“Night, Jared,” Mindy called without looking up as he swept from the room.
The second the door clicked shut behind him, she closed her laptop and patted the couch cushion beside her. “Spill.”
“Spill what? You heard everything.”
She fixed me withthatlook—the one that said she could see right through me. We’d been best friends since elementary school. She knew all my tells. “Something else happened tonight. You and Jared? You weren’t quite as clingy.”
I grimaced. “We’re not ever clingy.”
“Oh, please. You so are.”
She was right. Wesoare. Apparently, tonight I wasn’t feeling it. Gee. I wonder why.
“See?” Mindy said, pointing to my face. “You know what I mean.”
“Fine. Fine.” I plopped onto the sofa, drew a breath, and blurted, “My mom walked in on us.”
Mindy’s mouth fell open. “No way.”
“Way,” I said, grabbing one of the throw pillows and hugging it to my chest.
“And, um, what exactly did she see? I didn’t think you two had...you know.”
“Not that!”
“Well, good. Because I thought we had a pact to share when we didthat.”
“We do,” I said. “Maybe.” Now that I was edging closer tothat,I wasn’t so sure I’d want to share. That, however, was not the point.
“We were in my room. Making out. And then my door flew open, and there’s my mom, and I swear I’ve never moved so fast in my life.”
“Oh. My. God.” Mindy was clearly torn between horror and delight. “What did she say?”
“Nothing. Not one word about it. She just told us to get to the meeting.” I hugged the pillow tighter. “I think that’s worse. The silence. Like she’s saving it up for later when she can really let me have it.”
“Or maybe she’s got bigger things to worry about right now. You know, murder and prophecy and all that. Besides, you’re Save The World Girl. You deserve smoochies.”
“Maybe.” I lifted my head. “But you didn’t see the way she looked at Jared. Like she was considering whether she could get away with staking him.”
“To be fair, she probably thinks about that regularly.”
“Not helpful.”
Mindy grinned, tucking her feet up under her. “So... How far did you get? Before the interruption?”
I felt my face flush. “We were just—” I blew out a breath. “Making out. You know. His hands were under my shirt, but we weren’t actually going to go further. Not tonight.”
“But you want to.”
It wasn’t a question. And this was Mindy—I couldn’t lie to her.
“Oh, yeah,” I admitted. “I really, really want to. Is that terrible? We’ve been together for ages and I just...I want that. With him. But every time we get close, something interrupts us. Demons, training, my mother apparently having the worst timing in the history of the universe. And Jared being pretty old-fashioned, too.”
“Well, I mean, he’s old, right?” Mindy said. “So old-fashioned fits.”
“I guess so.” I looked up at the ceiling and sighed. “This is what my life’s going to be like, isn’t it? Always a crisis interrupting the good stuff. Always a reason to push things aside. And now, well, what if I never get the chance?”
Her brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”
