“Nothing can be done for you. I’m afraid your skull is too dense.”
“Are you two serious? Do you live together?”
“Yes, we’re serious. And no, we don’t live together.” His barrage of questions is throwing me off my game. “I’m moving in with him soon, though. Into his house.”
“You two are wrong for each other. There. I said it.” He slaps his left thigh. “As your old friend, it’s my responsibility to tell you when you’re with the wrong guy.”
It’s interesting, how much this statement chafes. I’d expected to feel gratified by Alex’s irritation over me fake-dating Trevor, but I’m surprised by my resentment. He lost all right to judge if other men are wrong for me long ago. That memory is still a rush of cold in my lungs, that sensation of falling, clawing for someone no longer there, despite all his promises. So I turn my face away from the one who makes my stupid heart still jump.
“What else is new? I’ve always picked wrong.”
Chapter Eleven
LARCH:
Only he who presses his suit with spirit shall win me.
After our early dinner, we end up running into Trevor and Teyonna, who have taken it upon themselves to add more items to their scavenger hunt:a purple shoe, somebody bald, a REAL unicorn, an overflowing toilet. They claim they’re just trying to pass the time while they wait for the remaining two teams to finish, but I notice that the handwriting switches up with each line and suspect they’re doing this to entertain each other. They seem to be getting along a whole lot better than Alex and I are.
I’m slumped on a bench outside a gas station, where Alex is using the bathroom. Trevor bolts past into the building, sneakers skidding loudly across tile, scooping up an armful of snack-size Flamin’ Hot Cheetos bags.
“Tell me about it.” Teyonna says with a light groan as she drops onto the bench next to me, even though I haven’t said anything. She rotates her right foot in circles until her flip-flop falls off. “These are not the kind of shoes you wanna wear for walking around all day.”
A lady passes by and plops a baby onto Teyonna’s lap, then heads right into the gas station. “Denise!” Teyonna shouts after her. “How could you do this to me?” She leans my way, dropping conspiratorially, “I’ve got baby fever.”
“Who’s that?” I ask.
“Denise is Trevor’s cousin. She’s here all week, like me. The wedding’s turned into a family reunion.”
“Look at those cheeks.” I smile at the baby. “What a cutie.”
“Wanna hold her?”
“Sure.”
I take the baby, and when she snuggles up to me, a strange guilt tugs in my chest. I remember Spencer’s cold expression, how he’d wanted to be Adalyn’s favorite without putting in any effort. She’d wanted me to hold her when she was sick, tired, upset; she ran into my arms when she was hurt, she’d swallow the medicine when I pleaded. He didn’t try.“What’s the point when she prefers you, anyway?”
“Watch this.” Teyonna blows raspberries on the baby’s belly, making her squeal. “She’s so freakin’ adorable! I can’t stand it. Ahhh, I want one.”
“Me, too.” I pass the baby back to her.
Teyonna slides me a look that is first empathetic but morphs into surprise. A spike of alarm. “With Trevor?”
“Um.”
“Sorry, that was nosy. Now I sound like one of Trevor’s aunts, always coming for my throat with those kind of questions.” Teyonna claps her hands against her knees in a Miss-Susie-Had-a-Steamboat pattern, riddled with pent-up energy, tapping her feet in that quickstep way I’ve seen soccer players do during practice. “He’s a riot, isn’t he?”
“There is only one Trevor in this world, for sure.”
She half smiles. “Don’t I know it. I used to think he might be... not too much for me to handle, per se, but more than I could deal with at that time. He seems to have mellowed.”
I don’t think I could ever call him mellow, but at least he hasn’t been stealing helium tanks recently.
“I don’t think I’ve had near as much fun since then,” Teyonna says wistfully. Then she straightens, as if she didn’t mean to say it. “I’m glad he found you, that he’s happy. You two are cute together.”
Discomfort pinches my nerves. It’s a lot easier to lie to Alex than to Teyonna, who’s never done anything to hurt me. I’d have to be an idiot to miss that emotion in her eyes.
I hesitate. “Trevor... I haven’t been with him long. He and I, it’s not...”
