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Protecting my best friend’s heart was at the top of my list, no matter what else was going on around me. Ali and Malia were the most family I had, and I would do anything to keep them safe. To keep them around.
If Ali hooked up with Aria? He would forget about me and Malia. He would spend all his time with her, and in the end, he would end up with a broken heart.
It was up to me to prevent both things from happening. I had to keep Ali by my side, not hers, and make sure he didn’t get hurt in the process.
Good thing I was excellent at my job.
“Hey, Ali,” I said, interrupting his rant. He clammed up and looked at me expectantly. “Want to meet at Tremaine’s Diner Friday night?”
Ali lifted a hand and scratched at his forehead, pushing his black beanie up a few inches. “Huh?”
That came out wrong. It didn’t sound like a casual invitation, and he already caught onto that. My left hand slid over to my right wrist, wrapping around my black scrunchie a few times, bunching it in my hand, and fiddling with it.
“Tremaine’s? Food. Fuel. You know—”
“You mean before the party? Yeah, I guess so. Should I tell Malia about the change in plans? We were supposed to meet up at my house before going to the party, right?” He slipped his hands into his jeans pocket to find his phone, but I stopped him with another lie.
Idespisedlying, but sometimes it had to be done. “Nah, I got her. I’ll see her next period and tell her then. How’s seven? Enough time to eat. Just dying for a burger and we haven’t been there in a while.”
Ali’s eyes lit up at the comment about the burger. It was one of his favorites.
My gaze sliced over to Aria, finding her hands clasped even tighter together in front of her. She must have thought we were talking about her.
Ali followed my line of sight. He grinned and lifted a hand to wave at Aria before I knocked it down.
“What are you doing?” I seethed through gritted teeth while glaring at him. Didn’t he realize she and I spent over a year avoiding each other at school so no one became suspicious of our relationship? Did he want to undo all that work in half a second, with a wave?
He shrugged, still smiling in her direction. “Being polite.”
“Well, don’t.”
“Una, your dad isn’t even married to her mom anymore. Don’t you think it’s okay to just wave to her every now and then? To be polite? Or…” he trailed off, as if he wanted to add more to that sentence, but didn’t.
Which put me into full-on spiral mode. Was he waving to be polite or was there more there? I watched them be ‘polite’ with each other during Homecoming recently, but I honestly thought that was just being nice. Ali was one of the nicest guys at Fair-Tell High, and he loved to dance. Put those things together and he would end up dancing with anyone. He never left the dance floor.
Then what was the deal here? Was he into her already? Did I need to hurry my plan along and squash this infatuation before it got too far?
I stayed quiet and watched as my best friend’s eyes lit up as he looked at Aria. Without being too obvious, I chanced a glance at her, finding the same look on her face.
“Ali…” I said tentatively as I guided him down the hall and away from the wicked stepsister. “What was that?”
He stared at me like I was speaking gibberish. “What are you going on about now? Are you okay? You’re being weird today.”
“You. Aria. You danced with her at Homecoming too.”
“Ah, geez, you noticed that? Why didn’t you say anything then?” Ali ducked his head and stubbed the toe of his shoe into the ground.
How could one of my best friends be crushing on the girl I was forced to live with for over a year and I didn’t know?
I was Una Nielsen. Unspoken leader of the Teller kids at Fair-Tell High. Everyone knew me, and I knew everything about them. I had ears everywhere. Nothing got past me.
Except for Ali and his crush on Aria.
“She’s a Fairview princess, Ali,” I mumbled, trying to get my mind back on track.
He shrugged, like it wasn’t a big deal. “I mean, we talked a little at Jay’s forest party and—”
“Before or after you lost Jessa?” I snapped, reminding him exactly what went down at the party. That was all I needed to mention before he clammed up real fast, not wanting to talk about the rest of it.
