Best Enemies (Canterwood Crest) (24 page)

“PAAAAIIGGE!” I CALLED, PUSHING OPEN OUR
dorm room door. “Guess what?”

“You made it!” Paige squealed, throwing a handful of confetti in the air. Pink, purple, and silver bits of paper rained down on me and fell at my feet.

“Did someone already tell you?” I asked.

Paige grinned. “I just knew. You don’t ride like Sasha Silver and not make the YENT.”

I mock-rolled my eyes. “Puh-lease.”

“You won’t roll your eyes after you see this,” Paige said. She reached behind a big box on her desk and presented a cupcake with a candle stuck in the middle. The cupcake’s pink frosting was swirled into a tip. Clear, diamondlike sprinkles made the icing glitter.

“Paige! It’s gorgeous. You so didn’t have to do that.”

Paige handed me the cupcake and took one for herself. “I wanted to. I’m just mad that Livvie wouldn’t let me light the candle in here.”

I licked at the frosting. “Tell the truth.”

“What?” Paige blinked innocently.

“Livvie wouldn’t let you give a lighted cupcake to
me
. She thought I’d start a fire somehow.”

Paige shrugged. “That might have been true.”

We giggled and ate our delicious victory cupcakes.

“YENT camp is going to be tough, huh?” Paige asked.

I tossed my cupcake paper in the trash. “For sure. Mr. Conner said it would be harder than the clinic.”

“You’re going to need a break after that,” Paige said. “Sooo… I was thinking that you could come stay with me for a couple of weeks this summer after YENT camp. We could hang out in the city
and
you could come to the
Teen Cuisine
set.”

“Really?! I’d
love
that! We’d have so much fun!”

Paige smiled. “I know. I’m already planning lots of stuff for us to do.”

“This is going to be the best summer ever,” I said.

“For sure!” Paige said. She looked at the wall clock and her eyes widened. “My parents will be here in fifteen minutes.”

While she finished packing, I grabbed my phone and texted Eric.
Meet me @ crtyrd now?

BRT.

“Be back in a few minutes,” I told Paige.

I walked to the courtyard, unable to stop smiling. The campus had never looked so gorgeous—the grass surrounding the courtyard was green and lush, the sunlight bounced off the water fountains, and the pink, red, yellow, and purple tulips that had been closed for weeks had opened, splashing color everywhere.

But the best sight was Eric waiting by the fountain. He turned, and when he saw me, he knew. I ran up to him and threw my arms around him.

“I knew you’d make it,” he said, lifting me off my feet and swinging me around. “I’m so happy for you!”

“I’m pretty happy too,” I said, catching my breath as he lowered me to the ground. “I really made it.”

“I never doubted it,” Eric said. “This is the best reason ever for you to leave the advanced team. I’m so proud of you, Sash.”

Eric took my hand and we sat at the edge of the fountain. “What about everyone else?” he asked. “Who made it?”

I sighed, still feeling sad for Callie. “Heather and Jasmine made it. Callie didn’t.”

Eric slumped a little. “Oh, wow. Poor Callie. That’s awful. I know how much she wanted it.”

“She was upset, but she knows what she has to do to make it this fall. We’re going to chat and text all summer and I think she’ll want it even more after she hears about YENT camp.”

“That’s right,” Eric said. “YENT camp. You’ll become even more of a superstar rider this summer.”

I smiled. “And my boyfriend’s going to become a famous horse trainer.”

“We’re both going to have great summers,” he said. “And we’ll have to iChat a lot—I want to see you.”

“Me too.”

Eric’s phone rang and he pulled it out of his pocket. “Hey, Mom. Okay. Sure. See you in a minute.”

Eric closed his phone and turned to me. “They’re here to pick me up.”

We stood. “Have an amazing summer,” I said in Eric’s ear as he wrapped me in a hug.

“You too, Sash.”

Eric leaned in to give me one last kiss and squeezed my hand. “Text you later.”

I watched him walk away, feeling a million emotions about Eric and YENT camp. I’d miss Eric, but I knew
we’d talk every day. YENT camp would be intense and I was nervous that I wouldn’t be ready for it. But being scared about going to YENT camp was better than being comfortable at Briar Creek all summer.

I reached for my phone to see if Mom and Dad were almost here. I was
dying
to tell them.

“Sasha,” someone called.

I looked up and saw Jacob walking toward me. One of his black Chucks was untied and his T-shirt was wrinkled. His green eyes looked worried.

“You heard about Callie,” I said. “I’m so sorry. She’s going to be okay though.”

Jacob stopped in front of me. “I know. I feel awful that she didn’t make it.”

“We’ll be there for her,” I said. “And she’s so happy to have you—”

“Sasha, stop.” Jacob shook his head. “This isn’t about Callie.”

“What?”

Jacob’s eyes locked on mine.

“What?”
I looked at him, confused. “Just tell me.”

He took a deep breath. “Sasha, I got the e-mail you wrote me. I got it a few weeks ago. I tried to forget about it, I really did.”

The e-mail.

The e-mail I’d sent to Jacob before my kiss with Eric, where I’d confessed that I still liked him and wondered if we could try again. He’d never responded, so I thought it had been lost in cyberspace until Violet taunted me that she had a copy. She’d sent Jacob the intercepted e-mail.

I was not hearing this. “Don’t—” I started to say, but Jacob stepped closer.

“I like Callie,” he said, his eyes searching my face. “But—”

“But what?” I asked, barely able to get enough breath to ask.

The scared look on Jacob’s face vanished. “I can’t stop thinking about you.”

All I could do was stare at him. This had to be a dream. Jacob was
not
saying this. Not now. The rainbow of tulips swirled around us.

“Callie’s a great girl,” Jacob said. “And I care about her. But I don’t think about her the way I think about you. I messed up, Sasha. I didn’t see it before… but now I do.”

After everything that had happened—Jacob breaking up with me, liking Eric, losing Callie, almost messing things up with Eric and getting Callie back—now Jacob was confessing that he wanted me back? After the worst
couple of months ever, everything had finally fallen into place. Things between Eric and me were
perfect
. Callie—I mean, it had taken forever for us to become friends again. If she found out—

“Sasha?” Jacob asked. He reached out to me, but I shook my head. Tears made Jacob blurry.

“I can’t deal with this right now,” I choked out. I backed away a couple of steps and then turned and did the only thing I could think to do: I spun around and ran out of the courtyard, leaving Jacob staring after me.

Twenty-two-year-old Jessica Burkhart is a writer from New York City. Like Sasha, she’s crazy about horses, lip gloss, and all things pink and sparkly. Before she started writing, Jess was an equestrian and had a horse like Charm. To watch Jess’s vlogs and read her blog, visit
www.jessicaburkhart.com
.