Page 93 of Better Than the Movies
Jocelyn’s mouth twitched as she stared into the hole in her lid. “I still cannot believe that happened.”
“Right?” I slammed my locker, and Jocelyn and I went to first block. I was so disappointed not to run into Wes, especially since his radio silence led me to obsess all morning and become paranoid that the kiss was nothing to him and absolutely nothing had changed between us.
I nearly squealed when my phone buzzed at lunch. I’d just sat down with my strawberry salad and lemonade when I saw it was a text from Wes.
Wes: I like your bird dress.
I looked around but didn’t see him at any of the busy cafeteria tables.
Me: They’re owls. Where are you?
Wes: In the library—saw you walk by a few minutes ago. Owls are birds, btw.
Me: Yep.
Wes: Stop yelling at me about birds, Buxbaum. I just said you look cute in your dress—that’s all.
I smiled and then immediately looked around to make sure hewasn’t lurking nearby, watching my pathetic reaction.
Me: You didn’t actually say that.
Wes: Sure I did.
Me: Um…
Wes: Gotta run. Talk later?
I set my phone on the table like it was burning my hands.Talk later?That was never good, right? What kind of ominous sentiment was that? I opened the packet of vinaigrette on my tray and drizzled it over the salad before picking the phone back up and texting:
Me: Yup.
If I’d been obsessing in the morning, I was ridiculous in the afternoon. Because I needed to knowmore,more than the fact that we’d shared a good kiss. Did he like me? Did he want to hold hands and maybe kiss more? Was he maybe going to be my boyfriend in the near future, or was the kiss just part of our fun hangouts and didn’t really mean anything to him at all?
And it occurred to me, as I walked down the hall with Joss after school, that I hadn’t had a chance to tell Wes that I was no longer interested in Michael. He knew that, right? I mean, the kiss had to have expressed that sentiment.
“Do you think Wes is going to ask you on a date-date?”
My stomach flipped over as a flash of the kiss hit me. “I hope so.”
“Who would’ve thought?” Joss pushed the exit door, and I followed her out into the sunshine as she said, “The boy who tortured you in grade school is now your romantic dreamboat. Weird.”
“What’s happening over there?” I said, distracted. There was kind of a crowd over by the main driveway. “I bet it’s a fight.”
Joss said, “Probably Matt Bond and Jake Headley.”
Matt and Jake were two ofthoseguys at our school. When word got out that they had beef with each other, the entire student body lost their shit over the possibility of something going down.
We weaved through the crowd, mostly because my car was in the lot that they were all blocking. I said, “Ididhear that they were going to throw hands.”
“You did not just say that, Owl Dress.”
“Well, that’sliterallywhat I heard. Word for word.” I moved past a couple people and said, “Excuse me.”
“Oh. My. God.”
My head whipped around to look at Jocelyn. “What?”
She was staring over my shoulder. Without looking at me, she covered her mouth with one hand and pointed with the other.
