Page 11 of The First Play

She doesn’t flinch away from my touch. Instead, her lips pull into a self-deprecating smile. “I’m surprised you’re not running away screaming.”

“Why would I do that? A pretty girl likes me.” I wink and she goes still, like she can’t believe I just said that… and the first bell trills. “I’ll see you around, Sienna. Have a good first day.”

She lets out a soft breath that could also be a giggle, maybe, and then I try to play it cool, sauntering down the hallway toward Noah and Kyle.

For a second, I wonder if I should have offered to walk her to class. Maybe she needs help finding her homeroom. I spin back to see what she’s doing, and my chest spasms when I notice her leaning against the locker. Her eyes are closed, and there’s this dreamy smile on her face.

She’s swooning. She’s actuallyswooning!

Talk about an ego boost.

I stop in my tracks, spinning to face her properly and drinking in the view.

That’s when her eyes pop open. Her gaze hits mine, and I can’t help a smile as she flushes and jerks tall, quickly turning to face her locker and sorting out her books.

Olivia and a few of the other girls move in, no doubt to analyze every syllable of our conversation, and I wander off to class already knowing that my senior year of high school has taken a life-changing turn.

“WE FLIRTED”

CHAPTER 5

SIENNA

Zander was so freaking nice to me, it was impossible not to like him even more than I already did. I threw up on him, and he told me it wasn’t a big deal. I drunkenly humiliated myself with loose lips, and he didn’t judge me for it.

I like him so much it hurts… but it’s been nearly two weeks since the party, and we still haven’t done anything more than casually say hi when we cross each other’s paths at school.

In fairness to him, he’s a busy guy. Football is king around here, and I’ve been forced to learn the ins and outs of the game. Olivia’s been teaching me what she knows, and even my dad helped me out.

See, I’m not your standard all-American girl. My parents are… well, they’re nomads. They’ve always struggled to stay in one place for long, and I spent my early childhood growing up around the world. We lived out of a camper van, traveling through Europe for the first three years of my life. Then we spent a few years checking out Asia, and I was homeschooled in places like Chiang Mai, Hanoi, Bali, and Kuala Lumpur. We then did a stint in the Pacific Islands, where I got myself a tan playing on the beaches of Fiji and Samoa, before we finally headed back to the States. I was hitting puberty, and my parents decided it was time for me to experience “normal” life for a while.

I have no idea what possessed them to do this, because adjusting to life stateside was freaking hard. I was the weirdo kid with an accent that no one could place and more life experience than all the kids I hung out with. They just didn’t get me. And I struggled to understand them too.

I begged my parents to hit the road again, but Dad was enjoying living next door to his best friend, so we stuck it out… until the chance to live in New York came along. By then, I’d made some friends and was finally starting to enjoy life. Being uprooted was just plain mean, but I survived that, and I’d survive life in Idaho too.

Plus, my parents promised to stay until I graduate, which means I don’t have to stress about being pulled out of school halfway through this year.

It means I have until June to make something happen with Zander Donohue.

Some would argue that I’m just setting myself up for heartache. He’ll be leaving school at the end of this year… but thanks to some sleuthing, I’ve heard the coaches at Brighton College are interested in him. And Brighton’s like the next town over. A thirty-minute drive is nothing.

I’m choosing to be positive about this thing.

And if the eye flirting Zander and I have been doing over the past few days is anything to go by, I’m in a good position here.

He thinks I’m pretty; I can tell that much.

Why he hasn’t asked me out yet, I’m not sure. I mean, I guess I could always ask him, but that’s kind of terrifying, so I’ll just keep getting into his line of sight.

It’s been less than two weeks, Sen. Give the guy a break.

But twelve days feels like a millennium when you like a guy and you think he likes you back. I mean, right?

I’ll just have to keep making my smiles brighter whenever we walk past each other.

I’ll just have to keep throwing out flirty comments whenever he’s close enough to hear me.

He likes it when I do that. I can tell.

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