Once in the shower stall, I moved aside and watched as Chloe pulled herself up through the window. She was amazingly athletic. I was a bit in awe of her.
She checked her watch and then pointed to the first stall closest to the door. I nodded. Gingerly stepping on my boot, I limped with her to take cover and set up surveillance. The shower-room door was open just enough for us to peek out into the main area.
And I saw him. Joel was sitting on the bench, his elbows on his knees as he leaned forward and listened. Blaze was swinging his arms animatedly, cursing about how “one of his boys” had just gotten caught cheating. I reset my stance—just because Joel was here now didn’t mean that this was all his doing. Everyone knew about us; so it wasn’t like we were a secret.
Joel exhaled heavily. “I don’t know what you want me to say, Blaze. How about you guys stop cheating?”
“Fuck you, man. How about you tell your little girlfriend to stop spying?”
Joel smiled as if he were fondly thinking of me. “I have. She’s nothing if not stubborn.”
He really was too sweet. I could feel Chloe shifting next to me to get a better look. I noticed for the first time that she smelled like vanilla, and it wasn’t unpleasant. Somehow I had expected brimstone.
“She’s a pain in the ass,” Blaze said.
“Watch it.” Joel stood up, and I felt a new surge of attraction for him. See! He was defending my honor. He didn’t give us up.
Blaze put up his hands apologetically. “Sorry. It’s just … man, we had them. I thought this shit was done. I thought you were going to take care of it?”
My stomach hit the floor.
“Look,” Joel said, “I didn’t do this so that you guys can just go on cheating! I did it because it was unethical.”
Blaze snorted. “Ethics? Come on, man.”
Joel shook his head and looked around the room. But when his eyes touched on the shower-room door, I gasped and moved quickly out of the way. Ginger snaps! Did he see me?
Chloe grasped my arm as we both stood with our backs to the tiled shower wall. I could feel her trembling. I guess she was human after all.
“You okay?” she mouthed.
Okay? It hit me. It was true. Joel had been the one that told Blaze and the football team about us. He was the reason my high school career had fallen apart. I thought he … well, I thought he liked me.
Ethics? SOS was trying to instill morality at our school. We were helping fight crimes of the heart! My hurt suddenly turned to anger. I was going to talk very sternly with him the moment I got—
“Why don’t you go ahead and take off?” I heard Joel say. I took the chance and peeked back through the doorway. He was talking to Blaze.
“Yeah, whatever. Just remember, those bitches were wrong. Not us.”
Joel’s jaw clenched, and he turned his back on Blaze and sat back down on the bench, once again resting his elbows on his knees. It seemed that Mr. Fletcher had bitten off more than he could chew with his stupid, deceptive mouth. Oo … I was so ticked.
I waited as Blaze stormed out, still cursing under his breath. The minute the main door closed, Joel sniffled and sat up. “Hi, Tessa.”
For a second I froze, not sure if I should answer. I was … spying, after all. Chloe pushed me, and I catapulted forward, catching the door to stop from falling on my face. When I looked back, she shrugged.
“Believe me,” she said, “you’ll thank me for that later.”
“Still rude.” I watched as she made her way back through the shower room and hiked herself up and out the window. When her sneaker was out of sight, I turned to Joel as he stared at me. We were alone.
“Do you hate me?” he asked.
“Maybe.” He looked so distraught. His usually adorable hair was a bit too shaggy, his clothes were wrinkled as if he’d thrown them on at the last minute. His face was pale.
He smiled sadly. “I wanted to tell you,” he said. “But after you broke your ankle … I just chickened out.”
“You do that a lot.”
Joel laughed and then sighed heavily. “I didn’t mean for it to go down like this. I just figured if they knew who you were, you’d stop spying. They’d stop cheating. You know, delusional optimism.” He paused. “I told you about my parents, about how cheating had destroyed them both. I didn’t want to watch the cycle repeat itself—the cheating and the catching. The revenge. It’s not right, Tessa. You shouldn’t spy on people.”
“Joel, every guy we’ve ever investigated ended up with a confirmed cheat. There’s not much optimism in that.” I already felt my anger fading. In a way, I appreciated his glass-half-full outlook on life. But he hadn’t seen the things we had. He didn’t know that the cheating never went away.
I limped forward and sat next to him on the bench, both of us staring ahead.
“How did you find out, anyway?” I asked. “Kira?”
He shook his head. “Naw. It really didn’t take a genius—granted there are no geniuses on this football team. Basically, when I heard about SOS last month … I knew. You and Kira both disappearing all the time. Unreachable. There’s only so much practicing one squad can do. I put two and two together. After that, all I had to do was get a quick peek at your phone. From there, I got your account, the forms, the list. All of it.”
“You’re too smart.” I smiled, still looking ahead. I should have known that someone would eventually figure it out. We’d been sloppy with our cover stories lately. And it didn’t help that Joel had dated both Kira and me. He had really gotten a good glimpse into the squad.
He exhaled roughly. “Then I went to Blaze, gave him the information I’d gathered. I didn’t know he was going to set you up like that. Please believe I would have never put you in that situation.” He reached out to touch my hand, and I looked down at it. This was all just so sad. Such a tragic misunderstanding—almost like a Shakesperarean play. Well, except that nobody killed themselves. Or ruined a kingdom or anything.
“I believe you,” I said.
“So what do we do now?” he asked. “I messed up pretty bad, and I tried, but I can’t seem to fix it. The guys want your head on a platter.”
I gasped.
“Figuratively,” he said quickly. I blew out a relieved breath and looked at him.
“You don’t have to do anything, Joel. The Smitten Kittens already have a plan—starting with the cheer for the big game. We’ll get it figured out.” A lump began to form in my throat. I could feel the mood changing as I chewed on my lip.