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I scowled at him as I set my lunch bag on the table. “That’s complete crap, and you know it.”
“Iama nerd.”
“And?”
He sighed in a way that told me he’d had this debate many times. “I open myself up to ridicule.”
“No.” My jaw hardened. “I refuse to ascribe to the kind of thinking that blames the victim rather than the bully. You, Barry Glick, are one of the kindest, most gentle boys I know.”
“Sounds sexy.” He grimaced.
But it was sexy, more than he knew.
“I just mean that you’re different. In the best of ways,” I added, realizing just how much I meant it. “And there’s nothing wrong with being different.”
“Except that it results in encounters like this one.”
“He’s just jealous because he secretly knows you’re brilliantly smart and that one day you’ll be making Elon Musk billions while he’s scrubbing toilets.”
The corner of his mouth lifted, and it hit me how cute his smile was.
“Nothing wrong with making an honest living,” he said.
“See? You’re so nice, you’re hardly real.” Why couldn’t Luca be like that? My interest in him started with a bang at the baseball field, but since returning to school this week, his appeal seemed to be fizzling.
I peeked at him over my shoulder, and my heart clenched. “They’ll always have Luca’s allegiance, won’t they?”
“Probably.”
I bit my lip, resigning myself to spending the rest of my senior year single unless Luca proved me wrong. I’d thought he had so much potential. But as much as I’d hoped to find love before I went off to school, if I could give Mia a good old fashioned summer romance instead, I’d be happy.Because the last thing I wanted was another Adam.
On that thought, my gaze lifted as an idea sparked, and I narrowed my eyes. “Are you going to the spring masquerade ball?”
Chapter 11
BARRY
“Dopeopleactuallygoto that thing?” I asked, thinking of the Lakeview formal. It was like everything else at our school, unnecessarily extravagant.
She laughed. “Um, yeah. A lot of people. I’m going solo to keep my options open,” she said, but I noticed the way her gaze subtly flickered toward Luca’s table and my heart sank. No matter how awful his friends were, she was still into him. I could see the war in her eyes.
“But you should totally go if you weren’t planning on it.It could befun,” she sang.
“Eh, I don’t know,” I said, both wanting to please Ella and stay as far away from a Lakeview formal as possible. “Sounds pretty lame.”
She stared at me with wide eyes. “Lame? There’s amazing food and mocktails. Music and dancing. Plus, you get to dress upandwear masks, so there’s this whole air of mystery about it. It’s awesome!”
“But still, you know who everyone is, right? I mean, just by talking to someone you’d recognize their voice.”
Ella shrugged. “Probably. But you never know how much formalwear, a mask, and good hair can change a person.”
Sounded like torture, but I didn’t say so.
“Well, I’ll be there, so think about it. Who knows”—her eyes sparkled with her words—“maybe I’ll finally find my Prince Charming, and you can find your princess.”
“You really believe in all this fairytale love stuff, don’t you?”
She nodded. “And you should too. Just think, the ball is the perfect setting for romance—swanky atmosphere, gowns and jewelry, the perfume of flowers scenting the air. I heard the place they’re having it this year has a formal rose garden out back with seating underneath the moonlight. If that’s not a prime setting for someone to storm the castle, I don’t know what is.”
