“You mean, the night where ‘nothing happened,’” she quoted ironically.
“Nothing did happen.”
“You and I have very different definitions then,” said Vadika. “Seriously, where have I been through all this? It’s like you have a secret second life all of a sudden.”
I looked around the lab. “You’ve been a very busy girl, Vadika.”
“I’ve been doing science. Science can be time consuming when you are being fast-tracked into life-changing research. Still, I didn’t think it meant I was going to be missing out on all these strangely exciting revelations. You and Ryan Gardner?” She shook her head, as if she still couldn’t quite believe the words coming out of her mouth.
Luckily, she didn’t have to believe it. Vadika was getting ahead of herself. Again.
“There is no me and Ryan.”
She raised her dark eyebrows. I knew what that expression said—that didn’t mean that I didn’t want there to be something there. Thinking of that kiss made my stomach roll, but not in a completely bad way.
What did was the way Ryan had reacted to it. He’d stumbled back like I was a nightmare that had him stuttering.
“Why not? I mean, I never pictured you two together, like, ever. Ever,ever.”
“Thanks, Vad.”
“Though of course now that I am forced to think of you and Mr. Sunshine, I’m pretty sure you could be the cutest couple I’d never thought of.”
Time to break her heart then. “He pulled away.”
“What do you mean?”
“Both times he pulled away. After I kissed him he kept sputtering like he had made a huge mistake.”I was a big mistake.“It's fine. It’s not a big deal. I’m making this way worse than it probably is. We were at the house for a long time, and it was late.”
“Let me get this straight,” said Vadika. “He kissed you and then apologized?”
I shrugged, leaning my cheek on my fist. “Basically.”
“Maybe he was nervous.”
“It doesn’t matter anyway. I don’t like Ryan Gardner.”
“Sure you don’t.”
It even sounded like a lie to my own ears. Somehow, in the past few days, Ryan had weaseled his way into my brain. It didn’t mean that he’d had to burrow. Not when it was clear that he still saw me as … well, not like the other girls he hung out with. The pretty, outgoing, startling girls who drew people toward them like flocks.
Not that I ever wanted to be that kind of person. Not really—or at least, not consistently. I was happy with Vadika and now Ryan, who had apparently forgotten to keep his distance.
I shook my head, picturing it again. I could see how his eyes trailed down from my eyes to my lips as we fed each other those pomegranate seeds to hell. He’d thought about kissing me, as if he planned to lick the last of the sweetness away.
But once again, maybe all those feelings were just on my end. I was projecting.
When I lifted my gaze, Vadika was still staring at me. “I’ll beat him up if you want me to. Or there is this study some students in my lab are doing. They are looking for some willing participants. I could casually put his name down. I bet he would be too polite to say no. Then, his entire weekend would be shot.”
“Much appreciated, but I’m good, thanks. How’s the research going, by the way?”
“Nope. We are not getting off this topic that easily.” Still, her expression exploded with delight. “But you actually want to know?”
“Of course.”
“You make my soul happy. Seriously though, later. The observation I’m looking at right now is much more intriguing. I don’t know what you think is going on, Lu. I don’t know how it is going on,” Vadika mused, pacing back and forth as she worked out all the little kinks in the nonexperiment she had developed in her head. “But this little thing between you two … the evidence shows that I think you’re kidding yourself.”
“What are you talking about?”
