“What?”
“You’ve been staring at the gate for a while. Do you want me to pretend not to notice?”
“If you could mind your own business, that would be great, Brian.”
Blaze was reserved; he’d never had a girlfriend, and I rarely ever saw him talk to any girls.
“Do you like June?” I probed.
“June?”
I nodded; he was already starting to shrug.
“Eh, she’s cute.”
Blaze’s expression only meant one thing: Not much to look at.
Blaze was the kind of guy who got excited aboutGame of Thronesand described it as “sublime” and “off the charts.” If he was that noncommittal about June, he must not be interested in her at all.
“I think she’s really pretty.” I threw that out there to gauge his reaction. It seemed strange to me that someone like Blaze wasn’t into June.
He was a smart, deep guy—he didn’t only care about appearances, and he never gave in to the advances of even the most uninhibited girls. To me, June seemed sharper than the average chick, but even she didn’t do it for him.
“You don’t even know her,” Blaze shot back.
Jackson and Tiffany appeared on the lawn. Obviously they were with Hunter.
“I actually talked to her a few times. And unlike Poppy and the others, she seemed like she could carry on a serious conversation.”
“You realize that you’re also low-key insulting your sister, right?” He rolled his eyes. “Not to mention Ari . . .”
Blaze was my best friend for one reason: He didn’t know how to lie. He told you exactly what he thought. And if Ari was sometimes superficial, I knew it too. But I loved her, warts and all.
“Let’s change the subject.”
I lost his attention as soon as Hunter sat down on a bench near us. He had a vape between his lips and wore his usual arrogant expression. Jackson settled in nearby with his arm around Tiffany, who seemed to have just rolled a joint.
Hunter stretched his arm out on the back of the bench and fiddled with Tiffany’s curls and Jackson’s jacket collar. He was shameless. I would’ve liked if he was all bark and no bite, but he’d been boxing since he was in elementary school. The last time we encountered each other he sent me to the hospital with two broken ribs. He could’ve killed me. I still wondered what had stopped him.
“They disgust me. They change girlfriends like they change their underwear.” I realized this while watching Tiffany giggle in Jackson’s ear. “Wasn’t she with Hunter? What’s she doing with the other one?”
“Jackson isn’t with Tiffany,” Blaze blurted.
“Hold on, are you jealous of them?” My sister’s voice surprised us, blaring like a horn.
Amelia sat next to us as Blaze blushed.
“I guess we got him this time,” I commented.
“No, Blaze. Please, not Tiffany. She’s even worse than Taylor!”
“What are you talking about, nobody’s worse than Taylor,” he corrected her.
“At least Taylor’s a bitch. Tiffany’s so vapid that it’s scary,” I said without a hint of tact.
“Who are you talking about?”
We heard steps behind us.
