“No!”
“Just text him back,” Sierra said, laughing. “Don’t leave him hanging.”
I looked down at the message, at Ellis’ name on my screen, and there it was again, that pull in my chest.
Jett:Movie night with the crew. Currently being interrogated about who is texting me.
Ellis:Oh no. Should I be worried?
Jett:Depends. Do you have any dark secrets I should know about?
Ellis:Nothing too exciting. I’m pretty boring, actually.
Jett:Somehow I doubt that.
I looked up to find all three of my friends watching me with varying expressions of delight and concern.
“He seems nice.” I sounded defensive, even to myself.
“That’s what you’re worried about?” Raven asked. “That he’s nice?”
“I don’t date nice guys.”
“Maybe you should start.” Sierra’s voice dropped.
I opened my mouth to deflect. Stopped. Because maybe she was right. Maybe I should try something different.
Or maybe this would crash and burn like everything else, and I’d end up right back where I started.
“Can we please just watch the movie?” I asked.
“Fine,” Calliope said. “But you’re giving us updates. Regular updates. I want to know everything.”
“There’s nothing to update.”
“Yet.” She pressed play.
I turned back to the screen, but I wasn’t really watching. I was thinking about Ellis, about the way he’d looked at me in the gym, about the careful way he’d asked for my number, about the fact that he was texting me on a Friday night instead of going out.
About the fact that I wanted to see him again.
Soon.
Chapter five
Saturday passed. Then Sunday.
No text from Ellis.
I told myself it didn’t matter. People got busy. Maybe the family dinner turned into a whole weekend thing. Maybe his phone died, and he forgot to charge it, the way one of my cousins routinely went off the grid for a week and then surfaced like nothing had happened. Maybe he just wasn’t that interested.
That last one stuck.
Monday morning, I woke up and checked my phone before my eyes even focused. Nothing.
The stone pressed deeper.
I went to the gym, not Foundation Fitness, a different one across town because I didn’t want to risk running into Ellis. The weights sat wrong in my hands. My form slipped. Everything took twice as long and landed half as satisfying.
