Chapter 2
Bethany
(inspired anew)
The homies are already at our table when I finally make it out to the quad.
Like they can sense me, Tatum’s head pops up and they flash me this sweet Well?
??? grin. I shake my head and cross the patchy grass back onto the concrete patio.
It’s hot as heck outside, but at least there’s shade over the lunch tables.
Shade to hide my misery and pain. Saylor is midsentence, but she moves so I can take my usual seat beside her.
“It just doesn’t need to be today. Like, chill,” she finishes, before she turns to me and presses her lips to my cheek. “Hey, Bets.”
“Hey,” I say, sounding a little more pathetic than I mean to.
“What happened?” Tatum asks me. Their girlfriend Emily gives me a hopeful nod, her blonde ponytail bouncing around, encouraging me to spill the beans.
“He said no.”
“Why?” Glory asks. The look on her face almost makes me laugh. It’s pure disgust, like saying no to me is not only ridiculous, but a truly bad business decision.
“Apparently Crybaby Bethany left a lasting impression.”
“Oh, come on,” Saylor nearly shouts. A few people look over at us, but she ignores them.
“Who’s Crybaby Bethany?” Emily asks. She’s only been dating Tatum for a few months, so she’s not caught up on all our personal problems, but that was my nickname for like a year straight, so I’m kinda shocked she never heard about it.
“It’s nothing. I embarrassed myself and I paid for my crimes, but clearly Oliver hasn’t forgotten about it.
Also, there was some other nonsense about him trying to impress the moms at some point in the future.
I didn’t have the heart to tell him I have a better chance of making the Lakers than he does.
” Oliver and I play the same position in basketball.
He’s good. I’m better. We’ve played against each other.
It’s just facts. Doesn’t change how cute I think he is.
“I feel like he could have just said no,” Glory replies. That look of disgust is still on her face. I do appreciate the support, true Black girl solidarity. “Don’t worry, Bets. We’ll find you a date.”
“I hope so. I just wanted that date to be Oliver,” I admit. My friends know my crush is pretty hefty, but it’s just now that I realize how much I actually liked him and how much thought I put into picturing us together. Rookie mistake, I guess. Maybe I do need more experience with all this.
“Well, now I feel bad for my news,” Saylor says, her bottom lip jutting out.
“I mean, if it’s good news I definitely wanna hear it.
If it’s bad news, sorry in advance, but I will use your pain to distract me from mine,” I say.
I open my lunch box and pull out the over-the-top sandwich I made.
My friends don’t say anything, but I see Glory’s gaze immediately dart to the parchment paper holding the shaven chicken breast club sandwich that I’ve leveled up with mozzarella, pesto spread, crushed pecans, and a honey drizzle on a toasted ciabatta bun.
I brought some Salsitas, the best chips ever made, and some green grapes the size of golf balls.
Oliver’s rejection was almost enough to make me lose my appetite, but not quite.
“That’s true friendship.” Saylor laughs. “No, it’s good news.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“Jake Yeun and I are a thing. Like a thing thing. He’s my new boo.”
“Oh, you did it!” Tatum squeals.
“Yup. Caught him after Spanish. I think after a week of flirting in the DMs it was time to put him out of his misery.” Saylor sucks her teeth and does a shimmy with her shoulders. “Dats my man now.”
“Nice,” Glory says with a smile.
Just hearing Jacob Yeun’s name reminds me I’m not the only person who changed over the summer.
I used to sit across from Jacob in second grade.
He was this teeny, really quiet kid I used to try to make laugh, but he never really said much.
I do remember his favorite dinosaur was a triceratops.
In middle school he went full goth skater, which seems to make sense since both of his parents are tattoo artists.
He still doesn’t talk much, but he makes up for it with how good he is with a camera, like a legit camera, and with a phone.
He has the most TikTok followers in the whole school, thanks to the skating videos he posts.
He’s also on yearbook and whatever footage the school refuses to post on the official socials, he edits together and makes something five hundred times better for his own account. Smart, if you ask me.
Oh, and over the summer he grew like a foot and just got insanely hot.
Long skater hair, sun-kissed skin, the black-on-black wardrobe that always seems to work for him instead of making him look like the drama club’s stage crew.
All of that is probably why Poppy Carlisle laser locked on him the first week of school.
They dated for a bit, but the rumor is she dumped him because he wouldn’t have sex with her.
That sounds fake. Like, what boy wouldn’t do it with Poppy Carlisle, but whatever the real reason they broke up is, they aren’t together anymore. And now newly hot Jacob is with Saylor.
“What? What’s that look?” Saylor asks.
My brain short-circuits and I realize I’m definitely making a face.
I’m picturing Jacob, so my brow is all tucked up from concentration and my mouth is hanging open because I’m in shock.
It’s not that Saylor and Jacob are a thing now.
If you think Poppy Carlisle is a ten, Saylor is a firm twelve.
She’s gotten “Most Photogenic” every year since sixth grade and we all know that’s just code for certified hottie.
She’s biracial; Black dad, white mom. She has her mom’s hazel eyes and dark blonde hair, but unlike her mom, she and her twin sisters have these amazing big, long curls.
She’s tall and thin. People do fetishize her looks sometimes, but that doesn’t change how beautiful she is.
She plays two varsity sports, and is very personable and a friend to creatures big and small.
Of course Jacob would say yes to being Saylor’s boyfriend.
That isn’t the thing tripping me up. I’m in very real shock because my bestie supreme, Saylor, already has a date to homecoming.
Rhys Hayes, this white boy who plays the tuba and always has this wave of blond hair flopping in his face, asked her last Friday with a little help from the rest of the marching band’s bass section in the upperclassmen parking lot.
I knew she’d been talking to Jacob, but this new development is, well, new.
I close my mouth. I should probably say something.
“No, I just—you inspire me. Not even the end of the week and you’ve locked down a boy for business and one for pleasure.”
“I do like to cover my bases.” Saylor laughs.
“Yeah, what are you going to do about Rhys?” Emily asks.
“Nothing. I told him straight up we were going as friends when he asked me. And Jacob has to be there for yearbook. He’s not going as a dance participant, so if I wanna slow dance with Jacob once or twice, I think I can squeeze that in.”
“Wow,” I whisper. I think of Oliver’s many reasons for rejecting me and how I’m the only one of my friends who doesn’t have a date for homecoming now or a boo to call my own. This isn’t gonna work. “I need a date for the dance.”
“We’ll get you one,” Glory says before she takes a bite of her simple turkey sandwich. She deserves better lunch meats, but I don’t say anything about that.
“Is it that easy though?”
“Uh, yeah. It’s a date to the dance. It’s not a kidney. So Oliver was your top choice, but there are a lot of people at this school.”
“She’s right,” Tatum adds.
“Neither of the Gupta twins have dates. I heard them talking about it earlier,” Emily adds.
“And B, I know this might be a lot for you to process, but…” Saylor turns to me and purses her lips together like she’s about to tell me I do need a kidney. “Kayden Smith doesn’t have a date either.”
“No—”
“Just hear me out!”
“No, ma’am. Nev. Er. No. No way. No how.”
“Why not?”
“Because I almost puked talking to Oliver, and he and I are, like, decent friends. I’m afraid to look directly at Kayden’s face. He is…everything. All of it. I would actually die if Kayden spoke to me. I would leave this earthly plane.”
If my crush on Oliver is something real and true, based on my knowledge of the softness of his back skin, my crush on Kayden Smith is the reason I get out of bed in the morning.
The only reason he knows I’m alive is because I made a half-court shot that went viral freshman year.
He wasn’t at the game. Why would he be? But he saw a TikTok—a TikTok Jacob Yeun made, now that I think of it—and made a point to come up to me in the hall the next day and tell me how sick he thought it was.
I just stared at him and made a bird noise that was supposed to be a thanks.
He seemed to take it that way and went on with his day. He hasn’t even looked at me since.
I don’t consider that my true boy-crazy awakening only because Kayden isn’t a boy; he’s a sex god.
Tall, actually dark, extremely handsome.
Perfect teeth, just perfect. He smells like the ocean after a storm.
His shape-up is always so crisp, he must have his barber on call.
And the thing that really matters to me: His sneakers are always clean.
It’s weird, but it’s hot. But he’s too hot for mere mortals like me.
Plus, he’s a senior! Basketball season starts in a few weeks.
We share the gym with the boys and if Kayden makes varsity again, which I’m sure he will, I’ll have to figure out how to deal with the amount of drool I’ll be producing with him just a few yards away.
“You do not ask someone like Kayden Smith to homecoming,” I go on. “You build a marble pedestal and set him upon it. You don’t touch it! You just look. From a safe distance where you have absolutely no risk of embarrassing yourself.”
“I don’t think he’s that fine.” Glory shrugs.
“Because you have Landon vision. You don’t think anyone is as fine as him,” I say, letting my eyes roll extra hard. Landon is actually the freaking cutest, but he’s no Kayden.
“I vote AJ Gupta. He’s shy, but he’s super sweet. I like that he always holds doors for people,” Tatum declares.
“You do have a point. Okay.” I shake myself and push the lingering sting from Oliver’s no down with all the rest of my repressed feelings. “AJ Gupta. I’m gonna do it. I need like twenty-four hours to recover, but I’m gonna do it.”
“We believe in you,” Tatum says. Emily nods enthusiastically. Glory adds her old-church-lady nod. I’m glad we’re all in agreement. All hope for my pathetic love life is not lost.
“Perfect. Can we talk some more about Jacob?” Saylor asks.
“Yes. Please,” I reply. I unwrap my sandwich and pop one of the loose honey-drizzled pecans into my mouth. I might have zero skills when it comes to boys, but at least I know how to make myself a delicious sandwich.