Page 53 of Celebrities Don't Date Bookworms

Tis Moi, Luca

The second 100%

He doesn’t understand technology

Bay

HEY

I laughed to myself, and bit my lip, almost cradling my phone in my hand. Not for the first time, I found myself wishing that I had met the boys in real life instead of through this group chat. It was a stupid wish, though—if we’d met in person first, there was no way I would have acted this confidently around them or that they would have liked me in any way. It was a hopeless dream to think like that, and yet, I constantly found myself thinking it anyway.

When the bell rang at the end of the period, I headed for the door, but stood there, and waited for Hudson to finish his conversation. Even though I was sure any one of his die-hard fans would have been happy to assist him, I felt a duty to hang back after class and show Hudson the way to the cafeteria again today. I had shown him yesterday, but the school was big, and could be a little confusing, and I didn’t want him getting lost or something. Plus, I was a little worried that with the way some of them were looking at him, they might try to lead him to a private spot to kiss rather than the cafeteria, and even if I wasn’t the biggest fan of the guy, I didn’t want him to be stuck in an uncomfortable position.

“Sorry, ladies,” Hudson said to the group after a full five minutes of lunch had passed. He gestured toward me, leaning impatiently inthe doorway, and waiting for him, my stomach grumbling. “My guide is waiting.”

“We can show you to the cafeteria, Hudson!” One of them said. She looked at me distastefully, and I grimaced back. What was with all this hostility? Was it just because I was chosen to be his guide? Or did they realize I wasn’t a fan and hate me for it? “She can go downstairs by herself. You don’t want to sit with a loser anyway.”

Well.

“She’s not a loser,” Hudson said immediately. He pulled the girl’s hand off of him, then picked up his bag. “And I don’t sit with bullies. Come on, Megan.”

The girl stared after us, looking completely dumbfounded. She didn’t even glare at me or anything as I followed Hudson out of the room.

“George is going to kill me for that,” Hudson murmured, rubbing a hand over his face.

“For standing up for someone?” I asked. Athank youwas stuck in my throat, but I couldn’t quite get myself to say it, and I wasn’t sure why. It was nice of him to do that when he didn’t have to. It would have been easy for him to say that he needed to stick with me because I was his guide or even take her up on his offer, but he stood up for me instead, and I had no idea why. Did he feel like he owed me? Like claiming that I wasn’t a loser was his way of making up for the fact that he gave me first-degree burns on my chest?

“For calling a fan a bully,” Hudson said. We started down the almost empty stairwell that would take us to the cafeteria on the first floor, near my andSloane’s lockers. “I like to call it as I see it, and he is… usually less than impressed.”

“And George’s your… publicist?” The name sounded familiar to me, but I couldn’t place it. I didn’t know enough about Take Five to be able to keep up in a conversation without context.

“Manager,” he said. “But I’m sure the PR Team won’t be happy with me either. Hopefully the girl doesn’t tweet about it or anything.”

“I doubt she will,” I said. It was a total guess since I didn’t know her, but it seemed unlikely that she would want to bring that negative attention on herself. “More likely that she’ll try to get back in your good graces.”

Hudson smiled grimly, lips pressed tightly together. “She’ll have a hard time doing that.”

All because of what she said to me? Why did he care so much? She definitely wasn’t the only one around who thought I was a loser.

I didn’t have much time to think that question through because a second later, I stepped through the cafeteria door, and I was grabbed by the wrist. I didn’t even have time to register that I was moving before Sloane started badgering in my ear about how Jude invited us to sit with them, and she’d been saving my spot from all the girls trying to take it, so they would have the chance to sit with Take Five, andhonestly, what was taking me so long?She pulled me all the way to the end of the cafeteria, far away from where we usually sat, and pushed me down into a seat near the end of the table. When I finally zoned intowhat was happening, I realized that I had a set of four boys staring at me very curiously.

“Um… hi,” I said. “I’m Megan.”

“This is Zach, Jude, Finn and Neil,” Sloane said, pointing at each of them in turn. For a bunch of celebrities, they all seemed pretty shy as they all just awkwardly waved or nodded at me.

“She’s the girl I spilled coffee on at Starbucks,” Hudson added. Oh great. What a lovely way to be known.

“Hope he didn’t hurt you too badly,” Neil said. I tried not to show the shock on my face as I heard his Irish accent. Even though I knew one of them was from Ireland originally, I’d never actually heard him speak. Neil smiled at me, looking incredibly young as he did so. I was pretty sure he was younger than the other boys, though I’d already forgotten all of their ages. “He can be a bit of an idiot when he’s around pretty girls.”

I made a small noise in the back of my throat, and even I wasn’t sure what it was supposed to mean. Mostly, I was just in shock about anyone calling me pretty, let alone a member of a boy band.

“Shut up, Neil,” Hudson muttered.

“He couldn’t stop talking about you,” Jude jumped in. Unlike the other boys, his accent was the same as most people here. “When he came back from Starbucks, he was mortified that he had spilled coffee all over theprettiest girlhe’d ever met.”

“It was a little annoying how much he was talking about you, actually,” Finn added. All their timidnessseemed to have disappeared now that they were making fun of their friend. “And after he saw you again in the mall? I thought he’d never shut up.”

“You’dbetter shut up,” Hudson said. He grabbed a plastic knife off of Jude’s tray and pointed it in their direction. “Any of you say another word, and you’re not surviving the night.”

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