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“I guess it’s better than interpretive dance.” She snickered and reached for the cupcake, which I eased out of her reach. No one touched the yumminess that was a red velvet cake with vanilla icing.
That thought of Jonah dancing in front of me was horrifying. “I mean it. What does he want me to do? Because he’s freaking me out.”
“Meh,” she began with a shrug. “He’s not the same since Felix did his one-eighty and fell for Soren and became Mr. Nice Guy,” Courtney observed, then bit the head off a tiny jelly baby, “and you’re only freaked out because you used to like Jonah way back.”
“I did not.”
She fluttered her lashes, “Oh, Courtney, have you seen the new boy? He’s so preeeeetyyyy.” She did a very good approximation of exactly what I’d said to her when I first saw Jonah. Damn her and her freaky memory. “You were smitten,” she added.
“I was not.”
“Were too.”
I threw a bag of Haribo at her, which she caught and pocketed with a wink. Great.Now, I’ve lost two packets.I pushed the third one into my backpack for safekeeping away from sneaky friends and edged the cupcake a few more inches out of her reach.
Just in case.
“You’re going to be late.”
I stiffened when Jonah said that from behind me, catching me unaware. I’d hovered by my locker for a while now, lost in thought, and mostly deciding whether to go the long way to hockey or chance the shortcut that might put me in the way of Miles. The same Miles whostillrefused to believe that it wasn’t me who’d shared the damn video or turned him in to the principal.
“No, I won’t be,” I lied.
Jonah checked his watch. “You will. Coach Sennett is very firm on—”
“I’m the one on the freaking team; I know all about Coach Sennett.” The implication being that Jonah didn’t know him as well as me. Which he didn’t.
“Sorry, yeah, of course.” He shuffled his feet. “Are you looking for something? Can I help at all?” He peered into my locker. He wouldn’t see much. I had nothing but school stuff in there, and one photo of me and my mom taken last Christmas.
“Why?” I shut the locker door with extra force, swinging my gear bag where it narrowly missed Jonah, and then staring up at him. I saw him wince, and I knew it was probably because I was rocking a full-on bitch face over why he kept popping up in my space.
And why did butterflies dance in my chest whenever I was near him?
“Why what?”
“You’re always following me.”
He winced. “I don’t mean to, I’m just—”
“And then you’re giving me food, and I just don’t get it. What is up with that love thing?”
“Uhmm…” He was confused and took a step away from me.
“What do you have for me now?”
He was shifty, wouldn’t quite meet my gaze. “Nothing.”
I could tell he was lying, and that was frustrating. “Jonah?”
He bit his lip, then slipped off his backpack and reached inside, rummaging, the tip of his tongue poking out in concentration. Then, he smiled when he found what he was looking for and handed me my favorite cheesy Doritos. I took the bag from him, then waved it in front of me.
“How do you know these are my favorite?”
He dipped his gaze for a moment, then threw me a cautious smile. “You have them sometimes. Actually, a lot of times.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, and I wasn’t even thinking about who I might meet in the corridor, just heading the way I’d normally go, Jonah catching up to me. I had stuff I wanted to say, things in my head that weren’t making sense, like wanting to see Jonah smile, then wanting him to leave me alone. I was so sunk into my thoughts I never saw the group of boys after the turn on the corridor.
And that was when I walked right into Miles.
