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“Yeah.” She yanked her hand from mine, and I turned to her while she crossed her arms over her chest. “One I have a feeling you’re going to renege on. I could’ve just dropped you off, you know. Let you get a ride home.”
“I don’t wanna worry about finding a ride home.”
She scoffed and glanced back in the direction of the Royals. “Why? I’m sure Luca would take you,” she said with apparent disgust, and when I glanced back at him again, his eyes locked on mine.
“Thirty minutes.” I turned back to her. “And if you’re miserable, we’ll leave.”
“I’m already miserable,” she grumbled.
“You haven’t even given it a chance.”
“I don’t need to give it a chance.” She waved toward their table. “In case you haven’t noticed, Ella, I don’t like them. They think they’re better than everyone else.”
“Luca’s not like that,” I said, though I wasn’t sure it was true. “He just comes off that way because he hangs out with JT and Mikey.”
She glanced around her, focusing in on Carson, her arch nemesis, then raised a brow. “Show me one person here who’s not either a jock or a cheerleader.”
I opened my mouth to reply at the same time my gaze caught on a figure hovering by the entryway and my insides squeezed. I’d never been more grateful to see a friendly face. “Barry!” I shouted.
Mia rolled her eyes. “I highly doubt—”
“Barry, over here!” I yelled, waving him forward as Mia turned in his direction and gaped.
Roughly grabbing my arm, she leaned in and hissed, “I find it hard to believe it’s a coincidence he’s here.”
I stared at her unblinking before I relented and shrugged. “Okay, fine. Maybe I told him we were stopping by here tonight.”
“They’ll eat him alive, Ella.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Seriously? I’ve observed enough to know guys like JT and Luca eat guys like Barry for lunch. He’s easy prey, toys to them on the playground that is high school. I mean, did you even think this through for one second? Or were you only thinking about yourself and Luca’s biceps when you invited him here?”
My jaw tightened as the memory of the Royals taunting Barry the other day at lunch flashed through my head.
Okay, maybe I hadn’t thought that part through, but the whole point was for him and Mia to hang out. Sure, I liked Luca, but he wasn’t the entire reason I came. My main motivation for showing up tonight was simply a ploy to get Mia and Barry together again in the same room so I could try to hook them up.
“You’re right.” I nodded, my expression earnest. “In fact, you better stay here and hang out with Barry until I’m done.”
“What? Ella, no—”
I crossed the foyer to where Barry stood, looking a little lost, with Mia’s protests at my back as she followed behind me.
“Hey, Bare! I’m so glad you could make it,” I said, stepping forward and taking him into a hug. When I stepped back, I ignored the way the scent of him lingered on my skin. “I actually have to go take care of something really quick.” I hooked a thumb toward the Royal table. “Do you mind? Mia’s here, though.” I reached behind me, fumbling for her arm and yanking her forward.
She stumbled toward Barry, a scowl on her face.
“I’ll be back . . .” I said, ignoring the twist of guilt in my chest.
Then I turned and headed in the other direction, ears perked as I heard Mia grumble, “I think we’ve been conned.”
I stood in a corner in the dark as Luca pressed closer, one arm braced against the wall above my head, the other somewhere down by my hip. For the last thirty minutes, all he’d talked about was baseball and school and how sorry he’d be to see the year end. I was so bored with the conversation, I wanted to plug my ears with my fingers.
As far as I could tell, he had tunnel vision and little ambition beyond the walls of Lakeview. Not to mention his seeming disinterest in getting to know me. Not once had he asked what my plans were after graduation, nor had he tried to engage me in the one-sided conversation we’d been having for the past thirty minutes, and I couldn’t tell if it was nerves or simply the way he normally conversed with girls. Regardless, he reminded me of Adam, and the little voice inside my head screamed at me to run.
He dipped his head, his glittering blue eyes coming closer to mine. “I really want to kiss you,” he whispered in a way clearly meant to make me swoon, one I had a feeling he used a dozen times with a dozen other girls before me.
“Is that so?” I mustered a fake half-laugh as my stomach roiled. I wanted to like Luca, I really did. He was obviously hot, and for the most part, he seemed well-intentioned and sweet enough. Clearly, he was into me, but . . .
