Wyatt Hardy had justlookedat her.
Andseenher.
He’d definitely seen her—you might smile at nothing, but you wouldn’twinkat it.
Never in Julia’s three years of watching Wyatt Hardy had he ever given any sign of noticing her. Julia had always been so invisible that she could watch anyone she wanted with impunity.
“Hey.” The guy behind her sounded frustrated. “It’s your turn. Hey—girl.”
“Sorry,” Julia said. She stumbled forward. She took too long looking for the Sour Patch Kids and Twizzlers, and the person working there had to help. She bought a small popcorn for herself, and a large Coke. She spent all the money her dad had given her.
She was still stumbling when she walked back out into the field of cars—stumblingemotionally.
Wyatt Hardy had caught her staring at him.
Wyatt Hardy hadwinked.
Since when were they on winking terms? Had Wyatt ever even saidhello? They knew each other. They’d been in classes—they’d been in a small group once. But they never acknowledged each other in the halls. Wyatt didn’t smile at her, and she would never smile at him.
Julia had forgotten where Aiden’s Jeep was parked. She walked down the aisles of cars, looking for it. She hoped that Aiden and Chloe had stopped arguing ...
They had.
When Julia finally found the Jeep and went up to the passenger door, she could see them inside kissing. Like,reallykissing. With Aiden’s hand up the back of Chloe’s shirt.
Julia’s mom liked to say that social media was ruining teens’ social skills, that they didn’t want to hang out anymore—they didn’t even want to havesex. Julia should reassure her that TikTok hadn’t ruined Chloe completely.
Julia debated knocking on the window. But then she’d just be inside the carwiththe kissing. Chloe wouldn’t stop on her account. And Aiden still wouldn’t notice her.
She paused just long enough to look like someone standing there creeping on them, then decided to head back to the snack bar. There were picnic tables there where she could sit, and a speaker blasting the movie. Honestly, Julia would probably get more out of the movie if she watched from there. And she hadn’t seen a single mosquito yet. Her mom was wrong about that, too.
When Julia got back to the snack bar, half a dozen tweens were spread out over both picnic tables. The little kids had abandoned the swing set, so she sat down on one of the two swings and set her food on the ground. She’d eaten most of the popcorn while she was wandering around.
She took out her phone to text Chloe, to tell her where she was, but she ended up opening the camera and looking at her strange face in the screen.
What if Wyatt Hardy had winked at her, not because he recognized Julia and wanted to say hello—which, again, he had never done before—but because hedidn’trecognize her?
After all, she didn’t look like herself anymore.
Maybe Wyatt had winked at a stranger.
“Comeon!” someone shouted.
Julia looked up.
There was a group of people at the edge of the snack bar lawn, standing in her view of the screen. People her age. Half of them were laughing. The other half were shushing.
Someone dropped a drink and someone else squealed.
More laughing and shushing.
“Let it go, Wyatt.”
“Shhh!”
Giggles.
“Iamletting it go. I’m—” That was Wyatt Hardy. Julia recognized his profile. She couldn’t hear what he was saying. He turned and started walking away from the group.
