“Weren’t the guys talking about going to Lucas’s after the game?”
“The guys were.” He tucks a blond curl behind my ear. “I wasn’t.”
Oof, that was good. I debate just how smutty it would be to haul him into the back seat of his car and decide it might be a bit much. But that won’t stop me from being a little shameless. “Sounds good. Maybe pick a terrible movie we can not-watch.”
“God, I like you,” he murmurs, and though I can’t respond through him kissing me, “I like you too” shimmers through my entire body.
It only makes sense that Jasmine Killary would be the first person I see at school Monday morning. She’s standing near my locker, and I’d almost think she was waitingfor me, if she weren’t so consistently clear that waiting for me isn’t something she’ll ever be doing again.
“I hear you and Chase Harding are officially a thing.”
I freeze in my tracks. There’s only one person who’d have told Jasmine, only one person who sat with me on the phone for an hour last night until she’d squeezed out every bit of information. “Apparently, so are you and Shannon.”
“I knew he was gonna be all over you as soon as he saw you,” she says, sidestepping my response. “I told you that hair would be great on you.”
The fact that she’s taking any credit for Chase and me getting together when she’s the one preventing me from fully enjoying it pisses me off, and of course she managed to poke at the very thing I’ve been most worried about. “I don’t think a cut ‘n’ color can be credited for an entire relationship, Jasmine.”I hope not, anyway.
“No, I suppose not,” she muses. “But you have this whole… aura of confidence that’s a way more magnified version of when I met you. Has he found your piercing yet?”
The piercing. We were so bored one day that a game of Truth or Dare? went too far and landed me with a ring through my belly button thanks to Carter’s older sister. Cliché, maybe, but it looked hot. Anyone could see it if they happened to go swimming with me, or if I threw on a crop top, but the way she says it, you’d think it was somewhere even the tiniest of bikinis would still cover.
“Not yet.”
She smirks, but there’s no jealousy in it. No bitterness. And that’s what makes it cruel. “It’s only a matter of time, I’m sure.”
“I guess.” I still can’t get past Shannon running to Jasmine after she spoke to me. I guess she had her phone number after all. “So you’re talking to me now?”
“I haven’t been not talking to you, Tinkerbell. We literally just talked at my party.”
Tinkerbell.The resurgence of my nickname might suffuse me with warmth if she weren’t giving me such attitude. But I was right, I realize—Jasminedidneed to know that I wasn’t going to try to bring things back to where they’d been this summer. She needed me to have a boyfriend in order for us to be friends, so she could be sure I wasn’t going to pursue her. I’d been happy when I first thought of how maybe that would bring us back to normal, but right now it makes me feel sick.
“OK, whatever. Guess it doesn’t matter since you’ve had no trouble making friends here.” I try to keep my voice light, to remember how grateful I am for the friends she made me a few months ago, even if they fell to the wayside. But my feelings at her buddying up with Shannon drip from every word, and it doesn’t help that I’m upset about the other stuff.
The thing is, I wanted us to be friends, and I wanted to date Chase, and it looks like I’m gonna get it all, so Ishouldbe happy. At the very least, I should be nice. “Guess this means you’ll be joining us for lunch?”
“Shannon did mention something about that, yeah.”
“Great!” I plaster a smile on my face. “Guess I’ll see you then.”
I walk off before she can leave me first.
It takes two periods before I finally have a class with Shannon, and as soon as I spot her, I storm over and demand, “What the fuck, Shan?”
“What’s wrong?” she asks in the world’s most bullshit innocent voice.
I yank her out into the hallway, because we’re already drawing stares. “I told you about my date in confidence. You know there’s nothing official between me and Chase yet. Why the hell would you run off and tell some girl you barely even know all about it?”
“God, Lara, I’m sorry. It sounded pretty official to me, and I was excited for you. I figured you’d want to tell Gia and Kiki, so when Jasmine called…” She shrugs. “I had to get my excitement out somehow!”
She is so full of shit. Iknowshe’s full of shit. For one, there’s no chance Jasmine called her. Jasmine isnota phone person, and certainly not to chat. But I’m too deep into my own bullshit to be able to call her on that. I’m not supposed to know this, or anything else, about Jasmine.
Plus, I know this move from Shannon’s playbook. Jasmine is on the popularity radar and Shannon’s trying to swoop in so the next time someone asks for details on her love life or why she has such a nice house, Shannon can be The One With All The Dirt. “Knowledge Is Power” is one of Shannon Salter’s favorite mottos, andit’s hard to argue with since she sure seems to have a lot of the latter.
Unfortunately, I also know there’s nothing I can do. Shannon always finds a way to spin things, to make it seem like she was just being a great friend in the best way she knows how; she’s a gaslighting gold medalist. And the mere mention of Jasmine’s name already feels like a minefield. There’s no point in fighting here. Shannon’s gonna do what she wants, and so will Jasmine. And fuck it, so will I.
“Whatever.” I roll my eyes right as Mrs. Spier turns the corner, and I slip back into the classroom and into my seat before I can get called late.
Jasmine wants me to be with Chase. Shannon is apparentlyveryexcited I’m with Chase. And we all knowIwant to be with Chase. So, what exactly am I fighting about?
