Two things didn’t happen later that morning:
I didn’t tell Ryan about Cora’s phone call. If she wanted to mention any part of the conversation to him, that would be her decision.
And my arrival at school in Ryan’s truck did not go unnoticed.
Heads turned and people were starting over to him when I got out. Their mouths dropped, and everything erupted in chaos.
That was an exaggeration, but with my fragile sense of reality lately, it seemed like chaos. The girls who had been walking toward him turned and hightailed it back to their friends. I could hear the whispers.
It didn’t get any better when we got inside. Someone tripped as she tried to veer around us to get to her gossiping friends, squeaking as she fell. When she scrambled to her feet, her face was flaming red. She pushed all t
