I snicker. “True.”
“You should’ve heard Finn while we were in jail,” he tells me while bouncing his knee up and down. “He was rambling about you like you were some foreign creature.”
“I am a foreign creature,” I agree. “At least, it feels like it. I walk around here, pretending like I belong, but everyone knows I don’t. And I don’t care. Well, not entirely. But it’d be nice to belong for once, you know.”
“I actually do.” He rests his head against the back of the chair and gazes up at the stars. “I feel like, from the moment it became known that I’d be marrying Isla, I was the betrothed Averson brother. I mean, arranged marriages happen in this world, but they’re still rare enough that you become kind of like a circus freak. It didn’t help that my father had a scandalous affair and the entire city wanted to read about it.” He rolls his eyes. “There’s always a story about my family that’s plastered all over the headlines. Like when I got released from jail and the paparazzi were waiting. My father found out, and it was a disaster.”
“Jesus,” I mutter. “I love my privacy. I have no idea how I’d live like that.”
“It sucks,” he agrees, lifting his head and sitting up straight. “If I ever got out of this arranged marriage, I’d move somewhere where no one knew who I was.”
“See? You do think about your future sometimes.” I devour the rest of my cookie then prop my arms on the armrest between us. “So, what would you do in this alternative life?”
He sucks in a breath through his teeth. “This is a dangerous road you’re making me go down,” he says with a tight smile. “It’ll make me dream of things I can’t have.”
“Dreams can’t come true unless you dream them,” I point out.
“All right, I’ll play.” He considers this. “I think maybe something in sports, like a coach or maybe a physical therapist.”
My lips curve upward. “I could see you as a coach.”
He mirrors my smile. “It helps that you’re a motivated student.”
“I really want to make the team.” I stare out at the track. “I like running. It keeps me centered.”
“Me, too.” A pause, and then he sweeps strands of my hair off my shoulder. “Can you see yourself out there, running in meets?”
Why does he keep touching my hair? Not that I’m complaining. It’s just confusing.
“Absolutely.”
“I think you’ll make the team,” he says with genuine confidence.
“Are you going to come watch me at tryouts and cheer me on?” I’m partly joking.
“Of course,” he replies easily.
My stomach rolls.
He frowns. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing.” I shrug. “I’ve just never had anyone come and cheer me on before.”
His expression softens as he wets his lips with his tongue. For some dumb reason, my thoughts travel back to that brief kiss we shared in the rain. The one we haven’t spoken of. I’m aboutto ask him about it and probably ruin this beautiful friendship that’s developing between us. Fortunately, I spot something that stops me.
“What the hell is that?” I squint as I lean forward.
River tracks my gaze until he finds what I’m looking at. Confusion floods his expression. Because creeping out of the trees is a group of people.
“What the heck is going on?” I mumble when I note that the entire group is wearing cloaks. Like, straight out of a wizard academy. “River,” I whisper.
“Come on.” He snatches a hold of my hand and hurries toward the stairs, leaving all our food behind.
We both keep our footsteps light to avoid drawing attention. By the time we reach the bottom of the stairs, the group has reached the space of grass that’s in the center of the track. Shouting reverberates through the air, but I can’t make out what they’re saying.
River starts to pull me toward the gate, but getting to it will put us out in the open, so he swings around the end of the stairway and yanks me underneath the bleachers.
“We’re seriously hiding?” I question as we hike further underneath it and into the shadows.
