Hey. That was better than that other girl—what was her name?—in physics who had the puke pink lip gloss and looked at me like I was a box of chocolate.
I could help the terrified, but I ran from the boy-crazies.
“Your head okay?” I asked her.
She nodded. Wordless. Maybe she couldn’t talk well? Like for real.
“Let me help.” I tried to remember what her real name was as I scooped up her books. I handed them to her, and her fingers brushed mine.
She snatched her hands back, and the books fell to the floor again.
“Are you okay?” I eyed her.
Now she was red. Full-on blushing, but not in a way that made me think she was crushing on me. It was total mortification.
“I-I’m fine.” She bent—slower this time around—and once she was sure she was clear of my head, she retrieved her books. “I’m just—klutzy.”
I brushed my hand on my jeans. For whatever reason, I could still feel her fingers where they’d touched mine.
Weird.
“So you’re Reece’s sister?” I tried to make small talk, but I kept my voice low. The teacher wasn’t paying attention now, but I didn’t know her well enough to know what she’d tolerate in a study hall.
“Mm-hmm.” Fish Girl Gilly—yeah, I need a new nickname for her. She was too cute. She stacked her books on her desk and made a huge effort not to look at me, but I noticed a sticker on the side of her water bottle and couldn’t help but point it out.
“So you like One Direction, huh?” The boy band was on to its next decade and going strong even though they hadn’t put an album out in like . . . I didn’t even know.
She shot me a glance. Nodded. Looked back at the notebook she was opening.
“Believe it or not, I’m actually a Timberlake fan. You know, NSYNC. The original boy band.” Sure, I was only quoting something my mom always said.Shewas actually the NSYNC fan, not me, but it gave me something to talk to this girl about.
Her head shot up, and for the first time, she looked at me. I mean,reallylooked at me. She had cat-eye sharpness to her expression now, and I felt like I’d made a major mistake.
“We cannotbe friends.”
Those four words were totally unexpected. I’m not sure I’d ever had a girl decline my entire existence because of music choice. I had to challenge her. I mean. Come on. I leaned toward her, keeping my voice low.
“I’ve heard of the rift between NSYNC and Backstreet Boys fans, but One Direction? I mean, they’re second gen. NSYNC is the G.O.A.T.”
It was a challenge.
She lifted her chin and glared at me. All awkwardness had melted entirely off the girl, and whatever she’d been afraid of didn’t seem to matter in this moment. “They arenot‘second gen.’ One Direction is their own entity entirely.”
“C’mon. Bye-bye-byeeeeeuh,” I mocked with what I hoped was a goofy enough grin to show her I was teasing. I moved my hands like puppets to go with the words.
Her eyebrow raised. “That’s two strikes.”
Oh. So that’s how she was going to play this?Baseballterminology to shut down my teasing? “What if I told you Niall Horan was a Chicago Cubs fan?”
“You’reout!” She declared with a whispered hiss and a quick glance at the teacher, who was still more interested in fictional aliens than her students. “Besides, anyone who knows Niall knows he’s a Red Sox fan.” Then she muttered under her breath, “Which is unfortunate. Go Brewers.”
“Brewers?” I retorted in surprise. That was my go-to team since my dad was born and raised in Milwaukee.
She cocked her head to the side and she must have taken my comment as a dig. “If you’re a Cubs fan I’ll . . . ” She just shook her head in disgust.
“Cubs fan?” I reared back in my seat, and the words came out in an unexpectedly higher pitch than I’d planned. The idea was—well,no oneshould ever joke about Brewers and Cubs fans. They just shouldn’t.
She leaned forward, and for a moment, I caught a whiff of that citrus smell again mixed with her spearmint gum, which she popped in my face. “You’ve already lost with me, Brooks Mason. There is no win in your future here.”
