“Oh, please.” Rae rolls her eyes.
“What if I brought Tennessee?”
Rae plants her elbows on the table and leans forward. “I’m listenin’.”
“Please no. He’s so obnoxious,” I say.
Jasper’s gaze surfs toward the table Ten is occupying with a potted palm. I wonder why he still sits alone. I’ve seen him hanging out in the hallway with a couple of kids, all from the track team. I assume he must run track, unless he just enjoys discussing electrolytes and speed intervals.
“If he comes,” Rae says, “you can come.”
Jasper’s out of his chair in under a second. He jogs over to Ten. I watch them talk. When Ten’s gaze bangs into mine, my fingers tighten around the juice box, and it squirts into my face. I snatch a paper napkin off my tray and blot my eye, which has already started to water.
A minute later, Jasper plops his palms against our table and leans over. “Mission was a bust, RaeRae, but I might’ve heard our new QB has the hots for a certain leggy blonde.”
Rae glances over at Jasper’s section of the cafeteria, the VIP area. It’s not cordoned off or anything but might as well be considering the string of jocks and cheerleaders wedged together. If it weren’t for me, Rae would be sitting there too.
Rae returns her gaze to Jasper. “I’m not into jocks.”
“Since when?”
“Since last year,” I say softly.
“Oh.” He palms his hair. “Right. Not my brother’s finest hour.”
Jasper had a front-row seat to that debacle, what with Rae’s ex being none other than his older brother.
Rae squashes her bottle of water until it’s no thicker than a compact disc. She’s probably imagining it’sthe boy we no longer talk about’s soul. He graduated last year, but that’s not the reason we don’t talk about him. We don’t talk about him because he cheated on Rae and shattered her heart. It took months of late-night commiseration over tubs of ice cream and popcorn to get Rae out of her funk.
“Besides, I favor intellect over brawn now,” she adds.
Even though Jasper’s close with his brother, he doesn’t leap to his defense. “Shouldn’t personality factor in?”
“Just because Ten keeps to himself doesn’t mean there’s something off about him. In my opinion, it makes him sort of intriguing.”
Like a serial killer is intriguing.
Jasper grunts as he pushes away from the table. Before returning to his section of the cafeteria, he asks, “So, is that a negative on chick night?”
“Yes.” Once he’s out of earshot, Rae asks, “Did you want me to invite him?”
“Who? Jasper?”
“Yes, Jasper. He’s totally into you.”
“We’re just friends, Rae.”
“But you did pick up on all those flirty vibes, right?”
“That’s just Jasper. He flirts with every girl.”
“Uh-huh.” She gives me a look, one eye a little more shut than the other.
“He does. Anyway, I’m not interested.”
“You used to be.”
“Back when I was a freshman. That ship has sailed.” I finger the silver arrow speared through the cartilage of my ear. Rae and I were supposedto get matching piercings, but she chickened out at the last minute, claiming her parents would have a fit.
