Page 34 of Revenge Cake

Brenna and I send small smiles to each other. We can always count on Dean.

“Can we leave soon?” I ask him. “It will be a long walk from wherever you drop me off.”

“Yeah, let’s head out now.” He reaches into his pants pocket and pulls out his wallet. “And I’m not dropping you off. I’ll walk with you.”

Even without looking in her direction, I can feel Brenna’s smile. “That’s sweet of you,” I say.

“It’s a huge hardship for me since I have so many things to do right now. I’ll expect payment later.” He winks.

Just before Dean and I stand up from our seats Brenna looks at me pointedly, her smile slow, her eyes menacing. “Make him cry,” she mouths.

I strain my facial muscles to fight my smile as we walk away.

CHAPTER 12

Past—The Plan

Logan

“You loved it,” I say, though I’m not really sure. She looks lost in thought as she lifts the remote from the lump of blankets and turns off the TV.

Watching a movie before bed has become our nightly ritual. We take turns choosing the movie—usually something important to us now or when we were kids—and then we talk about it afterwards. I love it. I love everything I do with my girlfriend.

My girlfriend my girlfriend my girlfriend.

I say it as often as I can, taking every possible opportunity to announce to the world that she’s my girlfriend, and mostly when it’s completely unnecessary. “Does my girlfriend want a beer?” “Can you tell my girlfriend her phone is ringing?” I make it seem like I’m just trying to annoy her, but really I love saying it. Every time I do it feels like a victory.

Except somehow it’s not quite enough.

I don’t know what it is about her that makes me so greedy, why I can’t ever seem to get enough. Sometimes I feel like I won’t be fully satisfied until she has a ring on her finger and a big, pregnant belly.

It’s insane. She makes me insane.

“No,” she says, without any hint of apology. “I kind of hated it actually.”

Leave it to my girlfriend to give me her honest opinion. She’d never tell me she likes a movie just because she knows I love it. A smile rises to my lips. “Liar. You were laughing.”

“It was funny, but I still hated it. I hate it on principle, and I don’t understand why you love it. Especially since you genuinely love superhero movies. I hate any piece of art that’s disdainful of its own genre. Deadpool thinks it’s so much smarter than superhero movies in general. The whole movie is your pretentious, hipster friend who likes superhero movies ironically.”

“Wait. So it’s you?”

She blinks once before she seems to catch my meaning. She responds by rolling her eyes with a small smile.

“Are you saying that you—Leilani Girard—are actually Deadpool, and I’m only just now finding out about it?”

“Go fuck yourself, Henderson.”

I turn over until my body is flush with hers. “I’d rather fuck you.”

She shoots me a playful glare. “Do you think I fuck people who call me pretentious? Absolutely not. Also, I don’t like anything ironically. I only ever love things earnestly.” Under her breath, she adds, “like you, for example.”

My body grows very, very still. “Wait… What?”

Her eyes move away from mine. “I mean when I say I love a movie like Showgirls, it’s because I think it’s a well-made movie and I genuinely enjoy the experience of watching it. I don’t believe in ironic love. It’s mean-spirited.”

If it wasn’t for the way her speech sped up with that answer, I might actually think she misunderstood my question. I pat her shoulder. “Can we back up a bit?”

She swallows as she nods. “I don’t actually mind that you called me pretentious. I like that you see my flaws so clearly and don’t seem particularly bothered by them.”

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