I shrug. “What can I say? I was starving.”
“Fucking hilarious.” Barron puts his arm around my shoulder and pulls me to his side. “I like this girl. I say we keep her around.”
“Told ya,” Dante says.
His comment makes me wonder what he told them about me.
“I see someone got an invite,” I hear a girl say.
Looking back, I see Kristen there, putting on her best fake smile.
Barron quickly takes his arm off me. “Kristen, I thought you had an appointment.”
“I did. It was canceled.”
He stands up and pulls out the chair next to him. She saunters over to it and sits down.
“You meet Rumor yet?” Dante asks her.
“We met in class earlier.” She hands Barron her bottle of iced tea. “Open it, please.”
He does as she says, then hands her the bottle.
“Where’s Braden?” she asks, sipping her tea.
“Probably talking to Coach,” Dante says. “He’s trying to come up with punishments for people who miss practice.”
“That’s so Braden,” she says, flipping her blonde hair behind her shoulder.
“What are you saying about me?” Braden appears, heading to the seat at the very end of the table, which I’m guessing is his. Head of the table. Where the king sits. Makes me want to gag.
“I was saying how much I missed you this summer,” Kristen gushes, getting up from the table to give him a hug. She is so fake. Why would Jackson want to have anything to do with her?
And why is Braden still friends with her? If she dumped him for Jackson, his biggest enemy, he shouldn’t even be talking to her.
“I thought I’d see you at the party last week,” he says to Kristen.
“I couldn’t go,” she says, sitting down. “But I heard you guys had fun. My mom freaked about the chandelier.” She laughs. “Do you know who did it?”
Braden doesn’t answer as he notices me at the end of the table. He’s pissed. I can see it in his eyes and on his face.
“Rumor,” he says in a deeper-than-normal voice.
“Hey, Braden.”
“Your cousin’s awesome,” Dante says.
Kristen’s eyes shoot to Dante. “Where’s Ella?”
“Out sick.” He shoves his empty plate aside and moves a full one in front of him.
“What’s wrong with her?”
“We ended things last night.” He twirls his fork in the spaghetti. “She didn’t take it well.”
Kristen looks at me, a smirk on her face. “Hazard of dating a football player. They drop you without warning.”
The guys glance at Braden. His jaw is tight, like he’s trying to hold himself back from saying what he wants to say. Like maybe reminding Kristen that she dumpedhim, not the other way around?
