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“Sorry.” I patted him on the back. “It could have been worse, right? I mean, she already had a date, so . . . you were just . . . too late.”
“Yeah, right,” David said, looking at the ground as the line inched forward. He leaned down and plucked a small leaf from the laces of his Skechers, then shredded it into tiny pieces. “She doesn’t like me. She’s never go
“I know! Why don’t you two go to the ball together?” A
David and I looked at each other. “Uh . . .”
“Come on, please? Someone has to be my Logan Pincus buffer,” A
“I don’t know. I wasn’t even pla
“Come on, Ally! Please?” A
I sighed as David looked at me. “We could look at it as community service.”
“Datebuffers-dot-org?” I joked, tilting my head.
David laughed and let the tiny pieces of his leaf flutter away on the breeze. “Let’s do it.”
I hesitated for just a second but didn’t even give myself a chance to think about why. It wasn’t as if anyone else was an option anyway. Especially not now.
“Sure. Why not?” I said. “It’ll be fun.”
ally
Jake Graydon was staring at me. He was cocked back in a chair in his blue suit and dark orange tie, some sophomore girl in a low-cut dress nibbling on his neck, and he was staring at me. Why? Why was he looking at me like I was the gravy and he was the biscuit? Had we not locked eyes just the other night in the OVC parking lot when he was making his getaway? Did he not know that I knew he was an asshole of the first order?
“Would you ever marry outside your religion?” David asked me.
I tore my eyes away from Jake and looked at David. His arms were around my waist, and mine were around his neck as we slow danced under the disco ball at the center of the gym floor. In all the Jakesession (my new term for my quite unhealthy and completely inexplicable Jake obsession), I’d forgotten what we were doing here.
“Are you making an offer or just asking one of your non sequitur questions?” I joked.
David frowned in thought, turning me in a slow circle. He looked adorable in his gray suit and blue tie, all clean shaven and gleaming from aftershave.
“The latter. Wait. I always get that wrong. Is it the latter or the former . . . ? Whatever. The non sequitur one,” he said. “What are you, anyway? Religionwise.”
“Evangelical. But honestly, it’s never been a big thing with my family, so I guess I would marry outside my religion,” I said. “But it would be weird if my husband didn’t want to celebrate Christmas.”
“I’m with you. Anyone messes with my eggnog habit and I’ll bust their ass,” David joked.
I laughed. We’d turned in a full circle, and my gaze went directly to Jake again. I wished he wasn’t here. I was having a perfectly nice time with David, A
What the hell was my problem? Practically all I thought about was Jake. Half the time I fantasized about bumping into him in the hall and ripping into him for the lawn jockey prank. Telling him about how my mom had called some junk-hauling place, and they’d said it would cost two hundred bucks to pick the thing up and dispose of it because it was so heavy. Two hundred dollars! Money we did not have. Didn’t he realize that his actions had consequences? In my fantasy he would be chagrined into speechlessness and I’d walk away all triumphant while he hung his head in shame.
The other half of the time the very same fantasy ended up with him grabbing my arm as I tried to walk away, pulling me to him, and kissing me half to death.
I was in serious need of some therapy.
“So, I have a question,” David said.
We’d turned so that Jake was no longer in my line of sight. Slight reprieve. “Let me guess. Would I ever name my first born after a planet?” I joked.
“Close,” David said. “Would you go out with me?”
I stepped on my own foot and sort of slid sideways. “Wait. What?” My heart was pounding a mile a minute. He had to be kidding. He was kidding. Right?
He looked around, dropping his arms from my waist. “Um . . . do you really need me to say it again?” he asked, his smile beseeching and adorable.
I swallowed hard. He was serious. “I thought you liked Sha
David shrugged one shoulder. “That was stupid,” he said. “That was, like, the unattainable stupid crush. But you . . .” His Adam’s apple bobbed as he looked at me, his gaze steady. “You’re, like, extremely cool. Pretty much any guy in this room would kill to have a girlfriend like you.”
My heart melted into warm mush. Could he possibly be any sweeter? What girl in this room wouldn’t kill to have a cute guy say that to her? I took a deep breath and considered David. Sweet, fun, adorable David, who was growing more uncertain and vulnerable by the second. What was stopping me from saying yes?
“Hey.”
We both turned. Jake Graydon stood in front of us, jacket unbuttoned, hands slipped casually into his pockets. Hotter than any normal person had the right to be.
“Um, hi,” David said ironically. Not that Jake would get the tone, considering he had no idea what he’d just walked in on. “What’s up?”
Jake gave David a baffled look. “Uh, actually, I came over to see if I could, you know, cut in or whatever.”
I snorted a laugh. “Yeah, right.”
Jake colored slightly. “What?”
“No, you ca
“But I—”
David slipped in front of me, facing off with Jake. “She said no thanks. You can walk away now.”
My heart fluttered. David was defending my honor. But as much as I appreciated the gesture, I wasn’t about to let him speak for me.
“I’ve got this, David,” I said, stepping around him. I looked up at Jake, lifting my chin. A
His brow knitted. “What?”
“Two hundred dollars. That’s what it’s going to cost to have the lawn jockey you and your friends left on my doorstep hauled away.” I folded my arms over my green H&M dress—the one I’d bought for last year’s Holiday Dance in Baltimore. The good thing about moving to a new school? All your clothes are brand new again. And even if it cost one tenth the amount of Faith’s black strapless, I still thought I looked pretty good in it. “I assume you have the cash.”
Jake blanched. “I . . .”
“No? I’ll take a check,” I said obnoxiously. “I do know where you live in case it bounces.” I held out my hand flat, waiting.
“I didn’t know,” Jake said. He looked away. “I didn’t think it’d be that big a deal.”
I narrowed my eyes as my heart started to soften. It was so Jakesessed it wanted to take that meager nothing of an apology and run with it. But I wouldn’t let it. My brain had some pride, even if my heart didn’t.