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I study him for a moment, and he glances back at me.
“What?” He’s still grinning.
“Are you making fun of me?”
“Huh?” He looks back at the road. “No! I’m serious.” Another glance at me. Which looks sincere. “I want to hear more marshmallow facts.”
“Really?”
“Impress me, NG. What’s your most interesting marshmallow fact?”
“Well, the astronaut thing was really the most interesting one.”
He laughs. Again. That same full-body laugh.
“Okay, hit me with the second-most interesting fact, then.”
I scrutinize him again, checking for signs that I’m just a big joke to him and playing right into his hands with my bizarre, useless fact regurgitation. But I’m still just getting a positive vibe.
“Oh. Okay. Um… Well, apparently some people have a phobia of marshmallows,” I tell him.
“You’re kidding me right now.”
“No. It’s an actual thing. It’s called Althaiophobia.”
“That’s the weirdest freakin’ phobia I’ve ever heard of. Why the hell would anyone be freaked out by marshmallows?”
Huh. I never really thought about that.
“I don’t know.” I shrug. “Maybe the texture?”
“Still weird,” he says. “Any more marshmallow facts I should know about?”
“Uh, I don’t think so. Well, I mean, the marshmallow is actually a plant. But you probably already knew that.”
He turns his head and gives me this look like,no, he definitely did not already know that.
“So, like, marshmallows grow on trees or something?”
This time, I’m the who laughs out loud. And not just for a second, but for a good minute at least.
“Not full-blown marshmallows sprouting from branches. The marshmallow plant is a perennial flower.”
He rolls his eyes. “How the hell was I supposed to know that?”
“Well… I guess you weren’t.”
Then we both laugh. And I realize we’re not moving anymore; we’re parked in the lot by the stationery store, just across from the boardwalk.
And I survived my first car ride alone with a guy.
Sebastian gets out and comes over to my side of the Jeep. He opens my door, only he does it so casually, it doesn’t seem like some flaunted chivalrous move. More like he just wants to be sure I’m following him. Still, the fact that he opened my door feels significant in some way. It feels how I imagine a date would.
And I need to stop thinking like this. This is Sebastian Murdoch. Jock Boy. Football God, who’s flunking three of his classes. This is in no way a date situation. I’m sure Sebastian would laugh for a solid five minutes if he even knew the thoughts going through my head right now. I am so far from the kind of girl he would ever bring on a date. Just like he’s so far from the kind of guy I would ever choose to go on a date with.
Also, there’s the fact that I don’t think Sebastian actually even “dates” girls. I think he just fools around with them. More than one girl in one week, as far as I can tell.
“You good?” Sebastian asks, like maybe he senses how nervous I am.
