Page 53 of Falling Into You

“Mom!” Rory ran to her mother’s room and found her coming out of the bathroom in her robe, a huge towel wrapped around her head.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” her mother asked.

“I need shoes! For homecoming!”

Her mother blinked. “Isn’t homecoming today?”

“Yes! I have to leave in an hour to help decorate the stands.” Rory felt like she could burst into tears. It was all too much. How could she have messed up something as important as shoes? But she knew how. It was because she’d spent the entire week focused on Jacob and his grade and getting him up to speed on the routines, and all that work had come to nothing because he’d completely bailed on her.

“Maybe you can borrow a pair of mine?” her mother said.

“You know I’m a size bigger than you! And the ones I wore last year don’t match my dress. What am I going to do?”

“Okay, okay. Let’s work the problem.” Rory’s mother rubbed the sides of her arms and moved her over to sit on the bed, perching next to her. “I’ll run to the theater and get you something from wardrobe.”

“There’s no time! I need something before the game starts because at halftime I have to run into the school and change and then get on a parade float before they start the ceremony.”

“So I’ll bring the shoes to the school before halftime.”

“But you’re not coming to the game! You have rehearsal.”

“Honey, take a breath. You are way more important to me than any rehearsal,” her mother said, smoothing Rory’s hair behind her shoulder. “I know I said I couldn’t make the game or the cheerleading competition tomorrow, but I got Nora to drive out from the city to take my place tomorrow, so I’ll be at regionals.”

“You will?” Rory said, her voice breaking.

“Yes, and today, I can miss thirty minutes to bring you a pair of shoes, okay?” Her mother smiled. “We have dozens of black heels from when we did Chicago, in all kinds of sizes. It’s all going to be fine.”

She took both of Rory’s hands in her own and looked her in the eye. “Repeat after me: We got this.”

Rory stared back at her mother, hoping to absorb even one ounce of her eternal optimism. “We got this,” she said.

Two hours later, Rory was on the track at the football field, the stands festooned with red and gold streamers, balloons, and signs, her gown hanging from beneath the bleachers in a garment bag. Her hair was in a high bun, which would work both for cheerleading and for glam, and she was hoping against hope that her makeup didn’t completely sweat off before halftime.

At least it was cold and cloudy. Everyone else was probably annoyed about it—not good weather for spaghetti-strap dresses or photos—but she didn’t have to worry too much about her finishing spray holding up.

Which gave her more time to worry about Tucker. Depending on how things went, she might have to ride on a homecoming float with him. The guy she hadn’t spoken to in almost a week. The guy who had ruined every fun thing about this day—and spread rumors about her, and been a total jerk,andgot to have Jacob on his team.

She had no idea whether Jacob was even going to show up for any of the events, or what she was going to do if he did.

“Maybe we should just skip halftime,” Layla suggested as the squad gathered on the track before the game. They were all wearing varsity jackets over their sweaters and sipping the hot chocolates that Carlos had bought on the way over. “I mean, if Jacob’s not going to show.”

“All that work for nothing,” Dahlia muttered behind her cup.

“It doesn’t matter if he shows,” Rory said. “After yesterday, I don’t want him on the squad.”

“Rory, what?” Gwen said. “Are you sure?”

“Do you guys really want someone who’s going to just randomly bail on us with no explanation?” she asked.

“Didn’t he text you like a million times?” Layla asked. “He must have explainedsomething.”

“Yeah, but that was allafterthe fact,” Rory said. “Too little, too late. If he’d talked to me beforehand, I maybe would have heard him out, but he just ditched us. He chose soccer over cheer.”

In the most public and humiliating way possible,she added silently, thinking of Tucker’s triumphant smirk.

“I’m so confused,” Maya said. “I thought they threw him off the soccer team. I thought that was how he ended up here in the first place.”

Rory sighed. “It’s a long story.”