I rubbed the back of my neck. “Yes, well, you’ve certainly cleared that up for me.”
She rolled her eyes with a huff. “You know what I mean…”
“I really don’t.”
She pursed her lips for a second and huffed loudly. “You’re all cool,” she said, making cool somehow sound incredibly lame. “And you’re so…easygoing. Like nothing bothers you.”
I shrugged. “Very little does.” At least, not anymore. Once you’ve lost the most important person in your life, it was sort of hard to get worked up over high school drama.
“And you have that confidence,” she said, clearly on a roll now. She seemed to be getting into it. And while I didn’t love that she was finally coming to life over my many detriments, so far I had to admit they didn’t sound all that terrible. “You have like…” Her nose wrinkled up in disdain. “Swagger.”
I tipped my head back with a laugh. “How do you make that sound like a bad thing?”
She shook her head with a little rueful laugh of her own. “It’s not. Obviously. It just makes me uncomfortable.”
“I see.” I narrowed my eyes and pretended to think it over. “Would it help if I acted neurotic at lunch? Or would you still run away if Jax doesn’t show?”
She blinked at me, her lips twitching before she bit her lip. “I didn’t run away.”
It was a lie and we both knew it. I didn’t bother to call her on it. I just watched her and waited. I had a feeling if I was quiet long enough, she’d—
“How are you so calm like that?” she snapped. “I mean, you just got dragged into a super weird situation and yet you’re all Matthew McConaughey over here.”
I fought a crazy grin because…there it was. I’d listened to her and Jax ‘cast’ everyone in our school on days when they seemed to be particularly bored. But they’d never cast me…probably because I was sitting right there.
“Matthew McConaughey, huh? Isn’t he, like, fifty years old?”
She tilted her head to the side to study me. “A young Matthew McConaughey.”
I nodded. “I’ll take it.”
She smiled. An honest-to-goodness smile that transformed her from ordinary to beautiful in the blink of an eye.
She seemed to catch herself quickly and that smile was gone just as quickly as it had appeared.
That was a shame.
I watched her closely, waiting for it to appear again, but she’d crossed her arms over her chest and was kicking at the ground beneath her feet. “This was such a stupid idea. I don’t know what Rose was thinking.”
Yeah, about that…
“So, why exactly are you trying to make me fall in love with you?” I asked.
She looked so distraught I almost felt sorry for asking. For a second I thought she might not answer, but I kept my mouth shut, my gaze even, my expression blank, and, sure enough—
“I have a crush on a guy, okay? But he doesn’t know that I exist so Rose is trying to teach me how to be a real girl and—”
“A real girl?”
“Yeah, you know, like how Pinocchio has to learn how to be a real boy.” She was on such a roll, all I could do was nod.
Pinocchio. Yeah. Of course.
“But Jax doesn’t know and I don’t think this is going to work and—”
“Hey, hey, my faux lovers,” Rose called out as she bounded over to us. “How’s it going over here?”
“We haven’t even started,” I said at the same time that Simone said, “Badly.”
Rose looked from me to Simone and then back again, her excitement visibly fading. “Not a success, then.” She made a pouty face. “But the party is tonight,” she said on a moan. As if it was her love life at stake and not Simone’s.
“What party?” I asked.
“A house party over by Fairmont,” Rose said.
She looked so distraught and Simone seemed so disappointed, like she’d honestly just failed some kind of test.
“I have an idea,” I said. “Why don’t I go to this party with you?” I met Simone’s gaze. “You can warm up on me and then I’ll send you on over to this lover boy of yours.”
I sounded a bit too snide when I’d said ‘lover boy’ but if anyone noticed, they didn’t let on. Rose was too busy jumping up and down and thanking me, and Simone was…
Well, she was staring at me like she’d never seen me before.
One side of my mouth quirked up in amusement at her befuddled state. “I guess I’ll see you ladies tonight,” I said.
“Wait, you don’t have to—” Simone started.
Rose cut her off. “We’ll pick you up at eight.”
I grinned at Rose but cut my gaze to Simone as I donned a Southern accent. “Well, alright alright alright.”
4
Simone
I was still laughing when I reached my friends.
It was either laugh or stew in the humiliation that was that bizarre interaction. I didn’t love stewing, and also...who knew Andrew could crack a joke?
Or do a Matthew McConaughey impersonation?
Would wonders never cease?
I made a mental note to tell Jax that the boring, vanilla jock king might actually have a sense of humor and a surprisingly good grip on movie classics. I mean, he’d quoted Silence of the Lambs, recognized a scene from Clue, and used a line from Dazed and Confused.
Color me impressed.
“What are you grinning about?” Emma asked with an answering smile when I rejoined my friends. Each and every one of them was poring over the magazines that Rose had delivered like some kind of modern-day fairy godmother.
“What were you talking to Andrew Jacobs about?” Lulu’s eyes were wide with awe.
I shrugged. “Nothing much. Rose wanted me to practice what she’d taught me on him.”
Hazel’s jaw dropped in disbelief. “She wanted you to practice on Andrew Jacobs?”
I glanced over my shoulder, nervous he’d hear my friends squealing about him like he was some sort of rock star. Which he kind of was...you know, aside from the fact that he didn’t play an instrument or perform in a band.
“How’d it go?” Emma asked.
I cringed,
