“Huh?”
My stomach flips with nerves. If he knows I like Kyler, he’s never going to let me live it down. That’s what Kai has been doing for the last six months—teasing me whenever he sees a good opportunity.
His lips quirk like he’s fighting back a laugh. “I was just wondering what you were going to do to your sister.” He nods his head at the door. “You never finished your thought, and I’m really curious what your twisted mind is going to come up with this time.”
My lip curls. I’m not sure if he’s teasing me or being serious. I never do with him.
“I didn’t finish my thought because I was trying to make it really good, like sickly morbid and full of torture. But thanks for ruining my train of thought.”
He chuckles. “I’m going to miss this.”
My brows dip. “Miss what?”
He raises his head, grinning, and for some reason, that only pisses me off more.
“Our lovely little chats.”
I stare at him, unimpressed. “Is that what you call torturing the nerdy next-door neighbor?”
He presses his hand to his chest. “I’ve never tortured you. That’s your sister’s thing, not mine. I’ve always been nice to you.”
A disdainful laugh escapes my mouth. “Like the time you told me the stripes in my hair made me look like a rainbow?”
“Hey, rainbows are cool.” He seems totally amused and has his smoldering let-me-bind-you-in-place gaze going on. It’s driving me absolutely crazy, and I become desperate to win our little argument.
“Okay, how about the time you ate my science fair project?”
“Hey, who puts chocolate on their science fair project?” He gapes at me. “Seriously, that was your own damn fault.”
Okay, he has a point. The chocolate volcano project was kind of a disaster.
“How’d you know I’m leaving?” I change the subject, wandering toward the fence.
“You mean, besides the suitcases you just loaded up in the back of the SUV?” He cocks his brow, but underneath the surface, he abruptly grows uneasy, fiddling with the leather bands on his wrists.
“You heard it from someone.” I eye him over with suspicion. “I can tell. You got all squiggly.”
He rolls his eyes like I’m being ridiculous then surrenders. “Fine, your sister’s been telling everyone.”
“That I’m leaving?” My brows knit. “Why would she do that?”
He scratches the back of his neck, looking everywhere except at me. “Um … well … she’s been telling everyone that you’re being admitted to a mental institution, but I know that’s not true.”
Invisible pins stab my skin. I don’t want to hate my sister … I really don’t … but I kind of do right now.
“Why’d she say I was going?” My voice sounds so hollow.
“That doesn’t matter.” He rises to his feet, steps off the porch, and strides over to the fence. “Where are you going, though?”
“Overseas with my grandma, which probably sounds lame, but I’m actually looking forward to it.”
“It doesn’t sound lame at all.”
“Not even the going-with-the-grandma part?”
He shakes his head, waving me off. “Nah, grandmas can be cool sometimes. Is yours?”
“She’s, like, the queen of cool grandmas. Seriously. She’s the one who taught me how to drive. And I’m talking, like, floor-your-car-to-the-max kind of driving. She taught me how to swim, too, in a pool that was closed. We had to sneak in through this hole in the fence. She even let me try beer for the first time.” I pause, realizing something. “You know, without her, I might have ended up lacking a lot of necessary life skills. Well, besides the drinking beer part. I don’t think that’s a life skill.”
“Oh, that can be a life skill,” he assures me with a devious grin, and I repress one of my own, not wanting to encourage him. “She does sound pretty cool, though.”
I bob my head up and down in agreement, fully aware of how lucky I am to be going on this trip with the coolest grandma ever.
“You’ll have to post some pictures so I can see all the awesome things you do,” Kai says, squinting against the sunlight.
I snort a laugh. “Oh, Kai, you and your silly, little jokes. We both know I’m not cool enough for social media.”
“That wasn’t meant to be a joke.” He stuffs his hand into his pocket and retrieves his phone. “But if you’re really that anti-social, I’ll give you my number and you can send me all of your awesome photos. It’ll make me feel special, too.”
I roll my eyes but give him my number so he can text me his. I don’t really think he’s going to do it, but two seconds later, my phone vibrates from inside the pocket of my jeans.
“Have fun on your trip. And I mean that, Isa. Have fun. You deserve it, more than anyone.” He gives me a strange look as he puts his phone away, like he can’t quite figure something out. Then he swiftly clears his throat. “Yeah, but the whole point of me coming over here was to give you a little advice.”
I pull a wary face. “I’m not sure I want to hear your advice.”
He offers me one of his infamous sexy, playful pouts. “Why not?”
“Because …” I sigh heavy-heartedly when his sexy, playful pout turns into genuine sulking. “Fine. You can give me advice, just as long as it’s not an ‘it’ll get better after high school’ speech. I don’t want to hear any of those. I’ve heard too many.”
“It’s not one of those, I promise. Cross my heart and hope to die. Stick a needle through Hannah’s eye.” He draws an X across his chest, giving me a lopsided grin.
I can’t help grinning goofily back at him.
“I’m surprised you remember that.”
“Of course I remember that,” he scoffs. “We used to say it all the time.”
“Yeah, but that was a long time ago, back when we were actually kind of friends.”
An awkward quiet fills the air between us as the past hovers over our heads.
See, once upon a time, Kai and I used to hang out. And not in the way Kyler and I hung out for a few weekends while I helped him improve his free throw skills, and he opened up to me once. Unlike Kyler, Kai and I were actually friends. Well, sort of.
For most of seventh grade, he walked home with me after school. He always seemed sad about something as we strolled up the sidewalk toward his house. While I could never figure out what had him feeling so blue, I did learn some stuff about him that no one else knew. Like, how he’s secretly into comic books, likes zombie movies, and listens to ’80s punk rock.
During the time we spent together, I always tried to cheer him up. It was the least I could do for him not being too embarrassed to walk home with me. Sometimes, my jokes made him smile. Other times, he seemed too stuck in his head. Even if the walk was filled with quietness, it was still nice to have a friend.
After a few months of walking home together, he started hanging out with me on weekends. We’d mostly stay in my room, and sometimes, we’d go to the park. I was really starting to believe we had a chance at becoming real, seen-in-public friends. Then came the dreaded day when one of his friends caught us hanging out at the park, and he started making fun of Kai for “being in love with a loser.” Kai panicked and told his friend I was stalking him, and that was the last time we walked home together.