I blinked rapidly because….was he...was this? “Are you flirting with me?”
He laughed again, dipping his head down and his eyes dancing with amusement as he drew closer so a football player could get by. “I wouldn’t dream of it, Hazey May.”
I opened my mouth and closed it because...I was pretty sure he was laughing at me again. But now that he’d assured me he wasn’t making fun of me, it didn’t bother me as much as it once did.
I bit my lip. “Um, okay, well, I just wanted to say thank you for your help with—”
“Don’t thank me yet,” he said as he followed slowly in the football player’s wake, so I was forced to follow. “I’m not even close to done remaking your online image.”
I stopped walking. “Wait. What? You’re not?”
“Nope.” He was fiddling with his camera as he walked, treating this conversation like an afterthought.
“But why?”
“Why what?” he asked.
“Why would you keep helping me, I mean…” I shrugged. “I don’t have anything to offer you in return.”
“Would you believe me if I said the pleasure of your company was enough?”
I let out a short laugh at his teasing tone. “No.”
He turned his attention to me, and he smiled that lopsided smile that made him look absurdly cute.
“I bet you got away with murder as a kid.”
He tipped his head back with a laugh. “You would be right.”
“I bet you still do,” I continued.
He tilted his head from side to side. “Yeah, still right.”
I found myself fighting a smile as I shook my head. “Well, anyway, thanks for your help, but—”
“Meet me in front of the gym entrance tomorrow morning,” he interrupted.
“What? When? Why?” I wrinkled my brow as I paused, and he stopped beside me.
“Because you’re playing hooky tomorrow, and I’ll drive.”
I stared at him blankly for a moment.
He stared back.
“You can’t be serious.”
His lips hitched up on one side. “Oh, but I am. Our work isn’t done yet, my little chickadee—”
“Never call me that.”
“And what better way to show the world how fun and spontaneous you can be than by cutting out of school for once in your life and enjoying one of the last nice days before winter hits?”
I stared at him in horror. “You don’t really mean that.”
“Oh, but I do.”
I blinked a few times because...he did. “And you actually think I’d go along with that?”
He nodded. “I think you will, yeah.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re curious to see if this whole social media ‘fun girl’ routine will work,” he said. “Plus, you won’t be able to help yourself.”
I frowned. “What is that supposed to mean?”
His smile grew, and it was filled with smugness that was supremely irritating.
And maybe just a little bit sexy.
But just a little.
“Because I’m going to dare you to.”
As if a dare would work.
Hrmph.
“Did you just harrumph?” Emma asked. We were on our way to school the next day, and she was watching me from the passenger’s seat.
“What?”
“You just made a noise that sounded like ‘hurrumph’.” She made this weird huffing noise with her nose afterward that had me staring over at her as I stopped at a red light.
“What is wrong with you?”
She grinned and punched my arm. “No, the question is...what is wrong with you? You’ve been lost in thought since you picked me up. And now you’re making crotchety old man noises. What’s going on?”
I tapped my fingers against the wheel. There was nothing to even talk about really. It wasn’t like I was actually going to skip school like some sort of deviant.
What? Are you too scared? He’d been teasing as he walked backwards toward the exit. If you decide you’ve got the guts to do something about this crush of yours, I’ll see you in the morning.
“Okay, now you’re growling,” Emma said, snapping me out of the memory.
I whipped my head to the side. “What?”
Her eyes were wide and filled with delight. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so distracted, Hazel Daly.” She crossed her arms. “What is it? Did your crush take notice of those pictures and realize you are the hottest piece in town?”
I rolled my eyes at her teasing. But a second later, as the light turned green, I mumbled. “He did, actually.”
She straightened with a gasp. “He did?!”
I nodded, a smile tugging my lips at the memory of Justin’s comment. I didn’t think I was imagining the flirty look in his eyes.
“Are you going to tell me who he is yet?” she whined.
I debated it for a second because there was a part of me that really wanted to spill. “Justin Haverneck,” I finally muttered.
“I knew it!” she crowed.
I shot her a look, and she sobered. “Okay, fine, I guessed it was a guy from the swim team. That’s the only time you interact with people who are not me or our friends.”
“Yeah, well...he noticed the pictures.”
She grinned and swatted my arm. “Of course he did, you sexy thing! So what’s the problem?”
I fidgeted in my seat. “Will wants to do more.”
“More...photos?” she asked. “That’s great.”
Was it great? Maybe. I mean, I hadn’t actually thought this could work, but I’d underestimated how easy it was to sell a falsehood on social media. “It just seems wrong.”
I blurted out the truth that had been nagging at me all day yesterday, making it impossible to really revel in the success or even truly enjoy the fact that for once Justin had looked at me like maybe I wasn’t just another one of his teammate buddies.
“How so?” she asked.
“It feels like a lie.” I bit my lip as I looked at her. “I don’t like to lie.”
“You don’t?” Emma’s feigned shock was not amusing, but she laughed at her own joke. “Tell me something I don’t know, Girl Scout.”
I shrugged. “I mean it. He made it look like I was...I don’t know…”
“Having fun?”
I nodded.
“Wasn’t that the point?” she asked.
“I guess.” I sort of mumbled it, because something about this still didn’t sit right, no matter how my friends tried to spin it.
“Let me ask you this,” she said, shifting so she was facing me. “Were you pretending to have fun, or was that you actually having fun?”
I opened my mouth to say I’d been pretending, but then my memory called up those moments by the fire pit when Will had been cracking me up with those old TV shows, or even when we were in the house, and he was making me pose…
“I guess I’d kind of been having fun.”
“So then, there’s no lie here,” Emma said.
I tilted my head as I considered. “Yeah, okay. Maybe you’re right.”