“Like the fact that I don’t have to ride the bus to school anymore.” I bit my bottom lip and tried to hold back a grin. “You make an awesome chauffeur.”
Beth rolled her eyes and blew a blonde curl out of her face. She’d worn a black t-shirt for the first day of school with a cartoon character plastered on the front from one of her weird video games. A pleather bracelet hung from around her wrist and lighting bolt earrings swung from her earlobes. It was totally geeky and totally her.
We’d only been hanging out for the summer, since our sisters practically forced us to be friends, but I’d gotten to know Beth well enough by now to realize she was a fashion force of her own. There was no use trying to mold her to my ways. Besides, it seemed to help her stay under the radar. She was stunningly gorgeous, even without a speck of makeup on. That kind of thing drew attention, something that she didn’t seem to like.
It was another thing about her that made us total opposites.
I wouldn’t have minded drawing a little attention today. There were two reasons behind that. One: I was on a mission to hunt down the head makeup artist today and beg her to hire me for some real world experience. And two: to dazzle mystery boy, aka Zane, when I ran into him on set and reminded him of the awesome connection we had yesterday in the rain.
Gorgeous, wonderful Zane with the melt-me smile.
I could just eat that boy up.
“I think there are more benefits to this friendship than just free car rides,” Beth said, drawing my attention back to her.
I gave her a devious smile. “Oh yeah? Like what?”
“Like having people around to call you out on your hallucinations.” She stuck her tongue out at me. “Are you sure you kissed that boy yesterday in the rain, or were you just high on the fumes from your face paints?”
She’d been reading my mind. I snatched an unused napkin from the cupholder beside me, balled it up in my hand, and tossed it at her. It bounced off her nose and she didn’t even blink. She just grinned at me, raising her eyebrows in a challenge.
“Yes, I’m sure.” I’d spilled to my friends yesterday over a group text what had happened with Zane. It wasn’t a hallucination. It’d been the single most amazing moment of my short life. “And I’m going to find him on set today, just as soon as I secure my spot on the makeup team. You’ll see the sparks fly. Believe me.”
“And you’re sure he’s not just another flavor of the week?”
I scrunched up my nose. “Are you calling me boy crazy?”
“Um...yes.” She laughed. “I’ve never met any girl who goes through as many crushes as you, Lexi. So excuse my skepticism.”
“Well, this one feels different. Trust me. We’re walking off into the sunset together.”
Beth pulled into a parking spot, put the car into park, and then turned to look at me. “Could you cool it with the eternal optimism? I haven’t even had my morning caffeine.”
“Hmm...nope.” I smiled sweetly at her. “Sorry, but when life hands you lemonade, you have to shout about it.”
Her head fell back and she made a sound like she was clearing phlegm from her throat. “Pretty sure that’s not how the saying goes.”
“It is today, girl.”
Nothing was getting me down. Not the rainstorm of homework and pop quizzes coming my way with the start of another year of high school. Not even Beth’s morning sourness. I hopped out of the back seat and glanced across the lawn stretching out in front of the white limestone school. Was it my imagination, or was the grass a more brilliant green than usual? And that clear sky...it was as blue as Zane’s eyes the moment before he kissed me. There were all signs that today was going my way.
“Alright, Little Miss Sunshine, let’s get to English Lit.” Beth shrugged her backpack onto her shoulders and nodded her head toward the front doors where a steady stream of students had already begun to file inside. “Mr. Garret isn’t afraid to give out tardy slips on the first day.”
I shuddered and hugged my bag to my stomach. English Lit was bad enough. English was my worst subject. But Mr. Garret was like the human version of a blackhead smack dab in the middle of my nose. He hated me. And I hated his class. We were in a mutual hate-itude. Nothing would change that.
I fell in beside her as we walked toward the entrance. “Okay, fine. But I’m sitting in the back, as far away from mister spits-a-lot as humanly possible.”
“Deal.”
Beth pulled her phone out of her pocket and glanced down at the screen, disappointment flashing in her eyes when no new notifications popped up. She’d been doing that a lot lately, and not just because of her never-ending obsession with her video games.
I hadn’t quite gotten the full truth out of her yet, but I had the feeling she’d been talking with a boy. Maybe she wasn’t quite ready to spill her guts, but I was ready and willing to discuss all the juicy details once she was. I lived for that kind of stuff.
I’d already succeeded of getting one of our friends together with the love of her young life. Maybe it was my destiny to find us all love by the end of our high school careers – a girl could only dream.
“Lexi! Beth! Where have you been?”
The moment we strolled through the doors of the school, Charlotte practically tackled us. She had her phone in her hand and was bouncing up and down like an energizer bunny on caffeine. Charlotte was my matchmaking success story and the final piece in our friendship triad that our sisters had built before they went off to college. Her
