I pat her head and swing my bag over my shoulder. “See ya, Bex!”
“Enjoy your night! Drink some green beer for me!”
I give her a thumbs up even though I’ve decided I’m not going to tonight’s St. Patrick’s Day party that Kenneth and Cade throw every year. Shay won’t be happy I’m bailing, but she will understand.
“You really thought I was going to let you miss the party of the year?” A glimpse of green eyeshadow glitters as Shay reverses out of our driveway. “Dumbass.”
I’m the driver in our friendship. I’m not even sure why Shay even has a car considering she walks everywhere and only drives once a week. So the fact that she’s in the driver’s seat is wrong on every level.
After I attempted to bail on tonight’s party, Shay picked my outfit, changed me, dragged me through the front door, and tossed me intothe backseat of her baby-blue convertible. I try the door handle, but as expected, she child-locked them.
Dammit.
“This is a crime, you know? Kidnapping is a felony.” I whine, jamming my knees into the back of her seat. Shay keeps her eyes ahead, turns up the volume, and leaves me with my own thoughts.
My heart and brain are good-for-nothing traitors. I can’t figure out how I went from wanting to crush Kenneth Gray under my shoe like a bug, to having what feels like a crush on him. Acrush.
How old am I? Thirteen?
On Tuesday morning, his truck with a brand-new tire sat in my driveway, Kenneth insisting on driving us to class. On Wednesday he dropped off my favorite candy before my gala planning meeting. And this morning, Cade arrived for our bestie breakfast with sunshine-yellow tape from Kenneth to cover my insulin pump.
And I liked the way it felt to have him there, showing up, and smiling at me. I must be losing my mind.
“Shaaaay,” I whine. “Stop ignoring me. If we go home, we can have a girls’ night. I’ll order those dumplings you love.”
“Don’t tempt me with food, woman. You’re not missing tonight, and I’m going to give you three reasons why. One, you look amazing in green. Look at you right now. Those emerald pants on you is god’s gift to men.” I chuckle, looking at my pants and white corset. “Two, it’s a themed party, which is your favorite kind of party. And three, you can’t miss the scavenger hunt!”
I blow a raspberry. “But I don’t want to go.”
She adjusts the mirror and looks at me. “You’re avoiding him, aren’t you?”
My eyes dart to the window. “Nope.”
“You know, it’s okay if you want to be friends with him, Mally. You spent a whole afternoon with him at a lake and didn’t even tell me about it until after. Youswamwith Kenneth after years of avoiding swimming! That’s huge!”
“See!” I yell. “This is why I didn’t tell you before. You’re making it a bigger deal than it is. It was his way of apologizing and nothing more.”
“You’re so full of crap. Kenneth Gray apologized, and you accepted it. That’s ahugedeal.” Shay rolls through a stop sign. “When is the last time he apologized to you?”
“Well—”
“Trick question,” she interrupts. “Never.”
She’s right. Even when Kenneth bumped into me at last year’s St. Patty’s party, he ran away before I could blow up on him for spilling green beer all over me.
To be fair, I probably looked homicidal.
My seatbelt chokes me as we jerk to a stop, barely avoiding a group as they stumble across the road. It’s not even dark out and the festivities have already begun.
“Promise me you’ll try to have fun tonight,” she pleads, pulling into the guys’ driveway.
Thankfully, she’s out of the car before I have to lie to her. I yank the door handle a few times until she remembers she imprisoned me in the back seat.
Festive as hell in a green baseball jersey, Cade waves us down as we walk to the front door. “Wow, MalPal. You look good in green, girl. That’s definitely your color.”
Shay nods. “I told her the exact same thing.”
He grins, reaching for my perfectly styled twist-out before remembering he needs his hands to play baseball.
