"Sorry, I just want you to be prepared. You know he's going to ask to see Jake."
"Maybe I'll have to lie. Telling him is only going to upset him, and if he's upset, he won't rest."
"You really want to lie to him?"
"No." I sigh. "I don't know what to do. I know I need to tell him but I'm afraid of what he's going to do when he finds out. Can we talk about something else? I'm getting more stressed the longer we talk about this."
"What do you want to talk about?"
"Anything. Pick a topic."
"Someone asked Evan out," she says, laughing.
"Why is that funny?"
"Because it's Evan, my stupid brother who smells like sweaty socks and lives on cheese puffs."
"Evan doesn't smell."
"Trust me, he does. And his fingers are always coated in that cheese dust. It's disgusting."
"I've never noticed that," I say, feeling a smile creep up my lips. It's amazing Eve can make me smile even when I'm feeling sad. "I think you're exaggerating because he's your brother."
"Whatever. Anyway, he's going out with her this weekend, unless he chickens out and cancels."
"Why would he chicken out?"
"Because she's way out of his league."
"Who is it?"
"Christina. She's a cheerleader."
"Dark hair? Big boobs? Really good dancer?"
"Yeah that's her. He thought she was joking when she asked so he didn't give her an answer. He just walked away."
"What did she do?"
Eve laughs. "She ran after him and yelled at him for not answering. I don't know this girl but I already like her just for that. Anyway, they're going out on Saturday, or that's the plan. Now that he knows she likes him, he's freaking out, thinking he'll screw it up, which he probably will."
"You should help him. Tell him what to do."
"Are you kidding? He doesn't listen to me. And I don't listen to him. I'd never take his advice about dating."
"Speaking of dating, I noticed Kendrick kept looking at you tonight."
"No, he wasn't. He was looking down the hall to see if Heather would show up. I saw him flirting with her at lunch last week."
"He wasn't flirting. I was there that day. He was just talking to her."
"Talking. Flirting. It's all the same."
"Eve, I'm telling you. He likes you. He kept looking over at you."
"Maybe he was looking atyou, checking to see if you were okay. Those guys are really protective of you. Being Dean's girl has earned you the royal treatment from the entire team."
"That's not true. Most of them didn't even know we were dating."
