“Why didn’t you tell me?” His voice is a monotone.
I wrap my arms over myself. “I don’t know.”
He squeezes his eyes shut. “You’re not my girlfriend.”
“I know,” I say, pushing my pain aside. It’s like he’s stabbing a sword into my heart.
He tears at his hair, then rubs his face like he wants to erase the paint. Erase me? “You should have said something.” He continues to rub the paint off.
“It only comes off in the shower,” I tell him, trying to keep my tears at bay. “Maybe we can—”
He whirls on his heels and marches off. He doesn’t look back at me or anyone, just keeps his head down as he stomps toward the exit. Then he disappears from view.
I tighten my hold around myself, forcing the tears to stay down. I can’t move, can’t do anything except stare at the entrance, hoping for some stupid reason he’ll return and apologize. And tell me he feels something for me and wants to explore it, just like I do.
I don’t know how long I stand here before someone grabs my arm. “Art!” Jenna giggles like someone is tickling her with a feather. “Yoda, cute. You guys having fun?” Her smile drops when she notices the look on my face. “What’s wrong? Where’s Ryan?”
“I…I don’t know.”
Her face falls. “What do you mean? He just left?” She looks around. “Where did he go?”
I shrug. If I talk, my voice will crack, and I really don’t want to cry right now. That should be saved for the privacy of my bedroom.
She squeezes my arm. “Art, tell me what happened. Last I saw, you guys were waiting in line to get your faces painted.”
I shake my head, still unable to get the words out. The tears gather in my eyes, but I hold them back. “He…he…”
“He what? Did he hurt you? I’ll kill him!”
“No. He didn’t. Not like that.” I pull away from her grasp. “I guess he needed to go.”
She examines my face. “Liar. Tell me what happened or I’ll tell Jason and he’ll beat his butt up.”
I hold up my hands. “Okay, okay. We got our faces painted.”
She nods like she already knows this.
“We got matching paintings…”
She nods like she has no idea where I’m going with this, then understanding enters her eyes. “Oh.Oh!”
I nod. “Yep.”
“Is that why I overheard some kids talking about you guys? I thought they were just kidding around. But wait, why did you guys get matching paintings if you’re not…?”
“I don’t know. I picked Yoda and then he said he wanted it, too. So what was I supposed to do?”
She twists her mouth. “So he found out what it means and bailed? Jerk.”
But he’s not a jerk. I mean, I don’t think he is. I don’t really know anything about him, just that he maybe likesStar Wars?
“Okay, you need to forget him,” Jenna says. “You had a major crush on him, but now you see what a rotten person he is and you can move on.”
I nod unsurely. “Yeah, you’re right. I guess.”
“Wait, you still like him?”
I throw my hands up. “I don’tknow.”
