AllFreeNovel
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There it is.
The root of all that is wrong with this toxic, “you’re mean to people you like” mentality.
Kids have to learn it somewhere.
“I thought you knew.” He seems genuinely shocked.
“You’re right, I’m sorry. I should’ve known to take you tossing my dolls into the barbecue as a sign of affection.”
“I accept your apology.” He can barely get through that short sentence without smiling. It’s more than obvious he’s just trying to get a rise out of me.
And it’s working.
“Screw you, I loved those dolls!” I swat him in the shoulder, and he laughs. We both do. A bit louder than acceptable when trapped in the school’s chemistry lab at three in the morning. We spend the next ten minutes discussing the crazy, borderline cruel pranks Finn and Xavier put me through that summer.
“That was a good summer, admit it,” he reminisces.
“Speak for yourself, evil one.”
His grin doesn’t waver one bit.
Silence ensues. But it’s the good kind. The kind where your stomach hurts from laughing too hard and you need a beat to catch your breath.
“They were all your ideas, weren’t they? The pranks?”
“Yep,” he says shamelessly.
“So, Finn didn’t even come up with one?”
“No, but he was more than happy to join.”
“God, I hate you,” I say in between chuckles.
He pauses, eyeing me suspiciously.
“Can I ask you a question?”
I nod.
“Why do girls say shit they don’t mean?”
“What makes you so sure we don’t mean it?” I counter.
“Brie used to say she hated me all the time when she clearly didn’t. It’s a thing you girls do. Say I hate you to guys you don’t.”
Damn it, ladies. Who the hell let him in on our secret?
We had a deal.
“So, what?” I scoff. “I hate you means I love you now, is that it?”
“Pretty much, yeah.”
“So, according to your theory, I just told you I loved you?”
“Sure did.” He nods. “You see, whenever you tell me I hate you from now on, it’ll mean the opposite. I don’t make the rules,” he declares, smirking like the cocky bastard that he is, and I flush, propping the side of my forehead against the ice-cold classroom wall.
“You’re ridiculous, you know that?” I whisper, my closing eyes clouded by heavy lids.
