Page 44 of Fraternizing with the Enemy
“In the hallway, at your school. When I got your eyelash. You looked up at me, and it was like something… changed. Like in that split second, I forgot where I was, and I forgot who you were. I forgot what I was doing.” Logan shifted on his feet, looking as if he didn’t want to admit it. “At mini golf, it just felt like we clicked. I had fun pushing your buttons, looked forward to making you laugh. And then it was too late. I’d already seen the side of you I hadn’t been expecting, and I… liked it. More than I should’ve.”
I had been prepared for Logan to tell me that it’d all been a game to him—not that his moment of a spark had been the exact moment mine had been. The moment that had flipped my world upside down had been the same as his. “And yet you muted our phone calls every night and pretended to fall asleep?”
“I knew it was a bad idea to get close. I knew it’d only hurt in the end.” There was an ache to his words as they almost seemed pulled out of him—pulled from him and drawn straight into me. “I never hung up first, though. I always listened, in case you said something.”
I swallowed hard and focused on my steering wheel.
“You have something about you, you know,” Logan went on, lips curling in an unconscious smile. “Something… real. And you have so many crappy people in your life, and I just… selfishly wanted to be a good one for you.”
I looked at him in surprise. “You mean my friends are crappy people? You don’t know them.”
“Good people wouldn’t have put you on that list.”
The argument died on my lips. He was right, of course. The decision Jade made to nominate me for the Most Likely Tos had led me here, in my first act of rebellion. If only to prove to myself that they were wrong. They were all wrong.
And it all circled back to the reason I’d come to the Jefferson school parking lot to begin with.
“Make it up to me, then,” I said, facing him full-on. In that moment, with the sun behind him and his blue eyes gleaming, I knew this was it—my second to change my mind. Because once the words left my mouth, there was no going back. There was no uncrossing that line. This was my moment where I decided if I was going to listen to the voices in my head, or listen to my own. “Date me.”
Logan blinked once, twice, lips parting. “I’m sorry—what?”
The almost crazed urge to laugh bubbled up in my throat. “Date me.” My voice was firm, as if I was more confident in my decision than I felt. “One date.”
Even though they’d never know it, I was going to prove my friends wrong. Prove my label wrong. I wouldn’t peak in high school—popularity rules weren’t the only things I cared about. Hence me knowingly going on a date with the Jefferson quarterback. One date wouldn’t ruin me, but it would prove them wrong.
Our mini golf date technically didn’t count, since I didn’t know he was the enemy. This time, I was knowingly committing treason.
“What happened to the social suicide?” Concernscrawled across his face. “I thought they’d sacrifice you on the football field for fraternizing with the enemy.”
Now I did laugh. “Okay, drama king?—”
“But would they?”
Maybe they wouldn’t sacrifice me with a knife to the heart, but there would be no redemption if I made a faux pas this grand. It wasn’t just bashing the football team—blasphemous—or refusing to dress up on spirit days—soulless. This was crossing Brentwood’s most sacred line. It was a death wish. A deathsentenceif anyone found out.
But I couldn’t let Riley be right. For the first time ever, I couldn’t let Jade be right.
I could let the Most Likely To list be right.
“We’ll keep it secret.” An unexpected thrill raced through me, heat chasing away the chill that’d sunk into my bones since the MLTs dropped at lunch. Heck, since seeing Logan in the alleyway on Friday. “So I can see if I actually like you, or if you were right, and I only liked the idea of you. But I’m not going to let you or my friends or anyone decide whether or not I like you.” My voice was steady. “I’m going to decide.”
Logan looked over his shoulder at his car, spotting the boy peering through the glass. The kid ducked as low as he could, but the top of his head still poked over the seat backs. When Logan looked back, he looked me in the eye. I felt wrapped in their blue color, reeled in. “What if Jade finds out?”
“She’ll…” I trailed off as the thought truly sank in. My skin actually crawled. “She’ll understand.”Not a chance in hell.
The longer the silence stretched, the more I realized he wasn’t going to agree. Something within me fell, and ittook me a second to see it was disappointment. Maybe Logan had lied earlier to soften the blow, and hedidn’tactually like me. Maybe none of it had meant anything to him after all.
I turned my face away, forcing my gaze out my windshield to the football field. “Actually, just never mind,” I said awkwardly, nearly poking myself in the eye as I rushed to slide my sunglasses back on. “Forget I said anything.”
It wasn’t fair of me to ask Logan something like that—it wasn’t just my reputation on the line. It wouldn’t be a good look for him either if he was caught with a Brentwood cheerleader. He was probably thinking that now, weighing the pros and cons. I didn’t blame him.
I stole a look at Logan one last time, because this would be it. There’d be no more stolen moments, no more secret exchanges. The next time our paths crossed would be at Brentwood’s homecoming game, when we’d truly be nothing but rivals. Rivals with a history so brief that it meant nothing.
Logan’s gaze was focused on where my keychains swayed from the ignition, shoulders drawing in a breath.
Before I could even reach for the button to roll my window up, Logan’s hand slammed down on my window rim. He drew in a sharp breath, and there was a glint in his blue eyes now. He’d been holding himself still, stiff, but the decision snapped his steely determination in half.
Now, there was nothing left but an almost reluctant resolve. He slowly let out the breath he’d been holding. “What are you doing tomorrow?”
