Not a bad way to be.
But around eight o’clock, Addie texts me.Happy Cow?
I’m surprised because I figured she’d be with Nick, running him through a mock cross-examination in preparation for his meeting of Mrs. McAndry.Time?
Ten minutes?
Deal.
I clear it with my parents and then hightail it to Happy Cow, cooling night air rushing in. Addie is already there, browsing the menu even though she always gets the Mooo-kie Cookie concrete.Always.
I wrap my arm around her shoulders, catch the scooper’s eye, and shove a twenty in his face, my allowance stash renewed after being free of Ryan’s blackmail burgers for a few weeks. “Two large Mooo-kie Cookies, keep the change.”
I spin her in the direction of a booth. “Nick asked you to homecoming, didn’t he?” The timing of this frozen custard run issosuspect. Because typically a homecoming football game goes right along with a homecoming dance. My life is hell right now, but even in hell there are damn posters for that dance. Worse, the court was named this week and Grey, Jake, and Nick are on it. Which I’m sure Addie knows. “Subjecting Nick to your motherandrandomly wanting to meet me for Mooo-kie Cookies the week before the dance? Secrets much?”
“It wasn’t that I hadn’t planned on telling you—it’s that he asked me the night you tried to walk off the team.” One perfectly white incisor bites her bottom lip. “I was pretty certain you didn’t need a melty pile of Addie that night.”
“I needed you that night any way I could have you.” My fingers scrabble for hers. “And you came right away. Without hesitation.” I wait for her to look up. “Tell me about it, please.”
“Are you sure you want to—”
“Yes.” And I mean it. This is my best friend.
Addie raises a brow, perfectly drawn winged liner lifting with it in a sweet swoop. “Okay, but you have to promise that if I get too melty, you have to make me stop.”
“Deal.”
The frozen custard dude sidles over and flips our twin Mooo-kie Cookies upside down, showing off their thick durability. The second he’s gone, she launches into the story.
“That’s why we weren’t in the parking lot for, um, you know,” Addie says, talking into her concrete instead of looking my way. The fight with Grey. “He had reservations for the back booth at Bruno’s. The waiter dropped a white pizza in front of my face a minute after we sat down with ‘H-o-m-e-c-o-m-i-n-g?’ spelled out in olives.”
“Omigod, no,” I squeal, eyes wide. Fairly certain everyone in the place is staring at me, but I really don’t care.
“Yes.Boy turned as pink as a strawberry waiting for me to say something.”
“And you said…?”
“I said, ‘You better meet my mother.’”
Her delivery is the perfect sort of dry, and I crack up. “Please tell me that pizza was better than our usual.”
“I—well, I didn’t get to eat it. Nick’s phone started blowing up before we could start.…”
I nod, understanding and guilt flooding my stomach. The Northland gossip tree at work.
Silence flies over and I force myself to ask a question I don’t want to know the answer to, the custard I’ve ingested refreezing into something the size and shape of a bowling ball in my stomach. “So, who are you guys going with?”
Addie chews and chews. Finally, she swallows, everything moving at half speed—the opposite of normal Addie in every way. “Well, his sister, of course.”
I’m actually surprised that I don’t cringe at a mention of Kelly. “And Jake’s her date.”
Addie nods quickly but reaches across the table and grabs my hand. Her grip demands that I meet her eyes. “But I’d rather go with you.” When I don’t say anything, she squeezes my hand. “I’m serious. I think you should ask Grey to the dance.”
My lips part and my heart is in my ears,pound pound poundingaway.
She twists our hands over. “Nick is to Grey what you are to me. Which means Nick is who Grey calls when he’s upset.” Her eyes rise to mine. “Liv, this boy is devastated. Literally all he can do is talk in circles to Nick, walking through what he did wrong. What he should’ve done instead. Analyzing the shit out of the situation like the coach he’ll probably be someday. Like the quarterback he is now.”
I’ve seen those wheels turning at practice and in class.“He came to find me after I saw you at the volleyball game. He apologized.”
