Page 28 of Fraternizing with the Enemy
Was she hearing herself? “Landon is thequarterback. He’s in the Top Tier. He’s?—”
“Whatever.” Jade gave her head a shake, but still didn’t stick up for him. “Let’s just get started. I’ll record a voice memo.” She pulled out her phone before laying it in the center of the table, the recording live.
“I’ve got my first one,” Ashton said, stretching his arm behind Riley along the booth. “Most Likely To: Never Get A Boyfriend, Lacey Churchill.”
Reed scoffed. “Dude, you’restillpissed she rejected your prom-proposal last spring? Seriously?”
“There’s something called minding your own business, Manning,” Ashton snapped back.
“Yeah, and there’s something calledlooking pathetic.”
“Most Likely To: Get Dumped Before Homecoming,” Riley said after she raised her hand. “Trevor Gunther. No way he and Nina are going to last.”
Jade went next. “Most Likely To: Not Graduate, Brandon Ostroski.”
Riley had another one. “Most Likely To: Cheat, Nate Tulane.”
My jaw dropped a little, but Ashton looked down at her with glittering eyes. “Good one, Riles.”
She blushed.
Behind me, Kyle said, “Most Likely To: End Up Alone, Eddie Smith.”
The names were coming so quickly, spinning around me and making me dizzy. My entire high school life had led me to this moment. Handpicking names and assigning labels should’ve felt like the world’s sweetest victory. We were supposed to all be together—including Landon. IncludingLogan. We’d have been on the football bleachers or something, Logan’s arms over my shoulders, Jade leaning back against Connor’s legs, and everyone would’ve passed around names like jokes.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this, with names being rattled off rapid-fire, more like a death sentence than something funny.
Ashton had another one. “Most Likely To: Stay a Prude, Gemma Settler.”
Riley scrunched her nose. “Prude? Who even uses that word anymore?”
Connor gave a sigh of annoyance. “Isn’t it a little below the belt to put Landon’s little sister on it?”
“If the shoe fits.”
A sudden thought occurred to me—what would Logan think about the Most Likely To list? The question lodged itself in my brain like a splinter.
Would he look at me differently, knowing I was someone who sat at this table?
Don’t stay stuck in high school. Was this the kind of thing he meant?
Inexplicably, my gaze drifted over toward the counter at the exact second Noah looked over at our table. The disgust on his expression was clear.
“Landon needs one, right?” Kyle asked. “Let’s put him down as Never Get A Girlfriend.”
Ashton grinned and reached across the table for a bro high five. “Yeah, that’s agood one for him.”
Kyle leaned in to give it, jostling me with the movement. Now everythingdefinitelyfelt wrong. To actually throw one of our own under the bus definitely didn’t feel okay. I wasn’t sureanyoneon the Top Tier had ever been on the list before.
I waited for Connor or Reed to object since they were Landon’s closest friends, but the former still hadn’t looked up from the window, and though the latter just laid his head down on his folded arms.
Jade didn’t say anything either. She was allowing it, too.
“Reed, who are you picking?” Riley asked him, propping her chin on her hand.
“Joshua Geller,” he replied without lifting his head, voice muffled. “Most Likely To: Be Forgotten After High School.”
“Who even is Joshua Geller?” Kyle asked, shifting his leg. I strained away from him. “I don’t remember him in the first place.”
