Page 30 of Science Project

Snap out of it, Akio. Nicole doesn’t like you like that.

Imani slammed my book closed. “All right, enough studying. Let’s talk.”

I readjusted my glasses. “About what?”

“Are your parents as annoying as mine are?” she asked me, dipping another fry in ketchup and kicking her legs back and forth under the table so hard that she accidentally kicked me.

But it didn’t hurt as badly as Karmeen Kaiser’s punch had last night when he was trying to defend himself from me.

The ketchup on Imani’s fry was almost as dark as his blood that I’d washed off in the sea.

She rolled her eyes and popped the food into her mouth, coily dark hair bouncing on her shoulders whenever she moved her head. “My mom literally scolds me if I don’t do the smallest things right. I just … ugh …”

If Imani thought being scolded was bad, she should try having a mom who wanted her to be a killer.

I ran a hand across my face. “My dad isn’t that annoying, but he pushes me to get together with you. He wants me to be with you so badly, and it’s so annoying,” I said. “All he does is talk about you when I’m at home. How I have to be just like you, how we’d work well together. It’s nonstop, Imani.”

“Well”—she smiled—“I’m off the market.”

She accidentally kicked me again, so I kicked her back.

“Well, I don’t like you anyway.”

“Who do you like?” Imani asked, leaning forward and suddenly interested.

I shrugged and looked away, chewing a fry. “Nobody.”

How could I tell her that I liked Nicole?! She hated her.

“Who?”

“Nobody.”

“Oh, come on! You wanted to hang out and be friends. This is what friends do. They tell each other who they like, so their friend can go out, stalk their crush, and secretly make it happen!”

Brow arched, I stared at her like she was crazy because was that what friends really did?! That sounded horrible and traumatic if it didn’t work out.

I blinked a few times and shook my head. “Exactly why I can’t tell you.”

“So, you’re going to live the rest of your life alone?” she asked.

“God, you’re so dramatic.”

Tossing some curls over her shoulder, she smirked. “Thank you. I try.”

After rolling my eyes, I glanced behind her at a group of cheerleaders who had walked into Beestra. Nicole walked a few feet behind them, dressed in the tightest pair of leggings that formed perfectly to her ass and a white crop top.

“Ugh, she’s so—” Imani started, but then stopped. As if it all clicked. “You like her?!”

Cheeks growing hot, I snapped my gaze back to Imani. “Can you not scream that?”

She lowered her voice and leaned further across the table. “Nicole?” she whisper-yelled at me. “The head bitch of the cheer team and the police chief’s daughter?” She fake-gagged. “Gross. She sleeps with, like, the entire school.”

Ouch, that hurt.

“And you sleep with the three most dangerous guys in Redwood,” I said.

“All right, you got me,” she said with a smile and raised her glass of water. “Cheers to being a slut … but she’s the rudest damn person that I’ve met, and she has the unhealthiest obsession with Jace, Allie’s … stepbrother.”

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