“Nope.”
Summer’s face scrunched up. “Why?”
I didn’t exactly want to get into that part. The truth was, it had taken me a while to get over the whole casserole kiss, but now that Mom was trying to set such ridiculous boundaries to keep me from getting “too serious” with TJ, I was more Team TJ than I’d ever been before. I really liked him. He’d been so cute with Missy. And when he’d kissed my cheeks all soft and feather-like, it had been amazing.
“Were you two making out?” Bailey asked in my silence.
I stared at the back of her head. She had her red hair pulled back today and twisted into a knot. “Not exactly,” I mumbled. “But Missy made it sound like we were.”
Summer gasped. “You were kissing in front of your little sister?”
“She was asleep,” I said, irritated.
“So what are you going to do?” Bailey asked.
I tipped my head back dramatically and groaned. “I have no idea. I don’t want to date anyone else.” I was glad to realize that my words were still true. Sure, I might have gotten a little distracted by Jett and his incredible smell and eyes and brooding appeal, but I wasn’t going to give up on TJ so soon.
Besides, what would that do really? Prove to Mr. Pompous that he’d been right on nowtwocounts. One, that I couldn’t, in fact, make TJ change. The second one would be more implied than anything, but if I broke things off now, right after Jett had swooped in like a dark, dangerous superhero and rescued me from TJ’s bike, Jett was sure to flatter himself and assume I was interested in him. Which I one hundred percent was not. And no, I wasn’tprotesting too much,I was stating the facts.
“You’re going to have to find someone else to date,” Summer said.
“Someone safe,” Bailey suggested, “like a guy who’s already in the friend zone.”
Summer grinned wide. “That’s a good idea. You could like, be doing homework or something, but tell your mom you’re going on a date.”
I considered that. Not a bad idea actually. “Huh.”
“Hey,” Bailey blurted. “Jett!”
My face went hot. “What?”
“You two are partners now in Dating and Relationships class, right?”
“How’dyouknow that?”
Summer shrugged. “Caleb told us.”
“Caleb isn’t even in that class,” I said.
“Yeah, but he’s Jett’s friend.” Bailey pulled into a parking stall, shut off the engine, and spun around to look at me over her shoulder. “What are you getting so flustered about? You seem weird.”
“I alreadytoldyou what I’m upset about,” I said, hating how she could read every detail of my face and voice and posture. We knew each other too well.
“You look really pretty today,” Summer said in the quiet pause. “Did you do your eyes different?”
“Maybe a little.” I thought back on the half-dozen tutorials I’d watched about how to make my green eyes pop. Not because I was attracted to Mr. Brown eyes (how could I be, I didn’t even like him) but because it seemed only fair to even out the playing field. I was dealing with a guy who had serious good looks on his side.
“Are you going to ask Jett?” Summer was already getting out of the car. Bailey was too. I released another groan.
“Can’t I just sit in the car all day?” I pleaded.
Bailey opened the back door and leaned far over to face me, her red hair complimenting the pink in her cheeks. “I don’t know what the deal is. You have a problem. We have a solution.”
I looked down at the arm she offered before reaching out with a limp hand of my own. We were halfway through the parking lot when I spoke up once more. “I don’t want to even see Jett right now.”
“Well, I’ve got a solution for that too. There’s an assembly today. You won’t even go to your first period.”
“We still have to go and let them take roll,” I said, but Summer shook her head.
