Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
ASTRID
The scent of Ruby’s hair spray and perfume filled Diya’s bedroom. I stared into the mirror at Ruby, who twisted my hair back into a messy braid for tonight’s race, then toward Diya, lying on her mattress on her stomach, kicking her legs back and forth, her gaze glued to her phone.
A small smile crawled onto her face, and I snickered.
“What are you up to, D?”
She cleared her throat and turned her phone over on the bed. “Nothing.”
“Mmhmm,” Ruby said, arching a brow into the mirror. “Sure you’re not texting with ste—”
“Can you guys not?!” she hissed quietly. “Calix is still home.”
“Still home?” I asked. “He’s going out tonight?”
“Yeah, to the race tonight too. Probably to eat some girl’s face off.”
My chest tightened with jealousy. When I had passed his bedroom earlier, it had reeked of cologne, but I hadn’t seen him. While I had thought he’d be there tonight, it seemed like Diya knew more about his attendance than I did.
“Ew,” I murmured as Ruby gave a gentle tug on my hair. “Which girl?”
“Wouldn’t you want to know?” Ruby murmured quietly to me.
“I don’t know,” Diya said, rolling onto her back and letting out a sigh. “He has so many.”
I balled my hands into tight fists in my lap, my nails digging into the skin on my palms. So many? Who were they? How did she know? Did he have them over every night? Sleep with a different one every day?
“So many what?” someone asked from the hallway. “You talking about me?”
Diya hurled a pillow through the door, and then a moment later, Calix walked into the room with it in his large hands. His hair was tousled to the side, his stubble tracing his sharp jaw, and the light from the hallway was hitting all his tattoos just right …
Goddamn it! What is he looking so good for?!
Calix tossed the pillow at Diya, shooting me a smirk. “Ruby, Astrid, you girls going tonight?” While he mentioned Ruby’s name, he didn’t spare her a glance. His gaze was locked on to mine, eyes filled with mischief.
He already knew that I was going.
“Yep, we’re going,” Ruby said, tugging on my hair tighter.
Just as quickly as his gaze met mine, he turned back to his sister. “You going too?”
“No.”
“She’s busy studying,” I said, desperate for his attention.
“You should be studying too,” he said, but didn’t look over. “Shouldn’t she, Diya?”
I glared in his direction.
“I told her to,” Diya said, back on her phone. “We have a big test coming up next week.”
Calix looked back over at me, his smirk even wider. “The race isn’t going to be any fun for you, Astrid. You should stay over tonight. I’m sure Diya could use some company.”
Oh, so he could go flirt with every girl there?
“Diya’s good. Busy actually, with more than just books,” I added so she wouldn’t worry about how much Calix was actually talking to me tonight.
She could worry about if I was going to hint about her and her stepfather.
Obviously, I would never, but she couldn’t know about my crush. “Aren’t you, Diya?”
Diya glared at me and jumped up, shooing her brother to the door. “Yes. Now get out.”
After a moment of pushing him back into the hall, she slammed her door closed. Ruby held her hand out to me for an elastic, and I placed one into her palm.
“Don’t worry, D. We’re not going to tell your brother about your crush.”
“He’s not my crush,” Diya said.
“Sugar daddy is more like it,” I said playfully.
Diya hated it, but she loved me.
“There you go,” Ruby said, grabbing the hair spray. “Now just …”
Once she sprayed way too much hair spray on my head, I swiped my hand through the air, coughing, and moved closer to the mirror.
“You don’t think this is going to fall out tonight? It’s kinda—”
“With the amount of chemicals that I put on your head, no. But if it does, you’ll look hot.”
I listened to the sound of Diya’s garage door opening and shot up from my seat in front of the vanity. Calix is leaving already?! It is only seven o’clock. Where is he going at an hour like this, looking how he does?
“I have to get home,” I half lied. “Frasier is going to be picking me up soon.”
Ruby gathered all her makeup supplies and shoved them into her bag. I grabbed my backpack and headed toward Diya’s door, heart racing. I didn’t know why I was reacting as I was, especially not after feeling all those things with Frasier earlier.
Diya followed us into the hall and through the kitchen, where her stepfather was drinking some whiskey and reading something on his phone. He peered up when we passed, his eyes lingering long on Diya.
“You sure you don’t wanna come, D?” Ruby asked, stepping out.
Diya played with the doorknob and peered to the side. “No, I’m busy tonight.”
“Well, your loss,” Ruby hummed, looping her arm around mine. “No hot boys for you.”
When her stepfather cleared his throat, Ruby tugged me down the front steps toward our cars. If there was one thing that I loved about Ruby, it was that she loved making guys jealous—of her, of her friends, it didn’t matter.
And I had a feeling that tonight would be no different.