“Not much of a choice. You figure it out.” I try to keep my voice light, but he touches on a nerve.
“Well, it’s obvious you work about ten times harder than I do, and it shows. You’re an incredible student.”
The sincerity in his voice catches me off-guard, dissipating any brewing resentment. That was a real compliment. I don’t quite know what to do with it after years of sarcastic jabs and compliments disguised as jealousy.
“Thanks,” I say, fiddling with the ends of my braid. I come up with a thousand things to say back.You’re a good student too, and you make me a better student. Let’s be friends, like for real.But the moment passes without me saying anything, and Mac raps his knuckles on the desk twice.
“Well, I’ll let you get back to it,” he says and heads out before I can speak up.
Goddammit, Jessie. Could you be more awkward?
As he’s walking out the door, Jade walks in. She does a double-take, realizing who she’s seeing.
“Was that Mac?” she says, her face lighting up.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, avoiding her question. She knows who that was, and I don’t want her making a big deal out of it. Since the football game she’s been relentless about how Mac has a crush on me, and I can’t get her to shut up about it.
Her face is still made up, fancy from the design she put on. “I thought I’d stop in on my way to see Anna.”
“Anna?” I ask.
“Anna,” Jade says suggestively.
“Threesome Anna?”
“Threesome Anna,” she confirms with a wolfish grin.
“She invited you over? It’s past nine o’clock. And I thought you were texting George…”
“Okay, Grandma. Yes, she invited me over for a movie,” Jade says with a giggle. “And I was texting both of them.”
“Your middle name is Trouble.”
Jade cackles at this, and I realize she’s not wearing a movie-watching outfit. Jade and I have watched a hundred movies together. She’s strictly a pajamas kind of girl when it comes to movie-watching. It’s one of her quirks. She’s gone to movie theaters in full pajama sets. But Jade is wearing Ugg boots, black workout leggings, a crop top, and a lavender puff jacket. Comfy, but also not “movie comfy.” She carries herself with so much confidence that everything she wears looks incredible on her, even leggings and a T-shirt.
“Soooo, were you and Mac hanging out? Because I thought he was your sworn enemy and you were one thousand percent sure he didn’t have a crush on you.” She mimics me as she works to open the tiny candy jar on the desk filled with jelly beans. She pops two into her mouth but immediately regrets it, spits them out into her hand, and comes around to my side of the desk to chuck them in the small trashcan.
“I could have told you those were ancient,” I say.
“They taste like wax. And regret.” She spits into the trashcan a few more times as I cackle. “Do you have any gum?” she asks. “I cannot go make out with Anna with wax taste in my mouth.”
I dig through my purse to find the gum I know is in there.
“Okay, so Mac likes Black Phantom, he’s hot, he is obviously crushing on you. I mean, he came to visit you at work. Clearly, this man has INTENTIONS.”
I roll my eyes, but it’s hard to ignore the truth in her statement. He is…good-looking, and he did come to visit me at work. He also found me in a crowd at a football game. Would he really do that if he didn’t like me? Friends do that kind of stuff, right?
“Remind me why you hate him?” she asks when I don’t respond.
“I don’t hate him. I neverhatedhim. We are casual rivals at best. I just…see him as my archnemesis and we’re bound to forever compete until one of us wins, a.k.a. becomes valedictorian, and then we’ll graduate and I’ll never think about him again.”
Jade snorts. “Very casual.”
“The most casual.” I hand her a piece of gum.
“So what did he do to you again?”
“Don’t you remember? Freshman year? The trip to D.C.?”
