Until I realized it was Tino—who was now hunched over, clutching his stomach like I’d shot him.
“Oh!” I put a hand to my mouth. “I-I’m so sorry, are you okay? I thought you were a kidnapper or something!”
He looked at me with pained eyes. “A kidnapper who decided to break into Hartwell’s tuck shop?”
I shrugged helplessly. “You scared me.”
The door opened again and this time I realized Tino wasn’t here alone. Bear, Crossy, and Mako were walking in, all with wet hair and dressed in hoodies, which meant they must have just been coming back from the gym. They came in our direction the moment they spotted us while Tino slowly righted himself.
“What are you doing here?” Bear asked as he came up, but the question was clearly directed at Poppy as he headed straight for her. She kissed him before responding.
“Snack run,” Poppy chirped, instantly brightening as she beamed at him. “We were starving.”
“You could’ve texted me,” Bear said. “I would’ve brought you whatever for the movie.”
“You look like you’ve got a good haul there,” Mako said, peering into Poppy’s basket. He pulled out the box of Kit Katsshe’d just dropped in there and waved them in Bear’s face. “Look, she even got your favorite. Now you guys can spend the whole movie staring lovingly into each other’s eyes and feeding each other Kit Kats.”
Bear smacked the box out of Mako’s hand and scowled at him. I laughed softly, then regretted it instantly as Mako turned his attention to me, then to how close Tino was standing next to me. I think Mako, like me until this week, enjoyed being a spectator of everyone else’s drama. I would commend him for it if I wasn’t one of the ones he was now watching.
He gave a low whistle. “Well, if it isn’t the power couple themselves.”
I groaned. “Don’t start.”
“Oh, I’m starting,” Mako said, grabbing a pack of gum from the rack. “The way everyone at school’s been talking, you two are basically the poster for young love.”
I rolled my eyes and started for the counter. “Hey, we should probably get going, right? We don’t want to be late for the movie.”
“It doesn’t start for another two hours,” Poppy said.
“It never hurts to get there early.”
“Hey, you know what?” Poppy asked, completely ignoring my words. She waggled her finger between Tino and me. “You two should practice!”
I blinked then looked at Tino, who seemed equally confused. “Practice what?”
“Your chemistry. You’re…” She glanced around then held up air quotes as she said, “‘dating’ now, remember? Shouldn’t you, like, act like it?”
Saylor gasped dramatically. “Yes! This is a chance to test your chemistry!”
“Our what?” Tino asked, sounding mildly alarmed.
“You heard us,” Poppy said, grinning like a mad scientist. “We have to make sure you can sell the illusion.”
I hadn’t told Poppy and Saylor about the kiss outside the classroom this morning and now I was wondering whether they would be acting a little more sane if they knew our first kiss had already happened, or whether they would have been pushing for this no matter what. I was debating whether telling them now would yield good results when Saylor tilted her head and said, “Plus now you’ve got an audience.”
I glanced at the front of the store to see what she was talking about. On the sidewalk just outside the tuck shop was a group of girls, clearly peering in at us. One of them nudged the other and whispered something while looking straight at us.
“You have got to be kidding me,” I groaned. Tino followed my gaze and an unreadable expression crossed his face.
“What do we do?” He asked. His eyes drifted back to my face, down to my lips, and back up again. “Should we kiss?”
“What?” I said, choking on air. “No!”
Tino rubbed the back of his neck, half-smiling but clearly trying to play it cool. “If people already think we’re dating, we might as well act the part.”
“You’re enjoying this way too much.”
“Maybe,” he said, his voice low. I glared at him, but my friends’ laughter and the feeling of the stares of the girls outside were making it hard for me to think I had any chance of winning this argument.
