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I almost stuttered. What was he—why was he—it didn’t matter, he was. “Hells yes,” I said, and got in.

He glanced at me out of the corner of his eyes. “You, uh, look nice.”

I hid myself behind a wall of hair. “Don’t wear it off by looking too hard.”

“That can happen?”

“It’s a leading cause of death in sixteen year old girls,” I said, looping my hair behind an ear. His eyes were on the road, but he was still smiling.

That was what I wanted, right? Was I leading him on right now? I was—or I was trying to—and I felt bad. Why couldn’t we just be friends without me having to signal my intentions like those people that waved flags on aircraft carriers? How come people like me felt bad for someone else assuming the wrong thing, even for an instant, when people like Danny never felt bad at all?

“So did you really want to study tonight, or what?” I tried to say in a flirty voice.

“Unless you wanted us to go out instead?” He gave me a shy smile and I felt even worse.

“I do like movies,” I said.

“Who doesn’t like movies?”

“Liars,” I joked. “If we go out, would it just be us?”

“Why?”

“Oh, you know,” I said with a shrug, as we stopped at a stoplight. “It’s always fun when a bunch of people go out together.” Because I so enjoyed hanging out with people I didn’t know, especially when they were two or more echelons above me on the popularity scale.

“Well, yeah,” he said, sounding as unsure as I was.

I wanted to blurt everything out right there, but then the light turned green and I managed to stop myself in time.

The rest of the drive in was awkward or maybe it was just me, I felt uncomfortable with everything, what I’d worn, who I was pretending to be, and I’d never been so excited to see the Redson High School parking lot before, not even on the bus.

“I’m sorry,” I said as he parked, apologizing for more than just being bad at conversations. “I bet Hailey was much better at this.”

Liam gave me a rueful look. “There’s a lot you don’t know about Hailey,” he said, and left it at that. “See you in chemistry?”

I gave him a tight smile. “Yeah. See you!” I said, and fled from the cab.

CHAPTER 36

“Nice hair!” Sarah said, sitting down beside me in biology, almost late. “How was the rest of the party?”

“It was good.” I shrugged with both shoulders. Emily’s attempts to discredit me on ZB aside, no one else seemed to know about my near miss with Danny. “And, uh, Liam drove me in this morning.”

Her eyes widened in appreciation. “That is better than good. You do realize you’re the first girl Liam’s been hanging out with since he dumped Hailey, right?” she whispered as Ms. Liebel walked to the front of class.

“Thanks. No pressure.” I whispered back. “He came by on Sunday?—”

“Why?”

“Wanted to study. I couldn’t, I had plans.”

The height of her eyebrows said what she thought of me. “What could you’ve possibly been doing that was more important than Liam?”

Ms. Liebel rescued me by clapping her hands.

I caught Sarah at the end of class before she stood. “Hey—I want to do lunch today. At the fields.”

Her entire face brightened. “Sure. I’ll wait by the gates for you. Love you!”