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when she heard the rumble of a truck pulling into the driveway beside her.
    Great. Someone was here: either a random delivery guy or another one of her father’s flunkies. And her father’s flunkies were precisely the kind of bully who made fun of a girl for crawling on her stomach for the betterment of the planet. And would possibly take pictures.
    “Please be UPS. Please be UPS,” she muttered under her breath as she scooted out from under her car.
    It wasn’t UPS.
    She nearly groaned when she saw the familiar bright red of Tanner Colt’s gas-guzzling Dodge Ram pickup. Tanner leaned against the passenger-side door, legs stretched out in front of him, arms crossed over his chest, looking for all the world like he’d just settled in to enjoy the show. One eyebrow was arched and a smug smile curved the lips that Piper could rhapsodize about for hours.
    “Hey, Isabel.”
    “Well, if it isn’t Tanner Glock,” she snarled.
    “Careful, Isabel. One of these days you’re going to run out of guns to make fun of my last name with.”
    “Oh, I don’t know. With rednecks like you here to fuel the demand, I’m sure the gun manufacturers will keep me in supply. By the way, why are you always at my house? I mean, I know your parents live outside of Paris, but don’t you have family of your own around here?”
    Ignoring her jab, he nodded toward the car. “You taking auto repair this semester?”
    Izzy flashed the aluminum can. “Recycling, actually,” she quipped, trying to sound cool and collected. Suave even. As if she hadn’t just been crawling around on her belly.
    She pitched the can toward the recycle bin, sending up a silent prayer that it would actually make it. It didn’t. Once again, the can rolled down the driveway. This time, Tanner grabbed it and sent it sailing straight into the tub. The show-off.
    “You going to watch the movie with us?”
    “What movie?”
    “Your brother invited the team over to watch some slasher flick.”
    “Absolutely.” She smirked, then wrapped her arms around her chest and faked an exaggerated shiver. “That explains the sudden temperature drop. Hell has actually frozen over, and I’m going to spend my free time hanging out with the baboons my brother calls friends.” Then she cocked her head and pretended to think about it for a second. “Nope. Still not cold enough.”
    “Then I guess I’ll catch you on Monday.” He flashed her a wink and sauntered off into the house.
    “I’ll be all shivery in anticipation.” But he was already gone.
    Why was it that she spent most of her time being Invisabel Isabel—the girl no one noticed—but whenever she was doing something embarrassing, the most popular guy in school was there to witness it?
    Not that she cared what Tanner Colt thought about her. But she
would
like to retain the last shreds of her dignity.
    Still, as much as she wanted to, she couldn’t blame her bad mood on Tanner. That rested solely on River’s shoulders. The jerk hadn’t called her since the party out at Mike’s barn. Which might not have been such a big deal, if that hadn’t been the night they’d slept together for the very first time.

    She was purposefully late to Piper’s. She didn’t want to be alone with anyone for fear of spilling her guts about River. What would have been the point?
    She’d already figured out that sleeping with him had been a prettystupid idea. Like, colossally stupid. Like, she’d previously thought only cheerleaders-made-mistakes-that-dumb stupid.
    And the thing was, when you did something really, massively stupid, you didn’t rush out to tell your friends about it.
    Even though she knew they’d be on her side—Cassidy would be first in line to break River’s nose—it was too soon to talk about. There was a giant raw spot inside of her and she wasn’t ready to expose the wound to air.
    Besides, this wasn’t
ha-ha
stupid, like the time she’d driven from her house to Cassidy’s with her iPod sitting on the