Chapter 23. Heartbreak in the Shadows

I felt so stupid. My body was numb and unfeeling. The devastation hadn’t hit yet but I knew it would soon.

Was that Ace’s way of rejecting me? Letting me down easy by claiming he was busy? If so, it had to be the oldest, lamest excuse in the book.

He didn’t even react to my admission of wanting to be more than friends. It was like he didn’t even care.

I took a shaky breath and leaned my forehead on the wall beside me.

Who was I kidding? Of course he rejected me. Ace wasn’t looking to go out with me.

He wanted someone like Clara—sexy, confident, funny Clara. That’s who he deserved.

I would always just be the weird girl he saw as more of some lame friend than anything else. I was an idiot for thinking he might have been sending me signals.

My shoulders slumped in defeat.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

“Hey, Dorothy!” someone called out just as I was about to turn and open the door of the gym locker room.

I turned to find Clara appro