Page 126 of With a Little Luck

Another silence.

Then …

“Holy ravioli,” she breathes. “Really?”

“Really what?” I snap.

“Jude!” She’s louder now, almost yelling. “Ari?Are you kidding me right now?”

I look at her, irritated, and I consider denying it. But … what’s the point?319

So instead I jut my finger at her. “If you say anything to her, I will put the curse of the Spider-Man Broadway show on you, I swear it.”

“Hold on,” she says, raising her hands. “Are you and Ari …?” She wiggles her eyebrows suggestively.

“No.No.There is no ‘me and Ari.’ She’s going to prom with Ezra.”

Pru’s face crumples. “Oh. Right.”

“Yeah.Thatlittle detail. I’m just the loser who realized he might be in love with his best friend a little too late.”

Pru gasps, clamping a hand over her mouth.

I recoil. I hadn’t meant to saythosewords. “That wasn’t … I didn’t mean—”

“No stinking way! Since when?”

I groan and heave myself up from the desk chair. “I don’t know,” I say, starting to pace. “I think maybe for a long time? But I was so into Maya, right?”

She nods, leaning forward. “Indisputable. Go on.”

“I think I’d convinced myself that Maya was the only girl I could ever have these feelings for, so I didn’t pay any attention to it, and then as soon as I realized that Maya wasn’t right for me …” I stop pacing, my hands spread wide. “It’s like … it was so obvious. It was Ari, all along, and I just didn’t … I couldn’t …”

“Wow,” Pru breathes. “I’d always wondered, but … with your crush on Maya, I thought maybe I was imagining things.”

“You could tell?”

“Sort of. You and Ari always seemed to have something special.” She considers a moment, before going on. “You’re different around her. More relaxed than when you’re around anyone else. And Ari’s never come out and said anything to me, maybe because you’re my brother, but I swear, sometimes the way she looks at you—”

My heart jolts. “What do you mean, the way she looks at me?”

“Like you’re … I don’t know. This is cheesy, but like you’re her knight in shining armor or something. Like the first time she sang ‘Downpour’ at open mic night? Or when you pulled out those records today? I could320practically see the hearts in her eyes. Plus, there’s … you know. All those songs she’s written.”

My pulse skips. “What about her songs?”

“Well, I don’tknowthis, but sometimes I’ve wondered. All those lyrics about unrequited love, and how the guy always seems to be into someone else.” She shrugs. “Maybe she was thinking about you.”

My head spins. I mean, I’ve thought it before. Wondered before. But to hear someone else say it’s a possibility … to hearPrusay it’s a possibility. Practical, no-nonsense Pru, who knows Ari better than anyone.

It makes me wonder. It makes mehope.

She tilts her head. “So … are you going to tell her?”

“I’ve tried,” I say, collapsing onto the bed beside her. “But I can’t do it. I’m not like you, Pru.”

She pulls one knee up onto the blankets so she can face me. “What do you mean, you’re not likeme?”

I gesture at her. Fancy dress, look-at-me lipstick, a binder full of great ideas that she doesn’t just share with people—sheforcesthem to take notice.

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