“He probably wouldn’t tell you,” I pointed out. “Please,pleaseact like you believe this is fake. It’s what he wants.”
“I’ll take what he said as gospel.” She turned to glance at him again. “Where’d he go?”
I looked over to where I’d seen him last and found the spot empty.
Weird.
Wherever he’d gone, it wasn’t as though he could just disappear. He’d be back.
25
Carter
The air outsidenipped at my nose and the tips of my ears, but I was glad to have a break from the noise and the heat inside, and I got the feeling Mandi wanted to talk to me.
“Thanks for asking me to dance,” she said. “Especially since I didn’t know you could.”
I watched in horror as she extracted a vape pen from her bra and offered it to me. Not because of where it’d been, but…
“Since when do you smoke?” I asked, wrinkling my nose.
“It’s not smoking,” Mandi said. “Gives me something to do with my hands. Calms my nerves.”
“Nicotine is a stimulant,” I pointed out, almost automatically.
I’d had a whole speech prepared for Aiden at one point. I hadn’t told him that, but Ihadcared more than I let on that he’d taken up smoking.
I cared a lot now that he’d quit for me.
Mandi wouldn’t have. Not because she was a bad person, but becausemaking me like herhad never been one of her priorities.
She was the prize, and I was the lucky winner and should have been grateful. And one day, someone would feel exactly like that and they’d be fantastically happy with her.
But it wasn’t me.
For once in my life I knew what it was like for someone to wantme, and I couldn’t stop thinking about how good it felt.
“I don’t need a lecture,” Mandi said, blowing a cloud of brilliant white water vapor into the sky like a tiny dragon.
Itdidlook kind of cool, but on balance…
Well, it wasn’t up to me to tell her what she could and couldn’t, or should and shouldn’t do.
But Aiden had quit for me. Even before I’d showed any interest in him.
“I won’t give you one,” I promised. “Just don’t blow it in my face.”
The last thing I wanted was to smell of vape juice for Aiden later.
“Never planned on it. Sure you don’t wanna try? It’s chocolate flavored.”
Of course it was. I’d learned early that the quickest route to forgiveness with Mandi was chocolate.
“I’m good,” I said, shoving my hands deep in my pockets. “Aiden taught me. To dance, I mean.”
She’d probably forgotten the question by now, but I hadn’t forgotten the answer. I’d never forget anything Aiden had done for me this week.
Mandi chuckled. “Cute. He’s not what I pictured for you.”
