“Not today. They’re skipping that.”
I didn’t have a clue why that tidbit made me feel even worse. “What would it even look like? If Ididtry and use Jett as my alternate dates?”
Bailey tipped her head to one side. “You’d just ask him to study with you a couple of times a week, which you’ll have to do anyway, and maybe, I don’t know, go to his place or the library or even to the Burger Bar. Make it look like a date.”
“And it’s not really wrong because you reallyareseeing a different guy in between each of your dates with TJ, which is what your mom wants,” Summer said. Bless her, always keeping things on the up and up. If my sweet friend’s personality was actually summer, like her name, I was something a little darker. Fall, I guess. Bailey was spring, because she was good at breathing new life into things. Guess that left cold and bitter Mr. Winter for Jett.
I grinned a little at that. It was probably a very good thing that I didn’t have my class with Jett today. I needed more time to clear my mind and come up with a plan of attack. Or was it defense?
“Oh my gosh, there he is,” Bailey said, smacking my arm with the back of her hand. “It’s Jett.”
My heart thundered like a team of wild horses were trotting through it. Jett was walking up the very steps TJ had crashed that dumb bike on yesterday.
Summer gave me a nudge. “Go ask him if he can study with you tonight.”
My throat clenched up. “No, I don’t want him to think I’m like, seriously trying to date him.”
“Then tell him you need his help,” Bailey said. “Just be honest about your situation. He won’t mind.”
“Yes, he will,” Summer blurted. She hurried to come around and stop me from taking another step, her eyes wide and worried. “You can’t tell him you’re using him. That’s just rude.”
“I think it’s rude if shedoesn’t,” Bailey argued.
I looked past Summer to see Jett pull open the door and walk through. Man, even from behind you could tell he was attractive.
“You know what?” I said. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll find another way.”
Summer and Bailey looked at one another before setting their gaze back on me. “If you say so,” Summer mumbled.
Bailey shrugged in that way she always did when she was annoyed with me. “Fine. Whatever.”
I sighed, glad I’d been saved fromthatone. Call it pride or stubbornness or stubborn pride, but I didnotwant Jett to think I needed him for anything and I definitely couldn’t have him flattering himself by thinking I was secretly interested in him.
I thought about hownotinterested in him I was during the entire assembly. And throughout my next few classes as well.I’m not interested in Jett. The whole reason I’d even consider asking him to help me is so that I could keep on dating TJ. Sweet TJ who watched wrestling with Missy and made her smile and…I stopped myself there. Positive things only. I’d focus on the positives and help him change the rest.
By the time lunch came around, I was still torn about whether or not I should ask Jett to help out. At least I had until tomorrow to decide.
“So what’s the deal with thespin the bottleincident?” Summer piped as she stabbed a heap of lettuce onto her fork.
The cafeteria was alive with clanking chairs, sliding trays, and a million voices talking all at once. But at the sound of Summer’s question, all of it vanished. “Who told you about that?” I scanned the line to see Bailey, foot tapping the floor while her thumb tapped her phone screen. “What did she tell you about it?”
Summer hadn’t been at the eighth grade party like Bailey had, and the truth was, I didn’t like discussing the incident.
“Oh, Bailey didn’t tell me about it. Caleb did. But he wouldn’t say exactly what happened either. Just that you were mad or something.”
I rolled my eyes and wondered how fast I could spit it out before Bailey got back; I didn’t want the topic to dwell all through lunch. “A long time ago when we were in kindergarten, I chased him down and kissed him.”
“Aw, that’s so cute!”
I nodded and leaned forward. “Yeah, well I thought he was cute, no big deal. But years later we were at a party playing spin the bottle and when it was my turn, it landed on him.”
Summer squealed and leaned closer in return.
I didn’t want to admit that I was glad about it, so I skipped that detail and went on. “So I looked at him for a minute, trying to see if I should go to him or if he was going to come to me, and suddenly he says, ‘Come on over. This time, I won’t even make you chase me.’” Heat gathered in my shoulders at the mere recollection.
“That’s so darling!” Summer gushed.
I stared at her with a shocked face. “No, it wasrude. Everyone at the whole party was like, ‘Ooohhhh,'and ‘aaahhhh,’and ‘daaaaang!’It made me look like some dumb little puppy dog who’d been chasing after him all those years only to spin the bottle in some contrived way so it would land on him.”
