Page 20

I thought I was the only one

I turned down the sounds on my phone so Sebastian and Tiffany wouldn’t hear our phones going off every five seconds and realize we were talking about them.

Ainsley

Nah we all hate her

But she makes Sebastian happy so we don’t want to say anything

I found it hard to believe Tiffany really made him happy. With how much they broke up and got back together, there had to be some flaws in that relationship, right? But maybe I was just reading too much into it. Plenty of people were in on-again, off-again relationships at school.

Nora

Do you think she expects him to only talk to girls he’s related to?

Ainsley

Even then she sometimes gets a little weird about us being around

I laughed softly because I could relate to that quite a bit. Dean’s girlfriends frequently didn’t like me being around either. A lot of them seemed to think it was some personal affront to them that he had any other women in his life, including me.

Nora

Been there

Sebastian took a sharp turn into the parking spot and I slammed hard into the door, narrowly avoiding smacking my head on the window. I sighed but recovered quickly to get out, even if I started stumbling around while everyone else seemed to be walking just fine.

“Not used to Sebastian’s driving?” Ainsley asked me with a laugh.

“I don’t think I’ll ever be used to it.” He’d driven me around enough times that I think if I was going to get used to it, I would be by now, but no.

Tiffany looked like she was planning to walk ahead, but Sebastian hung back, waiting for us before he went up the path to open the front door to Fifty-Fifty, and we all walked in together.

Even though I’d never set foot in a diner before, I felt like I’d been here a thousand times as soon as I set foot in the door.

It was like the classic one from every movie—the red and white booths, jocks and cheerleaders at every table, girls sitting on their boyfriend’s laps and holding milkshakes or sodas while they all laughed.

The waitress led us to a booth in the back, which was the only spot that wasn’t already overtaken by other jocks.

Sebastian and Tiffany both waved at people as they walked by, but Ainsley and I didn’t see anybody we knew.

She glanced at me and quirked an eyebrow, and I just smiled back. At least we had each other.

When we got to the table, I figured it was a given that Ainsley and I would sit on one side and Tiffany and Sebastian would sit on the other, but with the way that Tiffany practically dove into the seat beside him, you would think she thought that we were trying to take him for ourselves.

Since the only other person here was his sister, I had to assume that meant she had some issue with me.

I kept my eyes down as I slid into the spot beside Ainsley and wondered what it was about me that screamed as a threat to Tiffany.

Could she see it on my face every time I looked at him that I kissed him last week?

Had he told her about it? I couldn’t imagine that they had conversations about who they’d gone out with in the time they were broken up whenever they got back together, but maybe she’d seen the photo on his phone and guessed that the girl was me.

Or maybe this jealousy was completely unrelated to the kiss and really was just how she acted around every girl Sebastian hung out with.

She could have been like this the whole time they were dating because until now, Sebastian hadn’t been on my radar like this.

Until last week, I wouldn’t have watched him and Tiffany, wouldn’t have noticed the way Tiffany laid her head across his shoulder, ran her hand along his chest, and thought to myself that should be me .

I’d liked Sebastian, of course. I’d had a crush on him for a bit, even if I tried to pretend I hadn’t, but I’d never been jealous. Not like this. I didn’t even notice when the waitress walked up or that it was my turn to order until Ainsley elbowed me in the side and cleared her throat.

I glanced up. “Oh, what? Sorry, I haven’t had the time to?—”

Sebastian leaned in before I could finish. “She’ll get a chocolate milkshake with salted caramel flavoring.”

Then he winked at me. I flushed bright red.

I glanced at Ainsley, but she didn’t seem to notice anything out of the ordinary.

Maybe this was just what Sebastian was like.

Maybe he winked at all her friends. She probably didn’t think anything of it.

Sure, Imogen had seemed upset when I asked about Sebastian earlier, but maybe Ainsley wasn’t as worried.

Maybe she just kind of figured that none of her friends would be into her brother because, ew, why would they?

That was certainly how I felt about my friends and Dean.

But Tiffany clearly didn’t have the same laid-back attitude towards him that Ainsley did, because she was glaring at him.

Sebastian either didn’t notice or pretended not to as he started talking again once the waitress walked away.

He put his arm along the back of the seat behind him and Tiffany, and I watched as she grabbed his hand and pulled it so it was over her shoulder.

He didn’t react, but I did think it was notable that he hadn’t put his arm around her, either.

She had to do it herself, and suddenly I was wondering when I had become the girl that started to analyze other people’s body language to see if I thought that they were good together.

But there was something about them that seemed off. It was like Tiffany wanted him, but he didn’t want her. But why would they get back together otherwise? I mean, I kissed him on Friday, and then he got back together with his girlfriend the next day. That had to mean something, right?

“So, Nora,” he said. “Was this your first soccer game?”

“Yep.” I tried to smile, but all of them looked at me a little bit weirdly, so I let it drop off my face again.

Sebastian laughed. “Wow, you hated it that much, huh?” I was confused by what he meant until he said, “You just look like you’re in the most pain I’ve ever seen. Ainsley, why would you drag her to it?”

Ainsley held her hands up and nudged me. “Hey, she agreed willingly. If I knew you weren’t a fan of soccer, I guess we could have done something else.”

“Oh, but then you would have missed the game too,” Sebastian said. “What would I do without having my contingent of sisters in the stands?”

Ainsley laughed. “Well, you didn’t have Lavender tonight either, so I guess you’re not all clear on that front.”

Something clouded Sebastian’s face for a second, some hardness that I wasn’t used to seeing on him, but then he smiled again and said, “Well, I guess Nora was the substitute sister then, huh?”

He nudged my foot under the table with his, and I froze, not quite sure how to react.

Luckily, I was saved from any reaction being needed when the waitress appeared with all our milkshakes, passing them out.

Tiffany was the only one who hadn’t gotten a milkshake, saying that she didn’t believe in drinking her calories, so she just had a lemon water in front of her, though I noticed her continuously eyeing Sebastian’ milkshake in front of him.

“Want a sip?” he asked her, clearly noticing the same thing. He held the straw towards her, but her lip curled and she looked away.

“No,” she said. “I just don’t understand how an athlete like you can put something so disgusting in your body.”

“Ah, come on, Tiff,” he said. “I worked hard tonight. Don’t I deserve a little something?”

She sniffed. “No.” The answer was short and curt and made an awkward silence fall across the table, as we all didn’t know how to react or what to say to that. Ainsley lifted her drink to her mouth, glanced at me, and mouthed crazy .

I stifled a grin, but clearly not enough because Tiffany’s eyes darted towards me and she said, “What, you have something to say?” The hostility in her tone surprised me immediately.

I jerked back. “Excuse me?”

Even Sebastian was looking at her, waiting for her next reaction carefully. I guess she realized that she went a little too hard because she cleared her throat and rolled her shoulders back.

“Sorry. I thought you said something.” It was obvious that her reaction had been more hostile than just not hearing what I said, but I didn’t correct her.

I wasn’t looking to get in a fight with Sebastian Novak’ s girlfriend right now, so I started sipping on my milkshake, keeping my eyes anywhere but across the table.

I sat there until it felt like it wouldn’t be weird for me to walk, then slipped out of the booth, muttering something about needing air.

At first, I considered going out the front door the way we came, but that would mean having to walk past the groups of jocks and other popular kids standing around, and I really did not want to be in the middle of that.

So, I turned and went the other way, heading for what looked like a backdoor by the bathrooms. It was a heavy glass door, with a white circle that read Fifty-Fifty in the middle of it.

I’d seen the symbol a million times before—driving past this plaza, on the pins people stuck on their backpacks and blazers, on receipts Dean left lying around in the car—and I’d always equally hated it and desired to come here.

But Fifty-Fifty wasn’t the kind of place you visited on your own.

You came here with friends, ones who already came here regularly and invited you along.

It was a system designed to make anyone not invited feel like an outsider, but strangely, I’d never felt like more of an outsider than I did right now.