“She’sfeistytoday.” He narrows his eyes at me. “As opposed to you, who’s half glitter, half cupcakes?”
Before I can respond, my phone starts ringing. Oh, I forgot to turn off my alarm for my sleeping pills. It’s late, and this alarm is from school days.Your Love by The Outfield— my dad set my alarm, not me — starts to play, and my phone is currently on full volume. I grab it and try to turn off the alarm, but my finger keeps missing the button. Finally, I managed to turn itoff. It seems that my alarm made my dad look at the time and say, “Excellent taste, Maddie,” Such a dad joke…“Well, do you all wanna go to the cafe?”
We all nod and go outside, since we’re already finished. As we step outside, Jake says, “The Outfield?”
“How do you know that?”
“Opposed to what you might think, I’m cultured. It was one of my favorite songs as a kid. My parents forced me to listen to it until I liked it.”
“So, you like old rock?” I ask, kind of scared.
“You could say that it’s nostalgic.”
What a coincidence.
I don’t like this.
“Maddie thinks that way, too.” Allison cuts in.
“Really?”
“Why the tone of surprise?” I raise my eyebrows.
“I always saw you as the hopeless romantic who liked cheesy songs, and I guess I never saw you as the girl who likes thesometimesheavy sound of rock.”
It’s sad that we grew up together but never really knew each other that well.
“Ilovethe sound of the electric guitar.”
Riden and Allison start giggling.
“What’s the matter with you two?”
“Wanna askJacobhere, what instrument he plays?” Alls asks me.
I look at him.
“No way!Youplay the guitar?!”
“Yes, acoustic and electric. Impressive, isn’t it?”
“Well, I don’t know about impressive. I never heard you playing.” I can’t help but respond, not liking one bit how we’re coming closer together.
“You’re welcome in my bedroom any day.” He says, winking, and I blush. Again.Damn it.
He lowers his voice and whispers to my ear, “You always look cute when you blush.”
What the fuck?
* * *
I throw myself onto the bed, and Allison speaks up.
“This night was interesting!” She levels me with a knowing look.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, come on! Helikesyou!”
