Page 53

“Eliza takes the win!” Lieutenant Rose said before she grabbed a huge green bear from the back wall.

Reed stepped forward to take it. Just as I was about to argue, he turned around and bowed his head to me, holding the bear out as a truce.

“Thank you,” I said, smiling smugly.

But he held on as I pulled it closer and whispered, “It’s a date, then, Crowley.”

“Date”?

My stomach did that little fluttering tap dance again.

Oh, hell. This is not good.

As Lauryn got the crowd to chant my name, a scowling Ben dragged Reed away. Then, the air humidified, and the lights and noise pushed in on me from all sides.

“Hey, you good?” Lauryn guided me away from the game booths toward a bench that sat underneath a tall oak. I flopped down on it, my knees feeling less wobbly when I did.

Why did I have wobbly knees?

Lauryn put a hand on my shoulder. “E?”

“Yeah, I’m just…” Most of my words left me. The ones that stayed behind didn’t make any freaking sense. I sighed. “I dunno what I am.”

She sat down and faced me, tucking one of her legs under the other. “It’s okay, you know.”

“What’s okay?”

“To like him.”

“To like him”? Like him as what? A friend? A…

“You’ve known each other for forever. It was only a matter of time, really—”

“No.” I pressed my fingers against the bridge of my nose, my cheeks now burning. “I’ve known a lot of people for forever, so…so why does it have to be him? Why Reed? Why now?”

She took my hand in both of hers. “I don’t know. But I think you owe it to yourself to figure it out.”

Do I?

She stood. “I’m going to go check on the Lyric booth, see if they need any help. Maybe you should go find those answers? Text me once you do—”

“I dunno—”

“Go, Eliza.”

Ugh. “Fine.” I stood. “Love you.”

“Love you more.”

Lauryn took the bear so I wouldn’t look like an even bigger fool wandering the carnival looking for a boy, and not just any boy, but Reed freaking Fulton. Reed Fulton, who has now totally thrown a wrench in what should’ve been an all-theater summer for me.

You did literally give him the wrench though, Eliza.

I should’ve shut it down after the catwalk, not let him climb up that railcar, not texted him after he left his number on my front porch. And yet, I didn’t. I couldn’t silence the part of me that craved to know more about the person he had grown into over the last four years.

Was that really so bad?

Finally, after I did one complete circle around the swings, I found him about half a football field’s length away. Reed Fulton. Head down, hands in pockets, and headed into the house of mirrors. Alone.