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I sighed. Adonis could not, under any circumstances, ever come to my house. Or else he might wind up dead. I needed to plan a much smaller prank. Much much smaller.

Like maybe I could sneak into the men’s locker room and put pudding in all the lockers. And I could sit on top of the lockers, waiting for the perfect moment. When Adonis walked in, I could hit a button that controlled the lockers and they’d all fly open at once, drenching him head to foot in pudding. I pictured the scene. Everyone on the team slipping and sliding. And running into each other. I imagined the chaos in my head. Guys tumbling over benches. Heads slamming against the pudding covered ground and legs snapping in half.

Yikes. That got dark fast.

Oh God, I’m just like my dad.

I’d do something smaller than that. I’d figure it out later. I shuddered.

“Give me some time for this,” my dad said. “We’ll set up a date for Adonis to come over for dinner soon.”

“Date is the wrong word. I don’t like him.”

“You know what I meant. Pizza?” He grabbed the box behind him and offered it to me.

I shook my head and grabbed a slice, abandoning the idea of plates too.

“Come on, my picky little goblins.” My dad slid off the kitchen counter. “We have a movie to watch and a pizza to finish.” He carried the box into the living room.

“I don’t like Adonis,” I said to my brother as we followed my dad.

“Sure you don’t.”

“I don’t.”

RJ didn’t look like he believed me one bit.

***

I slowly opened my eyes. My mom was pulling a blanket over me. I must have fallen asleep on the couch. I yawned.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you,” my mom said. She had a big smile on her face. “But now that you’re awake...” She sat down next to me. “I heard you like some new boy.”

“Ugh.” I slowly sat up. I was pretty sure she’d woken me on purpose now. “Dad is terrible at keeping things to himself.”

“He’s actually very good at keeping secrets. But you didn’t ask him not to tell me this. He started off by saying that.”

I laughed. I guess I hadn’t asked him to keep it a secret.

“So tell me about him. All I know is that his name is Adonis and your dad is excited to have him over.”

I lay back down, pulling the blanket up to my chin. “There’s nothing to tell.”

“Is he handsome?”

I shrugged. “He’s okay.” That was a lie. Adonis was gorgeous. Which was fitting. In the research I’d done, Adonis was supposed to be a symbol of male beauty. The name suited him.

“Well, how did the two of you meet?”

I didn’t know how she’d feel about the fact that I’d met him at that club. My dad would laugh, probably not believing what I said. But my mom tended to read into what I said more. I shrugged. “At a dance.” That was kind of true.

“Is he nice?”

I thought about all of Adonis’ warnings. They annoyed me. But in a way, he was being protective. He was overly flirtatious and didn’t understand boundaries at all. He was way too forward and super cocky. But he’d never been anything but sweet actually. “Yeah. He is.”

“You smile when you talk about him.”

I looked up at her. “I do?”