“Party off-campus tonight.” Mako appeared out of nowhere behind his teammate and dropped down into the next empty seat. He pointed at each of us in turn. “Who’s coming?”
I frowned. “Party where?”
We never went off campus. Technically, our boarding school’s rules were that we could sign ourselves out in the evenings as long as we came back before curfew, but I’d never really done it, except when I was going out with my siblings. There were plenty of parties on campus, despite whatever the school administration might try to tell our parents, and I’d never seen a reason to go elsewhere.
“My buddy lives in town about five minutes from here,” Mako explained. “He’s got this awesome house. The guys and I are all going—you guys up for it?”
Tino didn’t seem surprised by Mako’s declaration so I guess they’d already talked about it. The other guys Mako would be referencing were the ones on their hockey team, namely Bear and Crossy—Poppy and Saylor’s boyfriends, respectively. When I glanced at them, they both shrugged their assent.
“Sounds like it could be fun,” Poppy said. “And it’s not like we have anything else going on.”
“Except binge-watching all theTwilightmovies,” I reminded her. I sighed dramatically. “But I suppose that can be put off for another night.”
“Tomorrow,” Poppy promised me. She looked at Mako. “We’ll be there.”
CHAPTER 5
tino
“I hopeyou know I’m pissed at you,” I said to Mako.
He was leaning so far over the sink that his forehead was practically touching the mirror as he put gel in his dark hair and he didn’t even glance in my direction as he said, “Huh?”
“With Lilah,” I said. A laugh came from the nearest stall where Crossy was currently showering and I snapped “Shut up!” which only made him laugh harder.
“What about her?” Mako asked. His attention was clearly elsewhere as he frowned at one curl of his hair that kept falling onto his forehead no matter what he did.
“She was totally about to say yes to me when you interrupted at dinner!”
Another laugh came from the shower stall, this time so loud that it almost sounded like a howl. I took the white towel that had been draped over my shoulder and chucked it in his direction, making the purple curtain tip to the side for a moment. Water sprayed from the open gap, hitting Mako and he yelled as he jumped away, then glared at me. I just smiled innocently back—it wasn’t what I’d been meaning to do but I guess it worked just as well.
“Now that I have your attention,” I said as if that had all been intentional, “why did you have to interrupt and invite her to a party?”
Mako scowled. “I wasn’t interrupting anything but you embarrassing yourself by asking her out for the millionth time.”
“I wasn’t embarrassing myself.”
“She says no to you on a daily basis.”
“One of these days?—”
“She’s going to say yes,” Mako said, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard it before. What difference does it make? Just ask her out at the party instead.”
“You don’t understand—every hour that I wait makes it that much more likely she’ll say no.”
Mako stared at me for a long few seconds. “Not following.”
The shower curtain behind him was shoved aside and Crossy stepped out with a towel around his waist. He sauntered up to us, coming to a stop at Mako’s sink.
“What he means, dear Mako,” Crossy said, throwing an arm around Mako’s shoulders, which Mako unsuccessfully tried to shrug off, “is that he and Lilahconnectedin the store today. And now, he thinks this is his chance.”
“I don’t appreciate the way you said ‘connected’ there,” I told him, turning back to the mirror. “And there was something, okay? There was a moment—plus she made me wear a couple’s costume with her! Doesn’t that mean anything?”
Mako snorted. “Yeah, that you’re such a chump you let her convince you to dress up as a Disney character.”
“Now, now, there’s no reason to insult Disney,” Crossy said. Then he looked at me. “But he’s not wrong.”
I glared at them. “You weren’t there. You don’t know what happened.”
