Page 3 of Fraternizing with the Enemy
He blinked at her. “I heardshould be, nothas to be.”
“Interpret that however you want.” And then she glanced over at me.
I slunked my shoulders to my ears, understanding the look.You too, Mads. She’d call Landon out in front of everyone, but give me the silent pass. It was a conversationwe’d been having all summer, the pressure as ingrained in my head like a tough cheer routine.Get a boyfriend.I needed to nail this one.Beforeschool started.
The fight song over the speakers looped again, and I continued my kicking, this time with a bit more of an anxious bouncing to my leg.
When Jade passed by me, her palm slapped down hard on my bare knee. “God, would you stop already?”
All at once, I stilled. “Sorry.”
She exhaled and patted my knee—her way of apologizing for snapping. She finished her circuit of the room and came to a stop where she’d begun, meeting each of our gazes individually. “Let’s just follow the rules, okay?” Jade locked her phone and smacked it into her palm like a gavel. “I’d hate to kick any of you out.”
I didn’t think Jade was actually cutthroat enough to follow through on the threat, but her expression was stern. Believable.
Jade’s phone dinged with a text, which she quickly checked. When she looked up, her gaze settled on me first. “We’ll talk about the Most Likely Tos next Friday, so be sure you’ve got your labels ready by then.”
Connor folded his arms over the desk. “Do we really have to do it like this?”
Jade arched a brow. “Like what?”
“The rules. The ranking. The List. All of it.”
“It’s not like they’rehardrules,” I said, coming to Jade’s defense. “Unless you’re dying to date a loser from Jefferson with tacky style and bad hair.”
Connor didn’t even pass me a glance. He didn’t usually.
“They do all have bad style, don’t they?” Riley snickered. “It’s like their class uniform iscringe.”
“It’s because they’re dorks.” Ashton shook his head. “Their quarterback is intheater. I swear, Jefferson is just a laughingstock.”
Riley giggled. “Their QB is in the school theater? What is this,High School Musical?”
I pressed my lips together, because shesodidn’t deserve to know her remark was funny.
Connor ignored us all. “I just don’t think we should be letting it go to our heads, is all.”
Reed sank lower into his desk seat, muttering under his breath, “Too late.”
“Connor, you’re just saying that because Coach didn’t pick you as quarterback,” Jade replied, not much sympathy in her voice. “Otherwise, you’d be supportive.”
Connor didn’t argue; he had to know she was right. We’d all been shocked when the football coach picked Landon for quarterback instead of Connor, and according to Jade, Connor was just hiding how much it upset him. I understood it. The star playernotchosen for quarterback? What a betrayal.
It made me think about how Jade and I had been voted co-captains of the cheer squad. But that hadn’t been a betrayal—it’d been a blessing.
Jade’s phone chimed again. “Okay, boys, get out. I have to talk to my girls.”
I blinked at the sudden command, but it was like the boys were just waiting for their cue. Ashton and Kyle went out first, laughing at some joke Kyle quietly cracked. Reed, Connor, and Landon went out next, and despite my lingering stare, Landon never turned toward me once.
Jade’s eyes followed them out, and then she turnedtoward me. “I thought you said you and Landon had talked since the party.”
“We do, here and there. But he always leaves me on read.” I looked down at my phone, dejected.
It’d been June when I’d finally let Jade wheedle me into asking Brentwood’s shyest boy out. School had just let out for the summer, and Jade had convinced me it was the perfect time to start a fling. We’d all gone to get ice cream together, and I’d cornered Landon while Jade and Connor went off to sit underneath a patio umbrella. Landon’s cheeks had gone so red that his freckles blended in with his skin, and, in the politest way possible, he’d turned me down.
I thought I’d done a pretty good job of laughing it off, but if his lack of eye contact was any indicator, things were still…ugh.
“You need to date Landon,” Jade told me, once more kicking off the conversation we’d been having all summer. “It’s tradition. Captain of the squad dates the quarterback.”
