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“Yeah, I’m surprised The Rumor Mill hasn’t written about it yet. Maybe they don’t go as far as Chicago.”
Poppy smirks her agreement. “Right? Stupid site commented on my relationship with Dallas at every turn.”
“At least they don’t make you out to be a spinster in a Jane Austen novel.” Raya pretends this doesn’t bother her, but I know it does. It has to.
I think she had her heart broken one too many times, and it’s left her cranky and bitter.
It’s understandable, but sad. Deep down, she is a good, good person who is fiercely protective of her people. She deserves to be happy, but I’m not even sure she’ll let herself. Sometimes, it’s like she runs away from anything that makes her feel anything.
I’m the flip side of that coin. I seem to be made up of one hundred percent feelings.
I finish the whole New Year’s Eve saga, doing my best not to sound as pathetic as that night made me feel. When I’m done, they both stare at me with slightly pitying expressions.
“See?” I say, exasperated. “This is exactly the opposite of what I wanted and the exact reason I kept this whole thing to myself in the first place.”
“Meredith was always a bad influence on you,” Raya says, looking for someone to blame. “She’s lucky she doesn’t live here anymore, or I’d find her and give her a piece of my mind.”
I roll my eyes at her. “Raya, I’m the one who sat down next to him. I’m the one who wanted to make Jay jealous. I’m the one who took the job with the Comets.” I groan. “And I really don’t want a piece of your mind.”
“Okay, so I understand the New Year’s thing,” Poppy says. “But how did you end up kissing him last night? And more importantly . . . how was it?”
Raya purses her lips, doing nothing to hide her disapproval.
I open my soda and take another drink, trying—hard—not to replay the kiss in my head like I’d already done a thousand times while trying to fall asleep. What am I going to say, that Gray and I seem to have some sort of magnetic pull toward each other?
Ridiculous.
I don’t have any idea what’s going on in his mind, and the kiss surprised me. Wait. That’s a ginormous understatement. The kiss shocked me. Stunned me.
Made me weak-kneed.
And I really, really liked it.
“I can’t explain it,” I finally tell them. “It just sort of happened.”
“Probably all the emotion of the night,” Raya says, as if there’s a reasonable explanation for that kiss. Something that will explain it away.
“Actually,” Poppy says.
My eyes flick to hers.
“Dallas thinks he might have a thing for you.”
My heart leaps. He does???
I force myself to play it cool, shaking my head. “No, I think Raya’s right. Definitely the emotion of the night. I mean, he’s alone here. He doesn’t have anyone.”
“What about the phantom girlfriend?” Raya asks, pointedly.
Sometimes Raya’s moral compass needs to be rerouted. She’s got this high and mighty, self-righteous thing going on, and frankly, I don’t like it.
“He said there isn’t one,” I say. “So, maybe I overheard him talking to a sister or something?” And then, I feign nonchalance and ask, “But, incidentally, why would Dallas say that?”
Poppy shrugs. “Guess he was acting weird when Jimmy was flirting with you.”
“Weird, how?” Ohmygosh. I’m a middle school girl who’s just gotten wind that her crush might skip over the NO and the MAYBE and circle YES on the paper asking him to be her boyfriend.
And I remember the look on Gray’s face when Jimmy and I walked over. I remember the way he pushed Dallas aside and walked out of the restaurant. And I remember the way he looked at me in the hallway.
