Chapter 4
lilah
“Are you sure your head’s okay?” Poppy asked me for the fifth time as we walked to dinner that night. She put a hand to my forehead as if hitting my head would somehow give me a fever. “Do you feel all right? You can always go back to the room and we’ll—”
“I’m fine,” I said, shoving her hand away. “Just like I was fine thirty seconds ago and two minutes ago and five minutes ago.”
Poppy reddened slightly but shrugged. “I just worry!”
“And I love you for it,” I said. I’d spent years wishing for a best friend, somebody who would care about me for me instead of just getting close to me so they could meet my brother.
Having Poppy, along with our other friend Saylor, meant everything to me, even if I wasn’t touchy-feely enough to actually tell her that.
Wanting to get off the topic of my head, which was admittedly starting to pound with a slight headache, I added, “It’s all because of those fangirls chasing us anyway.
How come you never get attacked when your sister comes to visit? It’s not fair.”
Poppy snorted. “My sister’s not famous.”
“But she’s practically famous! She’s dating a boy band member. Shouldn’t that count for something?”
“I don’t think it does,” Poppy said with an apologetic shrug.
“But don’t forget the time Ivy brought Zach along for a visit,” Saylor said from Poppy’s other side.
The three of us were walking in a line, so she had to lean forward to look in my direction.
“The three of them had to bribe a store owner to let them hide in the changing rooms until all the girls gave up.”
I smacked Poppy’s arm. “Why didn’t you ever tell me about that?”
She rubbed at her arm even though she probably barely felt the hit through her jean jacket. “Because I didn’t know you! You hadn’t bribed me to be your friend yet when it happened.”
“I did not bribe you to be my friend!”
“No, you just bribed the dorm administration to make her your roommate so she was forced to be your friend,” Saylor said with a grin. “Totally different.”
I pointed an accusing finger in her direction. “You can’t prove I did that.”
Saylor and Poppy both snorted in their clear disbelief, but I didn’t give in.
Besides, it wasn’t like I actually bribed anyone.
I just put Poppy’s name in my roommate request form and happened to mention that we were connected by Take Five—my brother and her sister’s boyfriend were in the band together—and hoped that it would be enough to convince them to put us together, even if Poppy didn’t request me.
Evidently, it worked.
At first, I felt bad for stealing her from Saylor, her previous roommate, but in the end we all benefitted from it. Saylor’s new roommate ended up not coming to the school after all, so she got a double room to herself, which we all used as our private common room now. It was a win-win.
“Well, hello there, ladies.” I practically jumped out of my skin at Tino’s voice coming from behind me. Which, unfortunately, meant that I jumped back into him and the only thing that stopped me from falling for the second time that day was Tino wrapping his arms around my waist.
I froze, having an immediate flashback to the moment in the store, when I’d spun around and found Tino practically pressed against me. If anyone else had been paying attention then—and thank goodness they weren’t—it probably would have looked like we were kissing.
Not that I was thinking about kissing Tino.
Nope. Never. Absolutely not.
Except that his arms around my waist now were making tingles go up and down my spine in a way I wasn’t sure I was comfortable with.
I practically threw myself in the opposite direction to get away from it and ended up slamming straight into Poppy instead.
She screeched as she stumbled backwards into the blackboard listing the menu for tonight—ravioli for dinner and ice cream sundaes for dessert—and went toppling over with it, while arms wrapped around my waist for a second time in as many minutes, pulling me back against a hard chest and stopping me from sprawling onto the floor with my best friend.
The whole cafeteria went deathly silent.
“I feel like it’s important to mention,” Tino said in a strangled voice, “that was not planned either.”
I shoved his hands off me and stepped away, regretting it only slightly as I lost the warmth from his body, and reached a hand out to help Poppy to her feet.
One of the cafeteria workers came by to put the sign back up and slowly, the hum of conversation started up again around us, stopping the crawling feeling on my neck that came with being stared at.
As we got back in line, Tino slid against the wall, cutting in front and standing in front of us.
“I’m really sorry about that,” he told Poppy. She just smiled back and said it was fine—Poppy didn’t have an angry or grudge-keeping bone in her body.
“You’re cutting in line,” I told Tino matter-of-factly. Then I shoved him aside to step forward, trying to put any thoughts of tingles or almost-kisses out of my mind.
“You say that like you don’t want me to hang out with you.” Then he pushed his way forward again, coming to a stop in front of me. He smiled like he was waiting for me to shove him aside again, which made me hesitate to do it. I hated for him to think that I was predictable.
He stuck his hands in the front pocket of his Hartwell Academy hoodie, looking entirely like someone who belonged on the front page of the school pamphlet.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the school ever chose to use his photo for that, because—as much as I loathed to admit it—Tino was actually pretty handsome.
His light brown hair had these curls that looked so soft that I sometimes wished I could run my hands through it.
He had eyes that would defy anyone who said brown eyes were boring, and don’t even get me started on the dimple on his cheek when he smiled.
Pair all of that with his hockey skills and Tino was almost… dreamy.
Of course, that was information nobody could ever torture out of me, and if anybody asked me if I thought he was cute, I would laugh in their face. I had to keep up appearances.
I blinked, realizing that I’d been staring at him blankly for too long.
Had he noticed? He probably had, but I was sure he didn’t know that I was mentally drooling over his good looks.
No, he probably thought that I was imagining ten different ways I could kill him and make it look like an accident—which wasn’t all too far off from how I was feeling about him right now.
It just so happened that noticing how good he looked sometimes derailed the hatred thoughts.
It was complicated, okay?
“That’s because I don’t want to hang out with you,” I told him. “I know that must be hard for you to understand.”
“It really is. I mean, given that I’m such a delight to be around.”
“You mean aside from when you slam doors into my face or send my friend flying onto the floor?”
“I told you it was an accident!”
“Uh-huh.” I bumped my shoulder against his, pushing him out of the way as we reached the front of the line and held out my tray for food.
Tino got temporarily lost in the shuffle as Poppy and Saylor got their food behind me, but as soon as I was moving on to the next station, he was right in front of me again, walking backwards and resting his tray casually on one hand.
It was clear that he thought there was no chance in hell he would ever accidentally run into somebody and spill his food everywhere.
Little did he know that I was gauging the distance between him and the girl in front of him, wondering if a small bump of my hip would send him into her.
But I’d had enough of people falling over for one day, so I just grabbed a cup and moved toward the soda machines, hoping Tino would turn at the salad bar.
He ate cherry tomatoes with every meal—something I couldn’t even begin to understand—but he bypassed them completely as he followed me.
I tried to act like I hadn’t noticed because seriously, why was I thinking about his eating habits?
I struggled to balance my tray on one arm, hold my glass in the right spot, and press the button for the soda I wanted from the machine.
Without looking away from me, Tino pressed the button for me, not even needing to ask what I wanted.
I frowned as I watched the glass fill, torn between knowing I should thank him and wanting to be mad at him for something.
I pulled the glass back once it was full and turned away from the soda dispenser, knowing Tino wouldn’t be getting a soft drink. He only ever had water.
“So,” he said, “I was thinking.”
“Were you?” I said flatly. “That must have hurt.”
“The winter carnival is coming up,” he said.
“So, you can read a calendar.”
“I like winter,” he said, completely ignoring me.
“Uh-huh.”
“And you like winter. So, naturally, I was thinking we should go out together.”
“Out where?” I asked, pretending to be oblivious.
“Out in the world,” Tino said, waving a hand around as he followed me.
“Isn’t that what we’re doing right now? We’re together and out in the world. What exactly are you suggesting?”
Of course, I knew exactly what he was suggesting, but I might as well make him actually ask me out before I turned him down.
Tino’s eyes twinkled. “You consider us to be together now? Wow, I’m making real progress with you.”
“You know that I just meant that we were standing near each other.”
“Nuh-uh, you can’t take it back,” he said, waving a finger in my face. “You said we’re together. You, Lilah Turner, admitted that you were spending time with me, Michael Valentine.” He sighed dreamily. “I shall remember this moment forever.”
I rolled my eyes and started walking away. He, of course, was right on my heels.
“However, in this particular situation, I meant that I think we should go out on a date,” he added as we reached my usual table. He pulled out the chair for me and I sat down.
“What a novel idea,” I said drily. “Never been thought of before.”
“Well, it’s never been thought of before in this particular context.” He held a hand up, acting like he was reciting a headline. “A first date to the carnival in town.”
“Nope,” I said immediately.
“Ooh, sounds like someone’s been rejected,” Saylor said as she dropped down and sat beside me. Poppy was right on her heels, but Tino sat down on my other side before she could take the spot.
“I’ve not been rejected,” Tino told Saylor. “She just hasn’t realized how good my idea is yet.”
Saylor shrugged. “Sounded like rejection to me.” She stabbed her fork in her lettuce and took a bite, watching us with a small grin playing at her lips.
He turned back to me. “Come on. It’ll be cute.
We’ll get candy apples—your favorite—get our faces painted, go on the Ferris wheel.
” He waggled his eyebrows, indicating to me exactly what he thought we would get up to on the Ferris wheel.
“And it’s your favorite season, so you know you’re going to have fun no matter what. ”
Honestly, of all the offers that he’d come to me with, this one wasn’t half bad.
The fall fair in town was always really fun, and he was right that I would probably enjoy it, even if I did have to be there with him.
Especially since my friends would be going with their boyfriends this year, and I would be fifth wheeling.
Tino and I would probably end up there naturally anyway, together.
But I couldn’t give in that easily. This was our game—him pushing for us to be together and me holding him at arm’s length.
I pretended to think about it for a second, then shrugged and said, “Sorry. Maybe next year.”
Tino groaned, grabbing at his chest and leaning back. “You wound me, Lilah Turner.”
I held back my laugh, even though I did find the action a little cute. How was it fair that he was good-looking, a star athlete, and genuinely funny? No boy should have that much going for him.
“Okay, okay, okay,” he said, waving his hands around. “Forget the fair. How about—”
“Party off-campus tonight.” Mako appeared out of nowhere behind his teammate and dropped down into the next empty seat. He pointed at each of us in turn. “Who’s coming?”
I frowned. “Party where?”
We never went off campus. Technically, our boarding school’s rules were that we could sign ourselves out in the evenings as long as we came back before curfew, but I’d never really done it, except when I was going out with my siblings.
There were plenty of parties on campus, despite whatever the school administration might try to tell our parents, and I’d never seen a reason to go elsewhere.
“My buddy lives in town about five minutes from here,” Mako explained. “He’s got this awesome house. The guys and I are all going—you guys up for it?”
Tino didn’t seem surprised by Mako’s declaration so I guess they’d already talked about it. The other guys Mako would be referencing were the ones on their hockey team, namely Bear and Crossy—Poppy and Saylor’s boyfriends, respectively. When I glanced at them, they both shrugged their assent.
“Sounds like it could be fun,” Poppy said. “And it’s not like we have anything else going on.”
“Except binge-watching all the Twilight movies,” I reminded her. I sighed dramatically. “But I suppose that can be put off for another night.”
“Tomorrow,” Poppy promised me. She looked at Mako. “We’ll be there.”