I could see why everyone looked at us so strangely.
I was also starting to see why I was so obviously falling for him hard, so sudden and easy after so long of building up a wall, brick by brick, from the first time he’d noticed me. All that hard work. It had ended up being so flimsy.
“I heard that might be the case.” She sighed with emotion as she, too, turned to look at Ryan. “A shame since it’s senior year.”
I took a deep breath. “Yeah.”
It must’ve been a bigger disappointment than I’d imagined.
“It was really a hit,” she admitted.
I had been there that day when Ryan got hit. Vadika had wanted to go to the first game of the year. Ryan had been slammed to the ground, his leg flexed as he tried to stand back up. Coaches had rushed out to stop him before he could do any more damage.
“I don’t blame him. He looks like he’s doing decent now.”
“He’s been doing well, I think.”
“I didn’t even know that he had a girlfriend. I’m not sure if I’ve seen you around before.”
Another girl, tall and with a high blonde ponytail, came up beside the petite one. “She’s the one Lauren was talking about,” she murmured.
“Oh.” The first one’s nose crinkled. “Really?”
“All good things, I hope?” I asked, as if I were overhearing a different conversation.
The blonde tilted her head to the side, as if she didn’t put much stock in whatever it was that she heard. “Eh, I wouldn’t worry about it much.”
“Let me guess.” I tried to sound casual. “I’m a devil-worshiping slut who stole her boyfriend.”
The one who had first approached me nodded, as if she was shocked at how closely I had been to Lauren’s exact words. She wasn’t very creative. “Just about.”
“We all knew they weren’t dating or anything really. Not like you two are, obviously.”
“Oh, we aren’t …” I paused, trying to figure out what I was about to say.
In the past week and a half, Ryan and I might not have gone out on dates, but we had been spending nearly all of our free time around classes and in the evenings together to get ready for Samhain. He’d been crashing at Gertie’s with me, often in my bed or on the sunporch with me, where we kissed and touched and breathed so easy that it felt like I never had been able to take a full breath before.
But we weren’t dating. We were just … Ryan and Lu, I guessed.
My meaning must’ve gotten across.
“Really?”
“We’re …” I let the conversation trickle off again, still unsure of exactly what I was trying to convey.
The blonde again raised her eyebrows. “Right.”
Right.My lips pulled to one side in something like a confused cringe.
In the moment of silence, Ryan made his way over. The two girls in front of me smiled before I noticed him at my side. “How are we doing?”
“How are you doing?” one asked.
Ryan looked down at me. “Good so far.”
The girl—I hadn’t caught her name—smiled as she swayed back into the rest of the thick crowd, toward the people she had left.
The other taller blonde also looked between us with a shake of her head, as if I were clearly blind from the last part of our conversation. “See ya.”
