“I like celebrity magazines from the drug store. Like gossip ones.”
I exhale. Maybe Abbey actually isn’t right for Miles.
“Hey, Sana, are you going to your prom with anyone?” Thomas asks. “Abbey said it’s in a hotel, so I assume you have a room for the night. I can free up my schedule if you need a date.” He flashes the grossest smile. Was I supposed to find his offer attractive?
“You’re an ass, you know that?” Miles says. Which, true, Thomas is an ass. But telling him that to his face is certainly a choice. All Thomas did was ask me to my prom.
Abbey looks at me with a worried expression. “I like books with animals too. I read one about whales once.”
“Oh, that sounds fun,” I say, hoping to defuse the tension between the guys. “I read a book with a cat—”
“What’s your damage, bro?” Thomas practically growls at Miles.
“I’m not yourbro,” Miles says. “And my damage is that you’ve been talking out of your ass since we got here with your crypto crap, and I don’t know why you think I’d approve of that rude gesture you made about Sana when she was getting food. You’re a pig—you should go see if they’ll roast you on a spit.”
Ew. What exactly was this gesture? But also… Thomas is considerably larger than Miles and looks incredibly pissed off. The last thing we need is physical violence at our festival committee’s first research trip.
Abbey still seems to want to defuse the situation. “You have to try this fish! It’s so good!” She spears her sardine with a fork and points it at Miles with such force that it flies off her plastic fork and hits Miles in the face before landing on his lap.
Everyone is silent for a moment. Did that really happen?
“Did you just throw a fish at me?” Miles asks Abbey. He doesn’t sound angry, more shocked.
“Oh no!” Abbey says. “I’m sorry! My sardine got away from me. Here… let me…” She reaches to get her grilled fish from Miles’s lap, and in the process knocks down her orange soda, which spills onto both hers and Miles’s laps.
Miles scrambles out of his seat and wipes his lap with a napkin. Which causes the fish to fall to the ground in a puddle of orange soda.
“What the hell did you do to my sister?” Thomas yells at Miles.
Now Miles looks angry. His eyebrow is still twitching, and his nostrils flare. “She threw her fish at me!”
“It was an accident,” Abbey says.
Thomas stands. “Yeah, but this isn’t.” He takes a handful of fries out of his box and throws them directly at poor Miles.
I stand. “What the frick!” I yell at Thomas. Miles wasdefendingme from this creep. He doesn’t deserve fish, fries, or orange soda thrown at him. I whip my second pastéis de nata at Thomas. The tart hits him in the chest with athud, creating a large splotch of custard and pastry on his T-shirt. He looks like a combination of anger and shock. Maybe I shouldn’t have done that.
Cara laughs at Thomas, then throws a handful of salad greens at him. A leaf of arugula sticks to the custard on his chest, which only makes him angrier.
“Hey,” a voice says. I turn and see a guy wearing a festival volunteer shirt, standing with a uniformed security guard. “Knock it off. I’m going to have to ask you kids to leave.”
Thomas, still furious, glares at Cara, then at me, then turns to his sister. “This isn’t worth it. Let’s get away from these weirdos, Abbey. Who plans festivals for fun, anyway?”
Abbey nods, then gets up and leaves with her brother without even looking at me or Miles. The rest of us apologize and start cleaning up our mess before we leave. I can’t believe we got kicked out of a neighborhood festival. The Love on Love Street Festival planning committee is off to a terrible start.
Soon after we’re done cleaning, Hannah says something about meeting her friends downtown, and Cara goes with her. Which leaves me alone with Miles to walk to the subway.
“You have fish skin on your cheek,” I say, handing him a napkin. “Oh, and a french fry in your hair.” I pick it out. I feel so bad—this was my fault. I’m the one who invited Abbey.
“That went well, don’t you think?” he deadpans while wiping his face.
I squeeze my lips so I won’t laugh, but it’s unnecessarybecause Miles starts laughing himself while using the napkin to wipe his jeans.
Even with fish on his face and french fries in his hair, Miles is still adorable. Especially laughing.
“I’m sorry,” I say when his laughter eases a bit. “I had no idea Abbey would bring her brother. Or that her brother would be the definition of douchey crypto-bro.”
Miles chuckles as he tosses the napkin in a trash bin. “At least the food is good. I’m glad I finished my sandwich before someone threw it at me.”
