Exposing Kitty Langley by DeAnna Kinney Page A

at me?”
    “No, I guess not. I mean you had no
way of knowing she would catch us. It’s no one’s fault. I just need to make her
see the truth before she gets hurt.”
    “What do you mean by that?”
    “Look for yourself,” I said,
motioning toward her car.
    Haley turned to see what I was
seeing. “Wow. He didn’t waste any time, huh? What are you gonna do?”
    “What can I do? I’m just gonna watch
every move that loser makes. I’m not giving him another chance to hurt her.”
    “You know she doesn’t like him.
She’s just trying to get back at you.”
    I shrugged. “I guess.”
    “You really like her, don’t you?”
    I let out another deep breath,
turning to peer down at her. “Yeah, I think I do.”
    I spent the next two days watching
Trent hang all over Kitty. He was at her locker helping her with her books. He
walked her to every class. He ate lunch with her at her car, and walked her back
to her car at the end of the day. Any idiot could see she was trying to make me
jealous. And it was working. It took all my strength to leave him in one piece.
When they would walk toward me in the hall, she made sure to loop her arm
through his. Of course this pleased him, and he would smirk at me as they
passed. As if this didn’t bother me enough, I watched in annoyance as twice he
tried to steal a kiss, but she turned her head both times causing him to kiss
her cheek. This guy was seriously pushing his luck.
    I wasn’t the only one who noticed. I
caught sight of Bunnie watching them closely. The look of anger on her face was
unmistakable. Rumor was that she had a crush on Trent. I had to get this guy
away from Kitty—and soon.
    By the third day, I had had all I
could take. They were together at her locker and she was pretending to laugh at
something he said. I knew she was faking because she rarely ever laughed. That
was it! I was about to approach them until Haley stopped me.
    “Reed, I need to tell you
something.”
    That caught my attention. I followed
her around the corner and out the door. Once we were outside she began. “I
talked to Kitty this morning.”
    I froze. “You what?”
    “I followed her into the bathroom
this morning, and I told her everything. I told her about the bet you lost and
how you were supposed to kiss me at the dance because you lost that bet. I
explained that that was why you kissed me in the library, because I made a deal
to leave you two alone if you fulfilled your bargain. I think she believed me.”
    This was the best news I had all
day. “Ah man, thanks, Haley. I really appreciate that. So you really think she
believed you?”
    “Yeah, and that’s not all. I think
she’s getting really tired of Trent following her around everywhere.”
    “Really? Why do you say that?”
    “Well, she seemed annoyed that he
was waiting when we came out of the bathroom. I can just sense it. You know,
women are good that way.”
    “Well, this is good news. Now all I
have to do is get her to talk to me.”

Chapter Sixteen
     
    Kitty
     
     
    I was staying after school, and not
because I was in trouble but because I was getting really tired of Trent trying
to make passes at me. I couldn’t figure out if his intentions were harmless or
not, but I didn’t want to find out. I had told my history teacher, Mr. James,
that I needed a quiet place to study, and he said I could stay as long as I
needed.
    It was taking too much out of me to
keep pretending to be happy without Reed. Making him jealous was exhausting.
And yet, somehow I couldn’t let him know how much his kiss with Haley had hurt
me. I saw the hurt in his eyes when I was with Trent, and it confused me. When
Haley explained everything about the kiss, I had allowed myself to hope. What
if what she said was true?
    My phone vibrated alerting me to a
text message. It was Reed. He was worried because I didn’t show up at my car.
He begged me to message him, letting him know where I was and that I was okay.
So I did.
    “There you