Page 38 of Fraternizing with the Enemy
I leaned closer to Landon as Jade typed on her phone. “You didn’t end up voting, right?” I whispered to him. “Like, you didn’t text Jade and vote after the fact?”
He glanced over at me, eyebrows pulling together at my hushed tone. “No. Why?”
A wave of relief washed over me, one that had me nearly slumping in my chair. Even though they’d brought it up Friday, they definitely wouldn’t put Landon on the list. At the very least, they wouldn’t put Landonandme on the list. It’d be mutiny of the highest order, putting the quarterbackandthe co-captain of the cheer squad on the list. Jade wouldn’t have gone that far.
I felt so much lighter that I almost laughed. “No reason.”
“Sending in three,” Jade began, poising her thumb over the button. “Two…one.” And she brought her thumb down.
Almost all of us turned toward where Babble Girl sat at her lunch table. She was easy enough to spot by her bright pink hair and the fact that her table was one of the few that wasn’t actually filled. Almost on cue,she gasped, leaning forward to her friends. One of the girls at her lunch table was none other than Maisie, who looked at Ava as she spoke, but clearly wasn’t interested.
“Okay,” Jade hissed impatiently. “Stop gossiping and post the list.”
Connor was one of the few at the table who hadn’t turned to see, rubbing his fingers into one eye. “If you wanted to do it faster, maybe you should’ve done it your?—”
All at once, the cafeteria lit up with chimes and dings and bells. In my pocket, my own phone buzzed.Brentwood Babble Has Posted.
My stomach flipped with excitement, so suddenly that I actually felt a little sick.
Jade brought her phone up and tapped it against her grinning lips, watching as everyone scrambled at the tone. A Babble notification that everyone got in the middle of the day had to be major news, and there was only one big thing that happened this time every year.
The Most Likely Tos.
The feeling I got now wasworldsdifferent than how I’d felt on Friday. Planning the list had left me unsettled, but this moment?Thiswas the energy I’d been waiting for, and I found myself grinning, too. Ashton raised his chin as if scanning for someone in the cafeteria, and Riley smugly looked over at a different table across the room.
The quiet hum rose to a buzz. People were giggling, chittering, and gasping around the cafeteria that it was almost like a cheer chant itself. This was what being in the Top Tier was about. This was popularity—and this was exactly what I’d needed to pull me from my funk.
Almost like a magnet, my eyes met Maisie’s. She’dbeen glaring at our table, but openly shifted the animosity to me when our gazes locked. I was having a year’s worth of interactions with her within the past week, but this one hit me like a punch.It wasn’t me, I wanted to tell her, not even knowing why. Her opinion didn’t matter, but for some reason, in that moment, it was all I could think about.I didn’t put you on it. I swear.
Someone shifted between us, obscuring her from view. My smile had slid off my face without me noticing, and new words filled my head, ones that replaced my own thoughts.
Girls like you peak in high school.
I scrunched my nose, willing the vampire’s voice away. “Who did you vote for the list?” I asked Jade, twirling my fork slowly in my pasta. “I never even asked.”
It wasn’t Jade that jumped to answer, but Riley. “Most Likely To: Peak in High School,” she said, grin spreading across her lips. “You.”
The cafeteria went silent. Or, at least, it went silent in my head. A loudwhooshingsound replaced the hum of voices and murmurs, as if could hear the blood roaring in my veins. Landon, at my side, froze.
I stared at Jade, but she wouldn’t even look at me. She was too busy taking in the excitement of the cafeteria with dark glee, as if wholly unaware Riley had spoken. “Who?” I asked, heart drumming in panic.
“You,” Riley repeated. “Madison Oliphant.”
Jade seemed to feel my attention on her now, because she looked over as if it was going to be a quick glance, but did a double take. She laughed aloud—the last thing I expected her to do. “Oh, don’t give me that look.”
I had no idea what kind oflookI had on my face, but it definitely felt like all the blood had leachedfrom my cheeks. The label danced around my head with mocking choreography, and I could still clearly see Logan’s expression in my mind from when he’d said it.
“We told you what it meant not to vote,” Riley said from Jade’s side, relishing in the moment.We told you. As ifshewere Jade’s second in command, not me. “You still didn’t vote. That was your choice.”
“You put her on the list?” Landon demanded at my side. “Your best friend?”
“You’re on it, too, dude,” Ashton piped up from the other end of the table. “If you don’t vote, you’re on it. We all knew that, Mr. Most Likely To: Never Get A Girlfriend.”
Landon stared down Ashton, not looking around at any of his friends. “Creative,” he huffed. “But Reed already gave me a heads up on Friday. Youblindsidedher?” The last bit was directed at Jade. “Seriously?”
“You’re both so ridiculous.” Jade tipped her chin up in exasperation. “It’s just a label meant to make people laugh. Stop acting like it’s the end of the world.”
Underneath the table, I clenched my hands into fists, pressing them into my skirt. This moment, just like when Logan walked into Expresso’s Friday afternoon, didn’t feel real. It was like one of those dreams where you realize you’re walking down the school hallway in just your underwear, and everyone is staring and laughing. Completely exposed.
