Page 74 of Better Than the Movies
After I changed, instead of joining the others by the big mirror, I took the dress to the counter and paid before Helena had the chance. When I joined the group with my dress already bagged up and hanging over my arm, they all looked confused.
“You already bought it?” Jocelyn’s eyes were big as she put the strap of her cross-body bag over her shoulder and muttered sarcastically, “Yeah, that’s not a weird thing to do at all.”
I held up the dress and pretended everything was fine. I even smiled. “Since we have to go back to the last store and get yours, I thought I’d speed things up.”
She gave me a look that told me she knew what I was up to. “Good thinking, Liz.”
An awkward vibe hung over the four of us as we fake-happy conversed and walked toward the exit. Jocelyn and her mother knew what was up, Helena knew what was up and also knew that the others knew what was up, so we all just did our best to pretend I hadn’t screwed up the entire day.
After buckling into the car, I put in my earbuds and quickly queued up a song before Helena could bring up what’d happened.
Then I noticed the message on my phone.
Wes: Buy that dress. I’m begging you.
My stomach flipped. I could hear those words being spoken in his deep voice. Still, it was Wes. Surely he didn’t mean it the way it seemed.
I faltered over my response, staring down at the phone in my hand as visions of Wes Bennett danced in my head. I started writing more than one “cool” response, but then I just gave in to my pathetic needs.
Me: You like it?
The bubbles appeared like he was typing, but after a few minutes they disappeared. I waited, and they finally appeared again.
Wes: Michael will love it. Trust me.
I started to respond, like, five different times over the course of the day, but in the end, I said nothing. Because what was there to say? I’d been getting a little sucked into Wes’s performance, stumbling over his charm, but his response had reminded me of my endgame.
Me. Michael.
Prom.
Boom.
CHAPTER TEN
“But mostly I hate the way I don’t hate you. Not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all.”
—10 Things I Hate About You
Wes: Movie at Michael’s tomorrow. Are you still in?
I looked up from my phone to make sure the teacher was still lecturing and not looking at me as I broke the rules. My foot accidentally kicked Joss’s chair in front of me as I held my phone down by my lap and texted: Definitely.
Wes: I’ll pick you up at 6 so we can grab food on the way.
I glanced up for a second. I’d been going over my recent interactions with Wes in my head, and I needed to shore up our boundaries. All of our nice moments as of late were muddying the waters, and I needed to keep it together and focus on my goal.
The last thing I wanted was to mess everything up by having a silly flirtation misconstrued. It’s not a date, right?
Wes: Ewww, Liz.
Me: Just checking. Can’t have you getting attached.
Wes: As hard as this might be to believe, I’m having no trouble fighting the feels, you nice little weirdo.
That made me snort out a little laugh.
“Oh my God.”
