Page 54 of Fraternizing with the Enemy
Jade didn’t even listen. “He picked a girl like her over you,” she said, turning around in her seat and smirking back at me. Even if she was annoyed with Connor, she could tease with me. “That must sting, huh?”
It hadn’t, at least not until she said it. “Honestly, it’s not that big of a deal. We all know he’s just dating her because of his label.” I forced my voice light. “They both get voted most likely to stay single, and then start dating a day later? Yeah, becausethat’snot obvious.”
Connor’s gaze flicked up at me in the mirror again, and I didn’t miss the judgment in that quick glance.
We pulled into Allen’s Alley’s parking lot, and I unbuckled my seatbelt as Connor found a space. Reedhad parked a few cars down, and he and Landon climbed out. Cindy, the girl Reed had been talking to, appeared from the passenger side.
“You’re so going down,” Reed called, no doubt speaking to Connor.
“Took the words out of my mouth,” Connor fired back, with far more amusement than I thought he’d have. I caught him checking his reflection in the reflection of his car window. “A six-year-old is a better bowler than you.”
Landon grinned at his friends. “Admit it,” he said to Reed. “You are really bad at bowling.”
Reed gave a mock gasp. “The slander!”
Connor and Jade linked hands as we walked inside, and by a glance, no one would never have guessed they’d just been at each other’s throats in the car. Cindy was a chatterbox, and Jade humored her by smiling and nodding, but I knew she wasn’treallylistening. It was the sort of mask Jade wore around anyone not in the Top Tier. Polite, feigning interest, but checked out.
She’d explained it to me once. “We want people to think we’re likable without feeling like they know us.”
“Don’t wewantpeople to feel like they know us?” I’d asked.
“You’re less interested in someone the more you know them.”
So I copied her in the lukewarm shoulder she gave everyone outside of the Top Tier. Polite, but not overly friendly.
The full parking lot translated into a full bowling alley, with nearly every lane occupied by couples or families. There was a restaurant attached to one side of the alley, and the tables werefilled. The clattering of bowling balls and cheers filled the air, and I sidled up closer to Jade, feeling completely and wholly out of my element. Not the first time that had happened recently, but I didn’t have Logan at my side to make it fun.
“You should’ve just let people think you were fighting,” I told her under my breath.
Jade’s eyes were scanning the space, almost as if searching for someone. “You know, Mads. How crazy would it be if we ran into—oh, you’rekidding.”
The sharp turn in her tone, and her twisting lips, had me turning. I followed her line of sight, wondering who could get Jade to show her frustrated side so blatantly in public, and for a brief, horrifying moment, I thought she saw Logan.
But then I saw her. Camped out at lane ten was none other than Maisie Matthews with her group of friends. Reed’s sister, Rachel, a girl with pink hair—what did Reed say Babble Girl’s name was again?—and a boy that I knew was Maisie’s boyfriend. Everyone but Maisie stared at us almost starstruck, and I could see the girl with pink hair typing something on her phone.
“That’s the girl who runs Babble,” Jade said to our group.
“Ava,” Reed supplied, sounding irritated.
“Whatever.” Jade gripped Connor’s hand tighter. “Told you. Best behavior, everyone.”
“Best behavior,” Cindy echoed, whereas none of the boys even bothered with a reply.
And out of all the lanes in the alley, the only open one was directly beside Maisie’s.
My stomach dropped as I carried my shoes over, steps heavy. Connor, though, sauntered right up, happily calling, “Hey, Bobcats. What a coincidence.”
Weirdly enough, the way he said it had me thinking thiswasn’ta coincidence. Connor glanced over at Maisie’s table, far more jovial than he had been out in the car. Jade was too absorbed in texting someone to notice.
Landon, inexplicably, sat down at their table beside Ava. She latched onto him animatedly while we all put on our shoes, and, at the table, Maisie looked on with a slight frown.
It was strange being at a bowling alley with Maisie, butnotwith her at the same time. As kids, almost every one of her birthdays, we’d end up here. I couldn’t remember if she was good at it—I’d been horrible, even with bumpers, but it’d been fun just because we’d been together.
Thinking aboutherbirthdays had me thinking aboutmybirthdays, and how she and Jade never got along at them. That was proof, wasn’t it, that those worlds couldn’t mix? Shouldn’t mix? Wasn’t that, among everything else, even more proof that I needed to dodge Logan at all costs?
Or was that thepeak in high schooltalking?
“Who are you texting?” I asked Jade, needing a distraction from my own thoughts.
