“Promise.”
17
Ryder
“I’d askwhat you want for breakfast, but you look like you already ate,” Seth said as I slipped into the booth beside him. “And is that his shirt?”
I pulled the plaid shirt I’d borrowed from Ward’s drawer closer around me. “Maybe I have a collection of oversized plaid shirts,” I said.
IknewI was never going to live this down.
“This is adorable,” Seth enthused, grinning at me. “Was he good? Was he everything you ever hoped and dreamed?” he asked just as Juliet and Mercutio arrived, my saviors.
I should have learned their actual names yesterday so I could thank them, but Seth waved them in opposite us and then sniffed the shirt.
“Oh wow, it smells of him, I get it now.”
“Seth,” I said, nodding to the kids.
I really thought he’d stop.
“What, they’re seventeen, and they know you went home with a man who looks at you like you floated down from the sky with a little gift tag tied around your neck addressed to him.”
One of the many curses of being a redhead was that I couldn’t help blushing, and that when I did, it was visible from space.
“So you’re dating Ward?” Mercutio asked.
“I…”
Well, I was, wasn’t I? I was pretending to, at least.
But was I really dating him now? What did this mean for the two of us?
Was it that obvious?
Did Icareif it was obvious? Wasn’t that what I wanted?
It was too early to be asking myself this many questions.
“You’re only asking becauseyouwanna date Ward,” Juliet said, nudging Mercutio in the ribs. He retaliated, shoving back, until it devolved into a slap fight.
Seth cleared his throat, and it stopped instantly.
Which was pretty incredible, since they both towered over him. But then I’d been on the receiving end of Seth’s wrath, and I knew better than to really make him mad. I’d watched enough people make that mistake and live to regret it.
“Don’t thinkIwon’t fight you,” I joked, offering Mercutio a smile that I hoped said I’d been where he’d been, that I understood what it was like. Some people would have said it was easier now, but I wasn’t sure that was true. Not when you were a scared teenager still figuring the world out.
“Please don’t, it’s embarrassing when theatre kids fight,” Seth said.
“You’reas much a theatre kid as the rest of us,” I pointed out. “Do you guys still have theatre camps?”
“Don’t you dare,” Seth said, eyes wide.
“We don’t,” Juliet said. “No funding.”
Jeez.
First the theatre roof, now no camps? I’d had it luckier than I thought.
