Page 95 of Fraternizing with the Enemy
“How did they become a couple?”
“We’ve all been friends for years, but it was last year that he asked her to prom. A sort of ‘let’s go together so we don’t go alone’ sort of thing. They left the After Promofficially together.” Logan’s eyes shifted from blinking up at the sky to me. “They’re cute together. It was weird at first, but they’re cute.”
“I can’t wait to see them together,” I told him honestly. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen a couple that was truegoals. Connor and Jade were anything but, even back when they were actually dating for real. I still wasn’t sure if Landon and Lacey Churchill were actually dating or not. Heck, even Maisie’s boyfriend, Alex, seemed like an idiot. It’d be interesting to see what arealcouple looked like.
I wondered if they’d look like Logan and me.
Suddenly, Logan surged upward, as if he all at once couldn’t sit still. He drew in a sharp, shaking breath, and the truck bed bounced a little as he moved. “There’s something I’ve been wanting to do,” he said as he situated himself beside me against the cab. “Something I’ve held myself back from doing—barely—but I want to do it with you.”
Kissing me?
My cheeks flamed hot from the absolute audacity of my thoughts. “W-What’s that?”
“Read Babble.” He tipped his chin down. “Read aboutyouon Babble.”
It took a second for his words to sink in, and my mind did a double take. “Wait,what?”
Logan took ahold of my shoulders and eased me away from the cab, sliding in behind me. One of his legs stretched out against my side, and he tucked me close to his chest. “Pull your phone out,” he told me.
“Wait,” I repeated, urgency filling the word. “Now?” Like, together? With me present? He wanted to scroll through Babblein front of me?
Propped against the cab of the truck, Logan leaned back further, tightening his arms around my frame to pull me along with him. His chest was warm against my spine, and had panic not been setting in, I might’ve felt fluttery by the embrace. Instead, I felt trapped by it. “I’ve almost opened it up a time or two on my own, but I figured you’d probably prefer to do it with me.”
Uh,yeah. I would’ve died if I found out Logan scrolled through Babble. Not that it was a barren tabloid wasteland, but there were some things that were totally embarrassing. Bad photos, mean comments, awkward articles. And, even worse, his Babble debut. “Uh, it’s really not that?—”
“Come on,” he murmured into my ear, lowering his head until his chin brushed the side of my temple. “Let’s open Pandora’s box, shall we?”
I sucked in a breath as the whisper made its way down the side of my neck, my body traitorously unwinding at the sensation. The jerk totally hypnotized me. “I don’t see why you’re so curious,” I muttered, easing my phone out of my cheer skirt’s inside pocket.
“You’d be curious if there was a whole gossip blog for Jefferson,” he pointed out patiently, seeing right through me.
Logan was right; if Jefferson had its own Babble, no way would I have been able to hold myself back. No, Logan waited two weeks to see what the school’s gossip blog had to say about his girlfriend. He deserved a glimpse.
I justreallydidn’t want to.
“You promise not to laugh,” I told him, my thumb hovering over the web browser app on my phone. I’d gone through these same articles the other day when I’dsearched my name, so realistically, I knew there wasn’t anything too bad waiting for us. But still.
Logan gave me a little squeeze. “Promise.”
The Babble homepage was a light blue background with darker blue pawprints scattered throughout, with some gold ones as accents. The layout was relatively simple to navigate, with a clear search bar at the top where you could input names or topics.
The article that greeted us was just about tonight’s football game, and what the student section’s theme was to dress up as. I tapped on the search bar, slowly typing in the letters of my name as if signing a death warrant.
MADISON OLIPHANT
201 RESULTS
“Woah,” Logan murmured, leaning in. “I guess youarepopular.”
“This is any time my name has been mentioned in an article. Even if it’s not all about me.”
I’d been proud of these articles once upon a time. I’d been happy to see my name in a headline, to see people leaving dozens of comments about me. It’d been exhilarating, and if I concentrated, I was almost positive I’d remember where I was when each one dropped. Especially my first one.
Now, though, as Logan watched my screen, I felt nothing but horrendous, cheek-burning embarrassment.
The articles that loaded weren’t anything too crazy. Logan’s Babble debut didn’t pop up either, since the article obviously didn’t mention me by name. The MLT list didn’t, either, since my name was mentioned in the PDF attachment, not the article itself. But others did.Cheer Captains Announced—Or Should I Say CO-CAPTAINS!andTop Tier First Day Outfits!Things had been lowkey since the start of the school year, which meant tamer Babble headlines.
“This isn’t bad at all,” Logan said in a light voice a few minutes after reading. “I was expecting worse.”
