“You’re the least judgmental person I know.”He wraps me in a hug.I relax into him, disappointment and tension melting away.“I’m pretty sure Livvy doesn’t care what you think of her.I’m surprised she isn’t friends with that new girl who’s been spreading rumors about us.”
I push back and gawk.“Don’t even wish that.”Jonathan laughs at my horrified expression.“I’m serious.Those two together would be… dangerous.”I take his hand to get us walking again, distancing us from the neighborhood with oversize historic homes and down a tree-lined street with cute fences and colored mailboxes.“Danika is suddenly obsessed with her.”
“I think Oren had something to do with that,” Jonathan says.“He and Livvy have been close for a long time.I figured you knew that.She hangs out with the football players.Not that she hooks up with them—that I know anyway.She’s always around.Like a…”
“A little sister?”I’m too familiar with that feeling, although my feelings were never sisterly when it came to Jonathan.And apparently, neither were his.
“I was going to say mascot.”
“Jonathan!”I gawk at him, making him laugh again.“That’s horrible.”
He raises his hand in surrender.“Okay.Okay.Bad metaphor.”
“Where’s Collin tonight?”I ask, walking past a white house with blue shutters and two jack-o’-lanterns on the porch.The eyes aren’t quite the same size, and the mouths are lopsided.I can’t decide if they’re meant to be scary or funny.Kids definitely live here.
“Did talking about mascots remind you of him?”Jonathan teases.I give him a scornful look that makes him laugh again, the deep tone rumbling in his chest.“I don’t know, actually.I didn’t hear from him all day.And then Oren called about coming here.”
“You could be the one to call first, you know?”
“Is that a hint?”
“You think that was subtle?”
Jonathan wraps an arm around me and speaks with his mouth pressed into my hair.“You know I hate talking on the phone.”
“Or talking in general,” I tease him.
“That’s not true.It’s just that Collin talks more than… everyone.”
This time, I laugh.“What about dancing?”
“Have you ever seen me dance?”His self-deprecating is new to me.I always considered him good at everything he did, other than communicating.
I was about to ask him about homecoming next month.I’ve heard it can be this big formal event at other schools.Prom is like that in Hollis, but we have plenty of time before I start getting nervous about whether he’ll ask me to that.I usually go to homecoming with the girls, although Jaz and Darcy last maybe an hour before they can’t take it anymore.Everyone dresses nice, like they’re going to a fancy restaurant with their parents.Not many people get asked to homecoming unless they’re already a couple.And, well… this is the first time I’ve been dating someone during homecoming since freshman year.And I’m not even going to relive the three-month disaster that was Kyle Herman.Dis-as-ter.
But Jonathan’s right.He’s never been to a dance.And if Collin wants to, he usually comes with me and whoever else joins us.Never Jonathan.Maybe Collin will go with me this year.And Danika, if things are over between her and Oren… and I’m kinda hoping they are.I know she really likes him, maybe even loves him.But I don’t like seeing her so upset, and she’s been more upset than happy with him lately.
“Are you expecting me to dance at your party?Is that why you asked?”I’m not surprised he’s not thinking about homecoming.It’s not worth bringing up.
“Um… not really.But you’re coming, right?I’m sending out invitations next week.We’re having it in the Rileys’ barn.They renovated it to throw parties there, so it’s heated.My mom’s making it a big deal since it’s my eighteenth.It’s like she thinks we’ll never have another party or something.”
“Of course I’m coming.I’d never miss it.”
Chapter Twelve
Everyone’s talking about your party.It’s a big one.Are you nervous?”Danika dumps the bag of candy into the bone bowl with skeleton legs—the Halloween bowl I use every year for the trick-or-treaters.
“I guess.”There is zero enthusiasm in my voice.I adjust the vampire collar and black bob in the reflection of the glass cabinet.“Am I crooked?”
Danika inspects me and tugs on one side of the wig to center it.She drapes the black cowl over her wavy purple wig with heavy bangs and picks up the bowl of Milk Duds and Twizzlers.I grab the witch hat, filled with full-sized Milky Ways and KitKats.
“Your mom’s going all out this year.I can’t believe she had the invitations hand-delivered by little kid Cupids.The entire school was freaking out.”Danika leads the way to our front door.“Why aren’t you excited?”
I roll my eyes.Definitely notmyidea.I wish I had stayed home from school that day.I haven’t had much influence over my party for months.My mother is going over the final details with the event planner and Mrs.Riley right now, and I’m not there.Not that it matters anymore anyway.
Every birthday since sixth grade, I’ve thrown a party here at the house and in the backyard.Decorating it with my friends and maybe a little help from Mom and Dad.Whether I transform the yard into a graveyard and the house into a haunted mansion.Or a massacre circus tent and a house of mirrors with strategic dead ends.It was always my creation.And it’s the only time kids from school showed for one of my parties.Not that I’ve tried having any since the disastrous back-to-school party in seventh grade—no one likes to celebrate returning to school.My birthday wasmyday.Even if most people ignored me for the rest of the year, they always talked about my Halloween birthday party.The birthday part often forgotten.
When my mother first offered to help plan it, I was excited.We don’t spend much time together since she’s always working or attending an event for my dad.And even less recently with the upcoming launch of the linen line for her interior design company.Now that she’s also assisting with Dad’s election campaign, she almost never has time for me.When she hired the event planner for my party and then started adding more and more names of corporate heads to the list, I disappeared from the planning altogether.The last two weeks, I haven’t contributed to any of it—having given up on trying to interject an opinion or objection.
