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“I’ll see you in half an hour,” she said.
I smiled. “Okay.”
As soon as she was out of earshot, I heard Braden chuckle.
“God, you two are like a damn soap opera,” he teased.
“Maybe you should give it a try sometime instead of fucking everything that moves,” I said, cocking an eyebrow at him.
“Nah, I think I’ll keep my man card a little longer. Speaking of, hand yours over.”
“Is it possible for younotto be an asshole? Or is that how you roll and I’m just now realizing it?”
“I’m just messing with you, dude,” he laughed. “Someone’s gotta give you a hard time.”
“I think the Three Stooges are going to have that covered already, thanks.”
“I’ll rephrase. Someone who actually gives a shit about you has to give you a hard time. What lunch period does she have?”
“Same as ours. Third.”
“I’ll find you guys today. She’s going to need friends around here if you two are serious about this. Taylor, Yates, and Harrison are going to be ten times worse now.”
“Listen, she might be willing to give you another chance,” I sighed. “But she doesn’t trust people easily. You’vegotto stop being a dick. At least until she knows you well enough to tell when you’re joking.”
“I know that. You know I blew Hannah off for being a bitch to her on Saturday, right?”
My eyebrows flew up. “You did?”
“Yep. And she was sucking Yates’s face off ten minutes later,” he muttered.
“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” I rolled my eyes. “I have no idea how those assholes still have girls lined up around the block.”
“Welcome to high school,” he sighed. “Where looks and popularity matter more than personality.”
* * *
“Hey, baby,” I said, kissing Kyler’s cheek as I sat down next to her. “What’s up?”
“Hey,” she chuckled as she opened the paper bag in front of her and pulled out a sandwich and a bag of Doritos. “Not much, other than Ihatereading Walt Whitman.”
“And that’s why I’m taking AP Lit, not Language,” I chuckled. “We’re readingKing Learright now. Hi, Melissa.”
“Hey, Ian,” Melissa chuckled. “So, you haven’t been jumped by your teammates yet. I’m assuming that’s a positive sign.”
“Liss!” Kyler gasped.
“Well, to be fair, I haven’t actually seen any of them other than Braden. And he’s trying to be a good friend and be nice,” I admitted. “I think he was going to try to track us down, actually.”
“Oh, goody,” she groaned.
“It’ll be okay, baby,” I assured her, squeezing her shoulder. “He wants to get to know you. He said he knows you’re going to need friends now. More than you did last week.”
She sighed and leaned against my shoulder, and I turned to kiss the top of her head. And then Braden walked over to us.
“Hey, man,” he said as he sat down next to Melissa, across from me and Kyler. “Hey, Ky. Melissa.”
“Only people who are actually nice to me get to call me Ky,” Kyler bit out. “That’s not you. Yet.”
