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Delilah smiles and lifts an eyebrow. “Smooth.” She stares out at the court and nods. “I could definitely see it. I know they’ve said I love you and all that. I feel like maybe moving in is the next step. I don’t think they’ll do it until they make sure we’re completely on board though. I could see them waiting until we graduate to do it though, so we’ll see.”
“I hope they don’t.”
Delilah’s smile drops and she looks over at me with furrowed eyebrows. “You hope they don’t move in together?”
“No. I mean I hope they don’t wait.”
Delilah gives me a knowing smile. “I hope they don’t either.”
My eyes go back to the court as Marjorie steals the ball from the other team and breaks away to score a layup. The game is so lopsided at this point, there’s no way they’re going to lose. Still, I refuse to look away until that very last whistle blows.
When I meet Marjorie down on the court, I don’t hesitate to give her a big hug. Things might be weird in our other reality, but they are fine in this one, and I refuse to let myself forget that. “Two wins away from being district champs. How does it feel?”
Marjorie takes her hair down, shakes it out, then pulls it back up into the perfect ponytail. I try to keep my mouth from watering while I watch her for an answer, but she looks so hot right now, I can barely stand it. “It feels fucking amazing.”
I swear she stares at me a beat longer than necessary, but I don’t let myself overthink it. I also don’t let myself overthink the fact that she runs her tongue over her bottom lip while dropping her eyes down toward my lips.
“I can’t wait for the next one.” The words are harder to get out than I expect them to be, but I shouldn’t be surprised since my mouth is so dry right now. Marjorie’s basketball uniform clings to her sweat-soaked body perfectly and makes it hard to do anything.
“I’m so happy you’re going to be there.”
I swear her eyes shine extra bright when she’s looking at me, but that can’t be true. There’s no way. The notes have stopped, and no matter what Bug says, I can’t help but believe it’s because she knows it’s me. She knows and she’s not sure how to handle it, so she just stopped.
An idea suddenly pops into my head for one last ditch effort to try to get a response from her. I say a quick goodbye to everyone then hurry to my car. As soon as I’m home, I go up to my room, open my computer, and print out the first chapter of the novel I’m working on. I sit it on my desk then rip a piece of paper out of my notebook and start to write.
I’m not sure exactly what to say, except that I miss you. I’ve seen you, but I miss this part of you. I miss whatever this is that only we share. I’m not sure why the notes have stopped, but I hope it’s not because I did anything to hurt you. A part of me wonders if I said too much and now you know who I am. If that’s what it is, you can just be honest with me. You can tell me you don’t feel the same way. It’s not going to ruin what we have outside of this. I promise. You keep asking me about my book, so here is chapter one. I know I’ve written more, but this is probably all I can get to stay on your locker. If you don’t think this completely sucks and you want more, just let me know.
I also just realized this sounds like a total bribe. “Write me more notes and you’ll get more of my book.” I promise that’s not what I’m going for. I’m not really sure exactly what it is I’m going for. I’m sorry. If this is a bother, I’m really sorry. I’m going to stop writing now. I hope you enjoy what I’ve written <3
I question whether to add the heart, because if she knows who I am, she might find that weird now. That’s how we’ve always done it though, so there’s no point in changing it.
I go to the store to buy magnetic clips so it can be stuck to her locker then call Bug to let him know my plan. I’m pretty sure he thinks I’m crazy at this point, but that’s okay. As I fall asleep that night, I wonder if maybe I should just come clean to Marjorie. Maybe this has gone on long enough, and it’s time to just be honest. I have a very good reason not to, but I still don’t know. I wake up the next morning still having no idea what the hell I’m going to do.
Chapter 22
Marjorie
I practically run to my locker when I see a bunch of papers sticking to the front of it. I have no idea what it is, but my heart races at the chance of it being something from my mystery girl. I know I’ve been trying to distance myself from the feelings I have for her by not writing any letters, but that hasn’t stopped me from pulling old letters out of the folder I keep them in and rereading them. Each time I reread one, I find something else to like about her. I’m just trying to separate the fact that this could be my friend from childhood that I’m having these feelings about.
I pull the group of papers off my locker and find that it’s not just a note from my mystery girl but also the first chapter to her book. My heart soars when I see that. She actually trusts me enough to let me read it. As I’m flipping through the pages, I swear I feel eyes on me, but when I look around, there isn’t anyone staring back at me.
I do see Eli walking in the opposite direction just a few feet away, so I shout his name. When he turns around, I wave to him, then put the pages into my backpack for safekeeping and run over to him. “I never see you in this part of the school in the morning. Is your locker over here?” I would think I would realize that, but I feel guilty if I somehow missed him all this time.
Eli shakes his head and adjusts the straps on his backpack. “I was just returning a book to the library.”
Duh. The library. My locker is literally right across the hall from it. “That makes sense. Anything good?”
“Huh?”
“The book you were returning. Was it good?”
“Oh, sorry. It was for research for a class, so sadly no. It was not good at all.”
“Do you like to read?” I don’t know why I’m asking so many questions, except for the fact that Eli feels like my connection to Payton. I obviously don’t get to see her during the school day, so talking to Eli is the next best thing. There’s a part of me that hopes he’ll mention our chat to Payton, and that will get her thinking about me. Maybe she’ll even text me. Maybe I should text her.
“I do. I like to read a lot, actually.”
“What’s your favorite genre?”
