Page 53 of Fraternizing with the Enemy
I likedhim. Even Logan’s dorky side. A lot.
And I was seriously in so much trouble.
“Tell me again…Whyare we going bowling?”
In the driver’s seat of the car Thursday evening, Connor looked in the rearview mirror. “Because.”
I waited, but he didn’t elaborate. I almost hadn’t believed Jade when she texted me a half hour after practice ended to get ready, because half of the Top Tier was going bowling.
Bowling. Better than an arcade, notquiteas bad as mini golf, but in the same ballpark.
At least, Jade would’ve thought so. Should’ve thought so. Except she almost lookedexcitedas we drove to Allen’s Alley. “Why?” I asked her, with a slightly different meaning. Sure, Connor wanted to go bowling… but why werewe?
“Connor, Reed, Cindy, and Landon are going. Reed brings a girl, but Connor doesn’t bring his girlfriend? People would think we got in a fight.” Her voice was light.
I blinked. “And?” It wouldn’t have been the first time they faked a fight to get a Babble article.Publicity, Jade always said.It’s good to stay at the top of the gossip mill.
Now, though, she said, “We wouldn’t want that.”
In the rearview mirror, I saw Connor’s expression twist.
Jade caught it. “What?”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You were thinking it. What?” Jade turned sharply in her seat to face him. “What, you’d rather we stayed home?”
Connor sighed. “It could’ve just been a boy’s thing?—”
“Except Reed invited Cindy,” Jade cut him off. “And you can’t hang out with other girls without me.”
“It’s justone girl.” Connor took a hand off the steering wheel to massage his temple. “You’re only coming on the off chance theremightbe someone from Brentwood. Someone who cares about Babble.”
“Everyone cares about Babble,” I chimed in from the backseat.
Connor’s eyes locked on mine through the rearview mirror. He didn’t look amused.
Bickering had become a bad habit they’d picked up last year. They were the definition oftoxicity, in my opinion, and even though they both would’ve been happier separated, the pros of sticking it out outweighed the cons for now.
Peak in high school behavior if you ask me, I thought somewhat bitterly.
Of course, thinking about my label had my thoughts traveling to a certain quarterback. It’d been a full forty-eight hours since the last time I’d spoken to Logan, and my insides felt like a plant unwatered.
After we went to the escalators on Tuesday, he’d turned to me. “So this is it?”
I’d nodded. “This is it.”
Logan had stuck his hand out between us, awaiting a shake. Like we were partners in business instead of crime. “If you ever need another therapy session,” he’d said softly, wistfully. “You know where I am.”
Forty-eight hours. I wasn’t sure I’d make it to forty-nine. In fact, I’d been on the brink of putting on my shoes before Jade had texted me earlier, not to go bowling—but to go to Expresso’s.
“Why isn’t Landon bringingher?” Jade asked, though she sounded more glad than anything else.
Herwas most definitely Lacey Churchill, the girl Landon introduced us all to as his new girlfriend this morning.Girlfriend. Kyle had said on Tuesday that they’d gone out on a date, but here they were, two days later, already having made it official.
A drastically different forty-eight hours than me.
“She didn’t want to come.” Connor wrinkled his nose. “With how warmly you greeted her this morning, it’s no wonder why.”
