Page 31 of You Belong With Me

“Uh-huh,” I said. “I’ve actually never been to any sport event that wasn’t swimming before.”

His face clouded over for a second. But then he smiled. “Well, glad your first could have been my soccer game.”

Yeah, I wasn’t going to tell him that I actually went just to see Sebastian, and I only did it because Ainsley had invited me. Some things are better kept a secret.

But speak of the devil, just as I thought about him, Sebastian came around the corner at the end of the hall. Ainsley was by his side, chatting animatedly with her hands while he nodded along. She seemed to cut herself off mid-sentence as she caught sight of us and waved.

“Oh, hey guys!” she said, coming to a stop beside us. Sebastian automatically had to stop too, and I noticed that Thomas stiffened up as he did, almost shifting away from him. I wondered if he was still weirded out by the way Sebastian almost threatened him to be good to me when we met on Tuesday or if it was because of something else.

I watched Sebastian, wondering if he was going to try to make eye contact with me, to make some sort of silent signal to me about the conversation we’d had last night. But, if anything, it seemed like he was throwing his back out trying to avoid my gaze as he greeted Clementine.

Meanwhile, Ainsley leaned into me and whispered, “We had to give Tiffany a ride this morning. The most awkward drive of my life. I wish you were there.” I grimaced in sympathy but was happy that I wasn’t in thecar. I’d caught a ride with Dean, who had decided to come to school at a reasonable time today. But the mention of Tiffany reminded me of last night again. Of Sebastian saying that he went back to her time and time again because it was all that he knew. I wasn’t sure why the thought of it made my stomach turn. Maybe I could handle it if he was really in love with her. If I knew he didn’t want me, because he wanted her. But the idea of him being just out of reach, in the arms of a girl he didn’t even love, just made my heart hurt.

The thought of it steeled my resolve to go out with Thomas again, so I smiled at him as flirtatiously as I could and said, “Oh, and by the way, I am free Friday night—if you still wanted to go out.”

Thomas’s face split into a smug grin. “You don’t say.”

I wasn’t sure if I liked the way he was looking at me right now, like a wolf realizing he was about to catch his prey, but maybe that was what all boys looked like when a girl said yes to them. It wasn’t like I had a line-up of boys waiting to go out with me.

The smile dropped off his face a moment later as he glanced at Sebastian nervously. I looked over too, curious why he would be looking at him like that, but Sebastian was just staring at him impassively. The only strange thing about it was that the usual smile wasn’t on his face. But I didn’t see why he would care what I was doing with Thomas. He had Tiffany—wasn’t I allowed to go out with somebody too? He’d basically pushed me toward it last night.

Thomas gulped then looked at me again. “That’s, uh, great. I can pick you up at eight if you want.”

“Perfect,” Clementine said, jumping in for me. “That gives you enough time to get ready after the swim meet.”

Thomas looked surprised. “Oh, you have a swim meet tomorrow?”

Even though I hadn’t gone to the soccer game to cheer him on in particular, it hurt a little that he clearly had no idea that we had a swim meet coming up. Maybe it was because he’d seemed a little annoyed that the soccer game last night had been the first one I ever went to, even though he’d clearly never come to a swim meet. But it wasn’t fair for me to hold that against him.

“After third period, two p.m.,” Sebastian said. We all turned to stare at him and he just raised his eyebrows. “What? Am I not allowed to be interested in what’s going on at the school?”

I guess it shouldn’t have been surprising that he knew the time of it since his sister was on the team. But she looked just as shocked as I did about it, which made me assume that he didn’t normally know it.

“That’s right,” I said slowly. I turned back to Thomas, trying to keep my gaze on him instead of thinking about Sebastian. “And Clem’s right that eight o’clock would give me enough time to get ready. Do you know where I live?”

He opened his mouth, probably to say no, so Ainsley jumped in and said, “It’s next to us. You’ve been over to our place before for Sebastian’s parties, right?”

“Oh,” Thomas blinked and glanced at Sebastian again, looking a little nervous. “Yeah, I’ve been over there. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said.

I smiled back. “Sounds great.”

He was already backing away like he wanted to get outof here as soon as possible. I tried not to take it too personally. It was probably for the best anyway—I’d always heard of the method ofleave them wanting more.

As he walked off, Clementine sighed. “He’s so dreamy.”

I nodded along as if I agreed. But I couldn’t stop my gaze from drifting back over to Sebastian, wishing that it was him I was going out with instead.

sixteen

“I need the TV,”Dean said. He grabbed the remote from the armrest and tried to jump over me onto the couch, but tripped and face planted onto the cushions instead. I had one foot resting on the coffee table, but I used the other to kick his leg. It was hard until I shoved him off the couch and he landed on the ground with a loud thump. “What was that for?”

“What do you think?” I asked. I snatched the remote out of his hand so he couldn’t change the channel and settled back into my spot. Dean grumbled as he came to sit on the couch beside me but didn’t try to take the remote again, which was probably for the best because I would have smacked him dead with it if he had tried.

“I heard Sebastian gave you a ride home,” he said. I kept my face forward like I was still watching the TV but looked at him out of the corner of my eye.

“Uh-huh,” I said, trying to act like it was nothing out of the usual. I really had no metric to go off about how Dean would react to this. He might think nothing wasout of the ordinary, especially since Ainsley had been in the car too so it was basically like I was just carpooling with a friend, or he might be ready to kill me over it. Sometimes, it just depended on the mood he was in. We hadn’t fought about me talking to his friends recently, though, which made me hope he wouldn’t be too angry about it.

“He’s been driving you a lot lately,” Dean said. The words were said like a statement, but I was sure there was an accusation behind it. I still didn’t look at him and tried to keep my face nonchalant. It was hard, though, when the show cut to commercial a second later, giving me nothing to pretend to be interested in. Still, I had one weapon left in my arsenal to get him off my case and I was happy to use it.

---