“It proves everything,” Mako said from the floor.
Bear just muttered something that sounded suspiciously like “hopeless.”
“I’m leaving you all here,” I announced. I walked out without waiting for them, but I’d waited around long enough that they were all ready too and followed me immediately.
“So, what do you even talk about with her when you’re fake dating?” Mako asked. “Like, do you have scripts? Do you practice saying cute stuff in the mirror?”
“Yeah,” Bear chimed in from the next stall. “You gonna start calling her babe now?”
“I swear to God?—”
Crossy started singing obnoxiously. “Lilah and Tino sittin’ in a tree—F-A-K-I-N-G?—”
“You’re twelve.”
He laughed. “You’re jealous I thought of it first.”
Mako added, “He’s just mad because it’s true!”
“I hate all of you.”
“Love you too, fake boyfriend!” Crossy said in a shrill voice. “Hey, I have an idea! When she fake dumps you, we’ll throw you a fake breakup party. Balloons, cake, the whole thing.”
“Looking forward to it,” I said dryly.
We stepped out of the gym into the cold night air. The campus was quiet—just the hum of distant lights and the crunch of gravel under our shoes. For a minute, we just walked, joking and bumping shoulders, the cold biting through our hoodies. The others started arguing about whether we should grab food, but I barely heard them because my eyes had already snagged on something up in the distance.
Well, more like someone.
“Let’s go to the tuck shop,” I said, cutting off their argument. And then I headed that direction without waiting to see if any of them were following. I didn’t care what they thought of any of this or if they teased me for being so in love with her—I wanted to see my fake girlfriend.
CHAPTER 11
lilah
“Okay,”Poppy said, slamming a packet of Sour Patch Kids into the basket, “who has the official movie night candy list?”
I dug in the pockets of my coat but came up short. The “official list,” as Poppy liked to call it, was actually just some smudged writing on the back of a coffee shop receipt that regularly got lost. We wrote it a couple of weeks ago when we went to the movie theatre without smuggling in any candy, adding to the list every time one of us got a new craving. We could have bought all of this when we were here yesterday for our girls’ night snacks except we hadn’t had the official list then.
Saylor dug through her pockets as well, running through all the coat pockets first and then her jeans until she finally triumphantly pulled the crumpled receipt from the back pocket along with her phone.
“I knew I put it somewhere safe,” she said. She smoothed it out and cleared her throat. “Popcorn?”
“We’ll get it once we’re there because it’s always yummier,” Poppy said.
Saylor nodded. “Twizzlers?”
“Check.”
“Sour Blasters.”
“Check.”
“Kit Kats.”
“Next aisle over,” Poppy said. She linked her arm through mine and led us over to the boxes of chocolate. While she debated the choices between buying just Kit Kats or the assorted box of chocolates, the door opened, letting in a blast of cold outside air and I shivered.
“Should have worn a warmer jacket,” a voice whispered in my ear. I just about jumped out of my skin and instinctively slammed my elbow back to hit whoever was right behind me. Whoever it was groaned loudly and I spun around, ready to tell them to get lost.
