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“What?” I grasp them tight, hold them to me. “Jace, no! You can’tgiveme your medals.”
He shrugs, kisses me once. “I got my prize right here.” And then he gets out of the van, leaving me speechless and completely under his spell.
Jace devours his food while I’ve had two bites, and then he just sits opposite me, quietly watching me eat. It’s the same as when we eat at home, only he usually goes for seconds. Sometimes thirds. “Are you okay there?” I ask around a mouthful of food.
“You take the tiniest bites,” he muses. “So cute.”
It’s so strange—the parts of people you fall for first. I can’t ever imagine the wordcutecoming from Jace’s mouth when he’s with his team, or anyone else, for that matter. It’s like a side of him only I’mprivy to, like all our conversations, and I wish I could pack up all these moments into tiny little boxes and carry them in my pocket always.
The outside of the diner is packed. Most of the older students from our school are in one section, taking up the majority of the picnic-style tables. Sammy waves me over to where she and Jeannie are sitting, and I lead Jace toward them. “Rivera!” Ryan calls out from a few tables away.
“I should probably go over there,” Jace murmurs, and I turn to him, smiling.
“Look at you, learning to socialize. I’m so proud.”
He rolls his eyes, and I take the opportunity to kiss him quickly. “Go.”
I greet my friends with hugs, and Sammy immediately gets to gossiping. “Look at her,” she says, pointing to a girl I’ve never seen before all over Jonah.
“Is that his girlfriend?” I ask.
“She wishes,” Sammy mumbles, but she says it in a way that has me eying her suspiciously.
“Sammy, do you have a crush on Jonah?”
“Gross,” she responds, at the same time Jeannie throws her under the bus. “Since she first laid eyes on him.”
I gasp, my jaw unhinged.
Jeannie adds, “That’s why she went for Jace at first, to make Jonah jealous.”
“Stop!” My eyes are so wide they might fall out of my head. “You should tell him. I bet he’d be down.”
“Ya think?” she says, motioning toward Jonah, who’s now in a lip-lock with the stranger girl.
“Oh.”
“But he doesn’tknowyou like him,” Jeannie offers. “Maybe he wouldn’t be with anyone else if he knew.”
“That’s true,” I agree. “You want me to dig for intel?”
Sammy shakes her head. “If he wanted me, he could have me. He just doesn’t see me in that way.”
“That you’ve noticed,” I push. “And what if he’s with that girl to make you jealous, like you did with Jace, which is a whole other conversation we need to have, by the way.”
“It was before you existed,” she laughs out, and I laugh with her.
“What about you?” I ask Jeannie, and I realize, as I stand here, gossiping about boys, that I feel like ateenage girl, with actual friends—something I’d always wanted but never experienced before. “You got your eyes on anyone? Ryan’s cute, and he’s single, right?”
Sammy and Jeannie share a look, like they often do. “Harlow,” Jeannie deadpans, and Sammy giggles.
“Yeah?”
“I’m gay.”
“Oh.”How did I not know this?“Wait. Didn’t you finger-fuck yourself to my boyfriend?”
Sammycackles.