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“I don’t think viruses care how hot you are.”

He let out a single laugh. “I was referring to my peak physical condition, but thank you.”

“That’swhat Jensen said…about you.”

“He appreciated my peak physical condition?”

I shook my head. “No. He said you were full of yourself.”

“Who else am I going to be full of?”

“Said you thought you were better than you are.”

“I was definitely better than him.”

“And now? Are you better?” I asked. “From your injury?” My eyes drifted down to his knee, covered by his jeans.

His eyes went hard. “What do you know about my injury?”

“Just that it knocked you out of the last game of the season.” I had seen him on crutches a few times at school directly following that game, and he still limped a little…although I hadn’t noticed a limp since that time in the diner, so maybe he didn’t. “And that Jensen got to play in a game for the first time.”

“Yeah…,” he said, looking at me like he wanted to say more, but before he did, Maxwell and Lee returned with plates of delicious-looking enchiladas, rice, chips, and guacamole.

“This is the kind of partyIlike,” Maxwell said as he sat. “Just saying.”

“Excuse me for a moment,” Theo said, all formal, seeming to forget we were his peers and not the people across the room. When he left and reclaimed his chair at the big table, I was sure we’d lost him for good. He started what looked like a heated conversation with his mom. Probably telling her that he hadn’t meant for me to come and that he was sorry I had ruined their night with my presence.

“So for real,” Deja said, “do you think he did this just to embarrass you? Are you a jerk magnet? Should we leave?”

“I don’t know,” I said as an answer to all her questions.

“We’re not leaving before I finish my food,” Maxwell said.

Lee narrowed his eyes in Theo’s direction, his fork full of enchilada, cheese stretching from the plate to the tines. “I say we stay. I sense he might surprise us.”

Chapter

nine

ABOUT FORTY-FIVE MINUTES LATER, THEO’Sfriends started arriving in clusters. Two or three or four at a time. At least twenty people from school and the football team were here.

“He lied to us,” I said, standing on the patio of the now-lit-up backyard. It was an amazing yard. I’d seen it before—this was where the last party of his I attended had taken place. A large pool was steps from the patio, surrounded by resort-quality patio furniture. Beyond that was an expanse of grass where some guys had started a pickup football game. Past the grass was a rock garden, swirly patterns twisting along the ground made with different colors of rocks and interspersed with succulents and potted plants. Vines, dripping with flowers, climbed up an arbor that arched over a section of the stone path. There were side fences separating them from the neighbors, but the back of the yard transitioned straight to the sandy beach, making it look like the ocean itself belonged to them as well.

“He told us the wrong time,” I said. “This was the party he knew I wanted to go to. Hewantedto make me uncomfortable.”

“He’s an evil genius,” Lee said.

“Or just plain evil,” Deja amended.

“He’s something,” Maxwell agreed, wiggling his eyebrows as he watched him catch a football.

My mind drifted back to the last time I’d been here. We’d come in through the side gate. Jensen had immediately left me to go throw the football with some friends. I’d sat on one of the lounge chairs by the pool and watched the lights under the water change colors.

“There’s no hidden pattern,” Theo had said from where I hadn’t noticed him sitting alone ten feet away. “It goes red, blue, green, purple, red, blue, green, purple.” If he knew the order so well, I’d wondered what life events he’d contemplated while staring at those lights.

“Are you sure it’s not blue, green, purple, red, blue, green, purple, red?” I’d said.

He’d chuckled. “I guess it depends on when you started paying attention.”