Page 20 of The Obsession

I grinned as he walked over, then I mentally punched myself in the face and toned down my huge smile into a more normal one. How should I stand? I shifted from one leg to the other.Argh, stop fidgeting!

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey.”

“It’s good to see you back at school,” he said.

Is it really?my mind squeaked. “It’s good to see you back at school too!” Oh my god. Be cool, damn it!

“Do you need any notes for chemistry? I could lend you mine. Mr. West’s been piling on the homework.”

Wow. Cute and sweet. I was in real trouble. “Yeah, that would be really great. I feel like I’ve missed a whole semester of work.”

“I could—uh, we could study together if you want?” Logan said, with a shy smile.

I want!

I managed to stop myself from nodding frantically. “Yeah, that would be great!”

“Or maybe we could do something more fun for our first date.”

“Our first date?” I squeaked.Stop squeaking!

Logan scratched the back of his neck, his ears turning red. “Um, yeah, I’m kinda trying to ask you out here…and doing a really bad job of it, obviously.” He laughed to himself.

“No! You’re not! I mean, you’re not doing a bad job. I’m doing a bad job! I mean, yes. Yes!” I cleared my throat. “I mean, sure, let’s go out on a date or whatever.”

I couldn’t be any more unappealing right now, but for some reason, Logan’s face lit up, and he said, “Saturday?”

I nodded, because I couldn’t trust myself to speak. If I did speak, it would be in a pitch higher than most humans could hear.

“Great! I’ll see you around, Delilah.” With that, he walked off, and I slumped into a watery puddle and died.

Okay, I didn’t flop over. Somehow, I managed to walk away, and when I was sure he was nowhere in sight, I called Aisha and begged her to come meet me ASAP.

Aisha squeaked out loud when I told her about it.

“Hot Logan asked you out! Girl, you’ve got game!”

I flapped a hand in her face and went, “Ssh!” We scurried over to one of the benches in the Eastern Garden. There were many people around, soaking in the California sun and checking one another out. There were plenty of hair flips and a lot of too-loud laughter and pointed glances.

“Oh, man, I can’t believe it. Do you know where you guys are going?” Aisha took a small purse out of her messenger bag and opened it. Inside was an arsenal of makeup. She carefully applied a layer of lipstick, and her eyes moved to look at me from the reflection in her mirror. “Do you know what you’re going to wear?”

“Um, no. I haven’t really thought about it.”

“Come on,” she sighed, shaking her head. “We’re going to have to work on…whatever you’ve got going on here.” She gestured at me before turning her attention back to her compact mirror.

Aisha grinned at me and rummaged around in her makeup bag. “Dammit, I need a tissue.” She pulled my bag open without asking and plucked out a packet of tissue paper. A small, clear baggie fell out, and she held it up. “What’s this? Oh my GOD, are you using…drugs?”

I stared at her, openmouthed. Panic blossomed as I mentally scrambled for an answer.

Aisha burst out laughing. “Oh, man! Dee, your expression!” She nudged me with her shoulder. “Yeah, right. Sweet, nerdy Delilah Wong, taking molly!” She laughed again.

I grabbed the baggie from her and stuffed it back in my bag, my cheeks burning. “Hmph, okay, well, this happens to be aspirin, but if I wanted to, I could totally take, er—mol—”

“You can’t even bear to say it!” she cried.

“Mollymollymolly!”

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