X leans back, folding his arms. “You need to see this as an opportunity.”
I glare at him. “An opportunity for what?”
“Look around,” he says. “The whole school’s split. The old guard—” he nods toward Bianca’s table, where Bianca, Nadia, Rosalie, and Vivian are huddled with tight faces “—and the new wave. And she’s the center of it.”
Bianca’s watching Jade with open hatred, nails digging into her plastic water bottle. Nadia is whispering furiously in her ear. Vivian looks like she wants to be anywhere else but stuck between two sinking ships.
“They’re scared,” X says. “They’ve never been scared before.”
“And Jade?” Tristan adds. “She’s glowing. This is… honestly, kind of hot. We need to talk later. No shoes, no cameras. We fucked up.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “What?”
“After lunch. The quad.”
“I overheard a couple of guys from the hockey team? Already talking about asking Jade to the Winter Gala.”
My head snaps up. “What?”
X nods. “The transfer from BC High too. And that tall forward from the JV basketball team. Oh, and one of the senior debate captains. Nerd, but like, tall nerd.”
I feel my whole body go numb and hot at the same time.
“They’re not going to ask her,” I say.
Tristan raises an eyebrow. “And why not?”
“Because she’s not going to say yes.”
“Bold assumption.”
I know how it sounds. Arrogant. Entitled. Stupid.
But the idea of some other guy putting his hands on her at the gala makes my vision go white around the edges.
“She’s not ready,” I say, forcing myself to sound calm. “She’s still dealing with—everything.”
“Yeah, and you’re giving her zero emotional stability,” Tristan fires back. “If I were her, I’d date ten guys out of spite.”
“I’d date one,” X says. “Ten sounds like a scheduling issue.”
They’re trying to joke.
I know they are.
But all I can see is Jade leaning under the chandeliers at the gala in some dress that kills me, and someone else standing with her in all the photos.
And it guts me.
“She wouldn’t,” I mutter.
Tristan looks at me with something close to pity.
“Leo,” he says, “you’ve seen her lately, right? Because if you push her away far enough, at some point she’s not going to chase you back. Somebody else will be there.”
The worst part is…
He’s right.
