Lacey slammed her door shut. What the hell was that? Standing in the middle of her room, she flexed her fingers and looked around, with Marvin's words repeating in her head over and over again. Making her grow hot with rage. Why on earth would he say that? That was his problem? But right now, she didn't want to be alone. She called Tom. "Hey. Can I come over?" There was no controlling the anger in her voice. "Yeah. Is everything okay?""No." She didn't want to vent or cry. She just wanted to be with someone who would comfort her without words. "Should I come pick you up?" He sounded concerned.She had no intention of telling him any of what had happened in the last ten minutes. Again all she wanted was to be around someone. Him to be specific. "No. I'll be there on my own." She adjusted her large t-shirt and leggings and rushed out the room. "The least she could do is defend herself." She heard Marvin say. "Lacey won't. She won't because

While Dennis had retreated to come up with a new strategy, Lacey only had to deal with Tate. Rejecting him in front of his friends had been kind of funny, considering the way his friends reacted. And Dennis, the words she had used when he said they technically were still together always brought a smile to her face. It probably wasn't the the best she could have said, but it was good enough for her and good enough the make him keep his distance. It was easy for her to ignore the stares and little whispers, especially since she never heard what they who decided to make her a topic of their conversations were saying. Abby and her friends on the other hand always had impeccable timing on when to approach her and give a snarky remark. The good part about the remarks was that it was hardly ever about Dennis or Tate. She had a feeling those would come up soon. Aside from the burnt house, during classes were the only times she was sure that no one would bother her. Unfortunately,