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“Not impressed by the basketball thing, huh?” I tease.
She dithers. “It’s not that I’m not impressed. I’ve just had bad experiences with jocks.”
“Not all of them are bad,” I assure her. “I’m not. I promise.”
“You don’t seem bad, and I don’t really think all of them are bad. It’s just …” She sighs. “I guess I’ve just had a lot of bad experiences with jocks, but that might partly be because of Dixie May …” She shrugs again, then offers me a cute, little smile. “I’ll try not to stereotype you into that group.”
I smile at her, but I’m a bit unsettled with what she’s saying. She keeps bringing up her cousin, which makes me want to know … “You said you live with your cousin?”
She gives a reluctant nod. “Unfortunately.”
“Does she live with your family? Or do you live with hers?”
As her gaze drops to her lap, I have my answer. And I feel bad for even bringing it up.
“I live with hers … My parents died a handful of years ago, so …” She sucks in a breath and looks up at me. “Yeah, anyway, Dixie May and I have never gotten along, which you’ve probably caught on to.”
I nod and proceed with caution. “Has she always been mean to you?”
She nods. “But honestly, up until I had to move in with them, I barely knew her.” She gives a short pause. “To be honest, in a way, I kind of feel bad for her. Her mom—my aunt—is a real piece of work, and Dixie May is basically her doppelganger.”
“So, she’s been taught bitchery.”
She smiles at that. “Yeah, I guess you could say that.”
“Thankfully, it didn’t wear on you.” At least, she doesn’t seem that way so far. And she’s been nice to Harlow.
“You sure about that?” she questions. “I think you’re forgetting what happened between me and Zay.”
“Nah. Zay was an asshole. You were just defending yourself.”
“I could’ve just changed seats.”
“And Zay could’ve just left you alone. The seats aren’t assigned anyway.” If Zay heard me right now, he’d lose his shit. But what I’m saying is true. Zay didn’t need to be such a dick to Raven. Granted, he’s a dick to almost everyone. “You shouldn’t take it personally,” I add. “Zay’s kind of a dick to everyone.”
“So, it’s not just me?”
“Nah. If anyone had sat in his seat, he would’ve reacted the same way. Although, anyone who knows him would’ve never sat in his seat.”
“Hmm …” She rubs her lips together, and again, I find myself wanting to kiss her. “So, what you’re saying is that tomorrow I should sit in a different seat.”
I start to nod then hesitate. “Well, that all depends.”
Her brows furrow. “On what?”
“On if you can find a seat available by me.”
“You wanna sit by me?” she asks, sounding shocked.
“Sure. I mean, we can be friends, right?”Just friends, I have to remind myself. Because, if she’s going to be friends with Harlow, too, I can’t ruin that by … well, being myself. Harlow hasn’t had any good friends for a long time, and she’s the most important person in my life.
“Friends.” She says the word funnily.
“What’s so funny about that?” I wonder amusedly.
She gives a shrug. “I just haven’t had a lot of those in my life. And now, suddenly, I have two people offering to be my friend … It’s a little weird.”
The way she says it, as if it’s so surprising that someone would want to be her friend, makes my chest tightens a bit. I’ve been lucky in my life to have two best friends since I was in grade school. I’ve seen Harlow struggle to make friends though, so I’ve seen how hard it is to go through life friendless.
