After about twenty-five minutes of previews, I lean over to Max. “It feels like we’ve been here for hours. I’m ready to go home.”
“Shh,” he whispers.
I reach into my Twizzlers bag to get another, only to find I’m on my last one. “Do you want anything from the concession stand? I need more candy.”
Max shakes his head, stuffing more popcorn in his mouth.
I hunch over so I don’t block people’s view of the screen, edge out of my row of seats, and head to the lobby. It’s nearly empty now that the movies are starting. I decide to stop in the restroom first. On my way out, I notice my sneaker is untied.
I kneel to tie my shoe, and a pair of white sneakers appear before me. As I rise back to my full height, I discover the shoes belong to Alex.
“Please tell me the previews are over,” I say. “I’m literally about to die of old age.”
“Sorry, they’re still going strong.”
“I’ve got time to go get more Twizzlers, then.”
“That’s where I was headed. I’m craving Junior Mints.” He gestures down the hallway toward the lobby.
“Junior Mints?” I say, rolling my eyes. “That’s so cliché.”
“I wish I’d snuck in a bag of Jolly Ranchers.”
“Jolly Ranchers are my favorite.”
His eyes light up. “Mine too. Especially the lemon.”
“Ugh. You’re wrong about everything, aren’t you?”
He chuckles. “Let me guess…you like the green apple?”
“No, cherry. Anyway, you couldn’t have brought them to the movies. You’d be that guy making noise with the crinkly wrappers, and everyone would be going ‘Shhhhhh!’ at you.”
He smirks at me.
“Did you do something different with your makeup?” Alex asks.
I touch my fingers to my mouth. “I borrowed Grace’s lipstick.”
“Oh.” He stuffs his hand in his jeans pocket.
After going to the concession stand, we walk back to the theater, and on the way we pass Jonah Zotter from school and two older guys I don’t recognize.
“Hi,” one of them says, checking me out.
Jonah looks back and forth between Alex and me, raising his eyebrows. “Hi, Lulu,” he says, and I return his smile as I walk by. He’s cute.
Alex sees this happen and stops to stare over his shoulder at the guys for a long moment. When he turns back to me, his eyes travel up my body to my face.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see him looking at me again.
“Watch out for this one, guys,” Alex calls out to the boys, and the smile falls from Jonah’s face. “She’s a handful.”
“Ugh, you’re such a dick,” I say, and turn back toward the theater as Alex chuckles behind me.
Today
Freshman Class Trip
After escaping from the escape room, I walk around the museum gift shop with Max, gossiping and browsing.
“You need this,” I say, showing him a key chain made of fake brains.
“Nah, I don’t have a car.” He strides across the shop. “Now this? This I could use.” He stands next to a full-size skeleton.
I snap a picture of Max and Skeletor for my Instagram, then I wrap my arm around the skeleton’s waist, as Max takes pictures of me with his fancy yearbook camera.
“Come here often?” I say to the skeleton, cracking Max up. I love making him laugh.
That’s when Grace and Ben come into the gift shop and dart over to me. “I heard about you and Alex Rouvelis,” she says, grabbing my arm, and then whispers, “I remember when you had a thing for him before.”
“Yeah, what happened?” Ben asks, leaning over her shoulder to hear my response.
He is a classic follower, and since Alex deigned to hug me, here Ben is—following. If Grace’s douchey boyfriend wasn’t here, I’d tell her about hugging Alex, and how it felt like waking up in a pool of sunlight on the beach.
I search frantically for a way to distract her and put off this conversation until Ben isn’t around. “Look,” I say, pointing over her shoulder. “Flamingos.”
“Huh?” she replies.
I give her a pointed look, to try to get her to play along. “You love flamingos, right?”
She mouths, “Ohhh,” to me, and presses her hands to Ben’s chest, staring at him like a kitten who wants a treat. “I want a flamingo.”
Ben leans down to kiss her. “Let’s pick one out, babe.”
“Gross,” I say under my breath. They wander over to the display, where Grace stands on one foot pretending to be a flamingo, and Ben kisses her again.
“Get a room,” a voice calls out. It’s Ryan, back again, sauntering into the gift shop with Alex and their teammates.
“Guys,” Max calls out to them excitedly, “let me get your picture with the skeleton for the yearbook.”
“Yesssss,” Ryan says.
Alex drapes his arm around the skeleton. “Let’s do this!”
I smooth my hair back nervously, then pretend to look at postcards. I peek at him through the rack as Max takes his picture.
Ryan moves the skeleton’s jaw up and down. “Alex, show me on the skeleton where the bad man touched you.”
Alex groans. “Shut up, dude.”
After finishing his photo shoot, Max rests his camera against his chest and joins me behind the postcards, leaning toward me conspiratorially. “So, what really happened in the escape room?”
“We solved some riddles together. And we hugged.”
“You guys were all over each other. That’s all you did?”
“Of course,” I whisper, but I can barely believe how much I enjoyed that hug. Alex bothered me a lot this year, but he’s had his good moments too, especially today. And can we talk about how his skin made mine sizzle? “I guess…I guess I wouldn’t be opposed to more, though.”
Max claps his hands. “This is brilliant. You’re a real-life, enemies-to-lovers story.” He rubs his chin as if coming up with an evil manifesto. “This will make a great spread in next year’s yearbook,” he muses.
Today
Freshman Class Trip
Before we leave the museum, Max has one last thing he wants to do: visit the planetarium.