I wasn’t sure why those three words made my face burn even more than walking around holding his hands did. I shoved his chest and he moved back again with a laugh.
“Of course you are, you idiot,” I muttered, but I avoided his gaze. Did he not consider himself my friend? Or did he just think that because I always turned down his advances that I wouldn’t consider him one?
“Well as your friend,” he said, squeezing my hand like he was telling me we were slipping back into the ruse, “I think it’s my duty to walk you to class, don’t you?”
“I…” I hadn’t realized how out of my element I would be in doing this. Either Tino was a lot more experienced in relationships than I was (doubtful since he’d spent years asking me out) or he’d done a lot of research last night in preparation for this. It never would have occurred to me that he should walk me to my class when his was on the other side of the school, but he was looking at me so earnestly right now like it would be the highlight of the day. “Uh, okay.”
He smiled and stepped back out into the rush of students walking down the hall. Everyone was focused on getting to class, but I still felt like I was being stared at from all sides, and I couldn’t tell if it was just a lingering feeling from the dining hall or if everyone was being subtle about it. If I was wrong and it was actually paranoia, then I was getting incredibly self-centered for thinking everyone cared about me this much.
“If you’re going to do this every day, we should probably start leaving breakfast earlier,” I said, glancing at my watch. I didn’t see any way he could get across the school before the first bell unless he flat-out sprinted, which would obviously get him in trouble with the teachers. “You’re going to be late.”
He shrugged. “I’m sure my teacher will understand once I explain that I had to walk you to class. I’m pretty sure she’s as invested in our relationship as everyone else.”
I snorted. “Well that’s horrifying.”
“But I’m not sure your teacher feels the same so we should probably go,” Tino said. He interlaced our fingers again and pulled me back out into the hall. A quick glance at my watch told me I was barely going to make it on time so I picked up the pace. Tino laughed and started walking faster as well, keeping up with me easily because of his long legs.
“Maybe I should get you to start giving me a piggyback ride to class every day,” I said. “It would be much faster.”
He looked like he was genuinely considering it even though I’d said it as a joke, but before he could even consider trying it, we were at my classroom door—which, I noted, he stopped in front of without me needing to point it out. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who had memorized my friends’ schedules.
I was ready to just walk right in, but Tino pulled me back. He glanced into the room then turned to me with a smile on his face that made me immediately nervous.
“So, I guess I’ll see you at lunch,” he said. And then, before I could react in any way, he rested his hand on the back of my neck and leaned in to kiss me. I was completely taken off guard as his lips pressed to mine and I mainly just stood there until he pulled away again. But I guess I wasn’t too bad at it because he smiled.
The bell rang, cutting off any reply I could make, and as I expected, he took off running down the hallway to get to his own class in a reasonable amount of time. I walked into the classroom as if I was in a trance, just aware enough to avoid bumping into anyone’s desks and to hear everyone’s whispers. Sure, they could have been chatting about any number of things, but I was pretty sure I heard my name more than once.
I dropped into my usual seat, staring listlessly ahead of me. And then, without consciously thinking about it, I ran my fingers over my lips. When had they gone all tingly like that?
“Tino kissed me,” I whispered to myself, realizing a moment too late that somebody might find it weird I was saying that about my supposed boyfriend. But when I glanced around, nobody seemed to have noticed.
Tino kissed me, I repeated in my mind. The thought repeated again and again, until it seemed like it was the only thought I would ever have again.
CHAPTER 10
tino
I kissed Lilah.
I’d been waiting for this moment for three years and even though it didn’t happen exactly as I’d imagined it—I kissed Lilah Turner. I didn’t even remember what happened for the rest of the day because my mind was so preoccupied with that thought, running it on a loop in my brain.
After school, I went to the gym with Bear, Mako, and Crossy. Theoretically, I was working out like them—or like Bear and Mako at least. Crossy had sat down about twenty minutes ago to “rest between sets” and still hadn’t gotten up—but I wasn’t sure I’d lifted a single weight since getting here. I was too preoccupied with how on earth I was going to explain to them that I was fake dating Lilah Turner.
From the way Poppy was acting at breakfast this morning, I had to assume Lilah had already told her about our arrangement. I probably should have done the same with the boys last night but I chickened out. I already knew how they were going to react and I hadn’t been ready to deal with it last night. Heck, I wasn’t sure if I was ready to deal with it now, but news was going to spread quickly about us confirming therelationship so it was either tell them or have them confront me about it later.
Mako hit me on the back of the head with a towel as he walked by and I almost jumped out of my skin.
“What’s your deal tonight?” he asked as he grabbed his water bottle. “You’ve been staring at the floor for, like, ten minutes.”
“Thinking,” I mumbled.
“About Lilah?” Crossy asked from my other side, waggling his eyebrows.
I threw the towel back at him. “Can you not?”
He dodged it easily. “You’ve been weird ever since that party last weekend when everyone asked if you were together. You sad it will never be true?”
Mako snorted. “Unless they actually did kiss in the store and are just lying to us all about it because it went badly.”
