Page 31 of He Hate Me

“We told him you were running late, and he was like, ‘Whatever, that’s not why I’m here.” I chuckle.

“Then why…?”

“He asked me to Homecoming,” Shelby says in a small voice. She’s as pink as a rose petal.

“Interesting…” I say, taking a bite of my salad. I debate whether I want to point out that he could have asked her in private, but chose to do it in front of everybody after making sure everybody knew he didn’t give a fuck about me anymore. I'm worried that this isn’t about Shelby at all, and she really likes him. She could get hurt here. But if I say this in front of everyone, it will make her look stupid if they start dating, so I hold my tongue. I’ll give her that warning when we’re alone and let her decide if she thinks it’s worth the risk.

“It’s fine if you want to go with him,” I say, smiling. “We’re not together.”

“Did you guys break up?” Lorelei asks.

“We were never together.” I chuckle good-naturedly. “If you like him, Shelby, I say go for it. He wasn’t the right guy for me, but he’s not an asshole. I’d say give him a shot.”

“It’s just a dance,” Shelby says in her usual small voice. She’s trying to play it off like this isn’t a big deal to her, but the look I share with Mackenzie assures me that I’m not the only one who noticed her crush on him.

“Does everybody else have dates?” I ask, lightly.

“I’m going with Jackson, of course,” Lorelei says. They’ve been boyfriend-girlfriend since sophomore year, so that’s not a surprise.

“I’m not sure yet,” Mackenzie says, tightly.

“Who are you going to Homecoming with, Deja?”

“Jayden,” I say, smirking. I haven’t asked him yet, but my ex-boyfriend’s college is only two hours away and he’s always down to do me a solid.

“That’s awesome,” Lorelei says. “How’s he doing?”

“Good.”

I glance at the wall clock and notice that we only have another ten minutes of lunch.

"Hey," I say, getting an idea. "Why don't we get our hair and makeup done at Melodie Yang's house like we did for prom?" Our school isn't that big, so we have a junior-senior prom. All my friends went during our junior year.

“You mean trick her into paying for it again?”

“Do you want to pay for it, Kenz?” I ask her.

“Melodie!” Mackenzie yells, waving at a nearby table. “Hey, girl. Can you come over? What are you doing after cheer practice?”

It’s almost 8:00 pm and near the end of long day before I have time to call Carmello. He picks up on the second ring, but he doesn’t sound exactly excited to hear from me.

“How are you feeling,” I ask him.

“Better,” he says. He sounds tired. “Wish I could get something stronger than Tylenol.”

“Are you in a lot of pain?”

"Some. But I'll be fine," he assures me.

“When are you coming back to school?”

“As soon as I get my hard cast on. Probably by Thursday.”

“That’s good.” The conversation isn’t flowing very smoothly, and I struggle to find the right words.

“I’m sorry for what happened,” I finally settle on.

“Huh. Why? You didn’t tackle me.”