“We are also going to avoid Noah and his group of friends as much as possible.”
“Absolutely.”
“I don’t give a fuck that you and Jared have some weird thing going on—”
“No, we fucking don’t,” she exclaimed. I lifted my eyebrow and tilted my head to the side, not believing a single word that just came out of her mouth.
Especially because her whole face went as red as a tomato, telling me everything I needed to know.
“As I was saying.” I cleared my throat. “I will punch Jared in his throat if he even thinks about coming close to us.”
“Pinky promise. There won’t be any shenanigans tonight. You’ll just go, have a nice non-alcoholic drink with a cute guy, maybe get a kiss, and then go home. Tomorrow, you will kill it at the regional competition, and we’ll celebrate afterward. With alcohol,” she pointed out.
“Fine.” I huffed. “We’re going, but I meant what I said.”
“I know.”
Sometimes what I wanted and what would happen were two very different things. If I knew then what I knew later, I would have gotten up and went home instead of going to Alkey Lake.
* * *
We passedthe sign with the “Visit Us Again” inscription for our town a couple of minutes ago, and the nerves I’d been pretending were non-existent were pushing to the surface. I knew that in less than five minutes, we would be reaching our destination.
“Could you drive any slower?” Bianca complained from the passenger seat, drilling me with her eyes. “Best Acquaintance” by Mouth Culture was on full blast, filling the car, but I could barely hear the lyrics from the sound of my beating heart in my ears.
“It’s dark outside, and this road is quite shitty.”
“Oh, don’t give me that bullshit, Soph. I think we’ve known each other long enough for me to know when you’re lying. You’re scared because he’s gonna be there and you’re going to forget why you decided to push him away, aren’t you?”
“No,” I answered too fast. The knowing grin from her told me she knew it as well. I was full of shit today, and my slow driving had nothing to do with the low visibility, and everything to do with the guy I both wanted to see and didn’t want to see.
“You’ll be fine.” She placed her hand on my knee. “I can always kick him in his nuts if that’s what you would like to see.”
“No, you psycho.” I laughed. “Why are you always so keen on kicking people in their nuts?”
“You mean, the same way that you’re always saying you want to punch them in their throat?”
“That’s different!”
“How the fuck is that different?”
“Well, a throat punch wouldn’t leave any permanent damage.”
“Except that the person could die.”
“Oh, shut your face. It’s not like I’m an MMA fighter. It would probably feel like a tickle to some of these guys.”
“Mhm, if you say so. Just don’t go around tonight, throat punching people.”
“If they deserve it.” I shrugged. “Why not?”
“I always knew that there was a little demon somewhere inside of you.”
“Look who’s talking.” I snorted. “I swear, half of our school is terrified to even talk to you.”
“That’s because I have resting bitch face.”
“You also have a mean mouth when you want it to be.”
