Page 27

“You’re being summoned.”

“She can wait,” he grumbles, his bad mood resurfacing.

“Why the long face? Don’t you get along with your new stepsister?” I tease, trying to lighten his mood while also steering away from the topic of me becoming a writer. “I remember you getting along with her just fine in seventh grade when you two were going steady.” I make bunny ears around the words ‘going steady’ as if we were in some 1950s black-and-white TV show.

“The worst mistake I’ve ever made in my life,” he grumbles, glaring at Peyton, who hasn’t moved an inch from the porch. “That year was a total shitshow in more ways than one.”

“Okay. I’ll bite. Why did you date her then?”

“You really want to know?” he asks, turning his attention away from a fuming Peyton and back to me. “There were two reasons. The first is that my dad had just started dating her mom, and I didn’t take it well. Maybe a part of me thought if I went out with Peyton, Dad would stop going out with Jennine altogether.” He lets out a humorless laugh. “As you can tell, that plan didn’t work.”

“No shit. You got a girlfriend and a sister all in one.”

Milo’s face twists with disgust. “That’s gross, Max. Just remembering that I actually kissed her a couple of times makes me sick to my stomach.”

By the repulsed look on his face, I can tell he means it. It really does sicken him that he now has to call sister to the girl he swapped saliva with.

Seeing it clearly as a sore subject, I decide to go easy on him and not add to his discomfort. He made a mistake—one he’s now paying for dearly, having to live with that spoiled brat in the same house.

“MILO!” Peyton yells as if sensing we’re talking about her.

“I should go,” he says, though he doesn’t make any move to get up from the curb. “Thanks for getting me out of my head, Max. You’re a true friend.”

“Anytime.” I bump my shoulder against his. When he gets on his feet, it suddenly dawns on me that he only gave me one reason for dating Peyton back in middle school. “Wait,” I call out, jumping up from the curb. “You said there were two reasons why you went out with Peyton. The first one was sabotaging your dad’s love life.” I raise one finger, followed by a second. “But what was the other one?”

Milo turns around and closes the distance between us, forcing me to crane my neck back to hold his stare. Being this close to him makes me realize how much taller he grew over the past year. At fifteen, he’s already six feet.

“Do you really want to know?” he asks, a certain gravity settling in his tone. I nod, my throat suddenly feeling too dry with the way he’s looking at me. “Because the girl I liked wanted nothing to do with me.” He gives me a sad smile. “I’m just a friend in her eyes.” He lets out a sigh. “Her perfect big brown eyes.” I swallow hard as he leans in and presses a sweet kiss to my cheek. “Maybe one day she’ll see me differently.” He steps back, still smiling. “A guy can hope, right?” I’m too tongue-tied for words as he throws me one last tender look—one that has my knees threatening to buckle. “Night, Max.”

Stunned, I watch Milo walk back into his house, bypassing Peyton without so much as a glance her way. I’m so overwhelmed by what he just said that I don’t even notice Peyton marching over to me until she’s right in my face.

“That looked chummy. What did you two have so much to talk about anyway?”

Thank God for Peyton Crawford. Her bitchiness is enough to clear the fog Milo created in my head.

“Like I’d ever tell you,” I say before turning around to head home.

However, I don’t get far since Peyton grabs my wrist and spins me back around. “Stay away from Milo.”

The fuck?

“Excuse me? Are you serious right now?” I laugh in her face, slapping her hand away.

“Dead serious. Stay away from Milo if you know what’s good for you,” she threatens, with a sickening pearly grin.

“I know you think you run the school with that little cult you call the Reds, but you don’t scare me. I’ll be friends with whoever I want. You have no say in the matter.”

“We’ll see about that.” She throws me an evil smirk before turning back toward her house. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Toodles!” She waves with all five fingers.

I can barely contain my annoyance since the girl is, for lack of a better word, insufferable. Sure, even as a freshman at Fairhope High, she has most of the school wrapped around her little finger, but like hell I’m taking orders from anyone, let alone a girl on a power trip.

Still, her warning lingers in the back of my mind. If she wanted to, she could definitely make my life difficult. Though we belong to different crowds, that doesn’t mean she lacks influence. I guess I’ll just have to keep an eye on her from here on out.

Despite my thoughts about Peyton, it’s not her threat that keeps me up most of the night. It’s Milo’s last words that really do a number on my head.

Was he just joking around? Or did he actually mean every word he said?

No. Impossible. Boys like Milo didn’t look at girls like me that way. He had to be kidding. He just had to be.