. To just be here, with me.

Instead, I shifted in my seat, mentally rehearsing a list of clever comments to pull out later when everyone looked to me expectantly.

“Hey,” Tara leaned over, “are you okay?”

“I’m great,” I said. “Thanks for getting the crew together.”

She stared at me.

“I’m sorry if this isn’t what you wanted. You just seemed so sad and I just thought—well, you always seemed so happy around your friends.”

I always did seem to be happy around my friends, because they wouldn’t have wanted to be around me if I wasn’t. But why the hell was it so much harder now to keep that smile on my face that I thought I’d already perfected?

Because now you know what it’s like to have people you don’t have to pretend around.

“I just thought it would cheer you up,” Tara continued. “I didn’t mean to overstep.”

“You didn’t.”

Abbey might have. But I didn’t blame Tara for that.

“Really, it’s nice to see everyone. Thank you for bringing them here.”

“You’re my little brother,” she half-shrugged. “I just want you to be happy. You know that, right?”

“Yeah, Tara.” I nodded. “I know.”

So that’s what I did for the night.

I was happy.

At least, I pretended to be.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Maggie

“Ican’t believe your dad really let the cops take you,” Cassie said, sitting next to me behind metal bars.

“You can’t?” I asked. “I’d say it’s right on par with the father-of-the-year status he’s been working toward.”

She let out a laugh.

“That was a pretty good hit though. You looked kind of like Liam when he gets mad.”

“How would you know?” I said, eager to get my mind off the whole horrid night. “He never gets mad at you.”

“I’ve seen it from afar.” She shrugged. “Hockey and stuff. You guys both scrunch your nose up right before you hit someone. It’s cute.”

The clerk who’d been handling us for the evening moved in front of the bars, fixing us with a bored expression.

“Either of you want to make a call?” she asked.

I didn’t know who I would call. The only girl who’d come get me was already sitting beside me. And I wasn’t desperate enough to call my mother to bail me out of jail.

“Nope,” I said, at the same time Cassie jumped to her feet.