Silver Linings by Debbie Macomber

could have any girl he wanted and he’d proved it with her. Any girl—and Coco had been an easy conquest. Next time, he bragged, he’d look for a real challenge.
    As soon as she learned the truth, Coco went home and didn’t return to school for nearly a week. It was easy enough to convince her mother she had the flu, seeing that it wasn’t far from the truth. She was sick to her stomach and even sicker at heart, spending her time in bed, unable to face her friends.
    In the ten years since, the humiliation of what Ryan had done had never completely left her.
    While she was home she heard that someone had slashed Ryan’s tires. Suspicion quickly fell on her, though, needless to say, such a thing would never have even occurred to her. Coco never learned who was responsible, though whoever did it was a hero in her eyes.
    When word got out that Ryan had slept with Coco, her friends had been sympathetic, but none more than Katie. Although a new friend, Katie had stopped by the house every afternoon with a list of homework assignments from Coco’s classes. Katie didn’t mention Coco’s humiliation. She’d been kind and thoughtful and gentle.
    The girls in drill team were less so. They said Ryan was a pig, but Coco knew that if he were to ask any of them out, they’d leap at the chance the same way she had.
    Returning to school took courage. But at some point, hiding away in her bedroom and licking her wounds was no longer an option. The only way she could think to deal with Ryan and his friends or anyone else who brought up the subject was to pretend what he’d done didn’t matter. And so she showed complete indifference to him and shrugged it off as no big deal. Who was to say she wasn’t a virgin, anyway? Ryan could claim what he wanted, but no one would ever know for sure.
    Thankfully, her ruse seemed to work, and by the time another full week had passed, Ryan’s little challenge was old news. The gossipmongers had found fresh fodder. The holidays were fast approaching and Coco kept herself busy with school and family. Then her parents, whom she’d never confided in, suggested she invite Ryan over for Thanksgiving dinner.
    “No.” She nearly screamed at the idea. Her parents were baffled. It was embarrassing enough that nearly the entire school was in on the joke. She couldn’t bear it if her family found out.
    “I thought you liked him?” Her mother appeared surprised.
    “He was such a polite young man,” her father insisted. “I’d like to see more of him. From what I understand, he’s got a bright future as an athlete.”
    Coco wanted to scream that Ryan was nothing like they believed. Not only had he fooled her, but he’d managed to deceive her parents as well. “We’ve both moved on,” she said, hoping it would satisfy her parents, and luckily it did.
    As time progressed, Coco’s friendship with Katie grew. For the rest of the school year Coco avoided her old friends, shunning their invitations. She dropped out of drill team and kept mostly to herself.
    After graduation Coco got a summer job at the same fast-food restaurant where Katie worked. A couple times friends of Ryan’s came in. Without Coco ever asking, Katie stepped in to take their orders so Coco didn’t have to.
    As difficult as it was, Coco put high school behind her. But not Ryan. Her humiliation had festered and grown into such an intense dislike that she now relished the thought of confronting him at their reunion.
    “Coco?”
    Katie’s knock against the door of her room broke into her thoughts. She slid off the bed and pulled open the door.
    “You okay? I knocked a few times. I thought you might have gone to the high school without me.”
    “Sorry…I was thinking…you know, about tonight.” This evening’s party would be her first opportunity to see Ryan again. This was the moment she’d been waiting for for the last ten years and she wasn’t about to let it pass without telling him exactly what a scumbag she thought