This gets her attention.“Maybe.But only if you’ll stay over Livvy’s after… and not look at your phone the entire time.”
Why is she forcing Livvy on me all of a sudden?We’ve spent our entire lives being cordially ambivalent to each other.What makes this year different?
“I guess,” I reply without enthusiasm.
“I think you’ll really like her if you give her a chance,” Danika says, holding the locker room door open for me to enter.The scent of perfume, hairspray and sweaty sports equipment assaults me.I crinkle my nose.I hate gym.“How are you not friends already?She lives so close to you.”
There are reasons.First being, she’s never invited me until now.It feels too hard to put words around.So I don’t try.
We’re supposed to be playingbadminton.Danika and I are partners.There are more teams than nets—we shuffle around the gym, looking like we’re waiting to play the winner, but never actually make it onto a court.I can’t afford to get sweaty or mess up my hair even a little.This date is more important than badminton.
“Um… how did you know about the video camera and the footage at the construction site?”I ask Danika while sitting on the bottom row of the bleachers.I meant to ask her last night when I called, but she was too upset over an argument she had with Oren, so it didn’t feel right to bring it up.
“Luther Garrett’s my uncle.He’s kinda a dick,” she tells me.Did I know he was her uncle?I feel like I should know this, but it doesn’t come up asknownin my brain.“He was complaining to my mom about it.She had him on speaker while she was making dinner.He thought about pressing charges for trespassing, but my mom talked him out of it, considering the guy broke his arm.She said that was punishment enough for doing something so stupid.”
“Oh,” I reply.“I guess it’s a good thing Jonathan’s father’s so paranoid about people stealing from his job sites.”
“I guess.It did clear his son.”
“Why would Jonathan be accused to begin with?”
“The guy probably heard about the Greenfield players showing up at the party and blamed the fight for his arm getting broken.And Jonathan’s the first to be blamed when it comes to fights.”
“That’s awful.”And that’s exactly how I feel for questioning whether he’s telling the truth about the fight and everything else.Just as bad as the people spreading rumors about him.
“The jackass doesn’t sound like the poster boy for morality if he’s hopping gates to trespass.”
“True.”I lean my shoulder against hers.“Are you and Oren okay?”
“For now,” she says with a sigh.“I don’t want to spend my senior year arguing with my boyfriend about why I don’t spend every free minute with him.He needs to give me space to be with my friends.Smothering me is not going to work, so he better get over it real quick—or he’ll have to get overmewhen I dump him.”
I blink.Wow.And here I am, worried that Jonathan never thought I was pretty before today.Seems so petty in comparison.Guess I need to redefineself-respectwith my reflection.
Chapter Nine
Ready?”Jonathan asksas I shoulder my messenger bag and close my locker.My nerves seal my lips.All I can do is stretch them into a smile and nod.
I have nothing to be nervous about.This is Jonathan.I’ve sprayed grape soda out of my nose in front of him.He’s seen me throw up.But my stomach doesn’t care how well I knew himbefore.Now he’s something more.And thatmoreadds pressure.It’s crushing the air from my lungs and making me as mute as I was when we first became friends.
We reach the parking lot in silence.
“Where are we going?”I ask upon starting the car.
“Just follow my directions.”
I look over at him.He smiles.The gleam in his eyes relaxes the tension I’ve built around me.I smile back.“Left or right?”
“Right,” he directs as we navigate out of the parking lot.
Fifteen minutes later, we’re on the outskirts of Hollis, where woods are broken up by expansive farmland.I’ve given up trying to figure out where we’re going.But when he tells me to slow down and turn into the entrance on the left, I never in a million years would’ve guessed we’d end up at a farm.A literal farm with animals, a barn and acres of vegetable patches and fruit trees.
“Blanchett Farm?”I confirm as I veer onto the pocked dirt lot.The car jostles and bounces as I seek a parking spot.“Are we feeding the pigs?”I definitely didn’t dress for that.
Jonathan laughs.“Only if you want to.I thought we’d pick out some pumpkins and get a pie or something to eat while we carve them at your house.”
A smile erupts on my face.“You want to carve jack-o’-lanterns?”
“Halloween’s a couple weeks away.And I kinda remember it’s your favorite holiday, being the day you were born.”
