12. Mia
MIA
"I bet the yellow team never thought they'd be scaling this side of a mountain when they signed on for the race." It was the next evening, and we were already halfway through season three of American Adventures .
"Better them than me," I said.
"Not fond of heights?" Aaron asked.
"Don't hate them. Don't love them. But I have the upper body strength of... a worm. So I wouldn't do very well with that."
Aaron laughed. "Do worms even have upper bodies?"
"It's so hard to tell," I giggled. Speaking of upper bodies... Aaron had his arm around my shoulder. He first did that last night when we watched three episodes after that horrible call with Sara and the nightmare.
Yesterday, it had been for comfort. Today, I didn’t know.
But I certainly didn’t mind. It felt good being next to him, thigh to thigh, side to side.
I had to stop myself before I accidentally rested my head on his shoulder.
That was a little too cozy for just friends, but whatever this was, I was enjoying it.
"Are they ever going to show us what the green team is up to?"
"I don’t think so. The pink team gets most of the camera time."
"I think they bribed somebody."
"Hey."
A voice from the door had us both looking up. We instinctively scooted apart, Aaron hastily putting his arm down. Diego walked into the room, one eyebrow raised, but he didn’t say anything about it. Instead, he came right toward us, pulled the coffee table back a few feet, and sat on it, facing us.
"We need to talk."
"Okay," I said, as Aaron paused the program.
"What episode are you on?"
"Eight, I think," I said, looking at Aaron for confirmation.
He nodded.
"And how long ago did you start this season?"
"A few days ago,” Aaron said mildly.
"And you two are also watching that show with blindfolded contestants on an obstacle course, right?"
"Yes." We hadn’t been able to stop laughing.
"Do you want us to kick in more for the streaming services or something?" Aaron asked.
"No. I want to suggest that at some point, you two might want to get off the sofa. To stop watching other people go on adventures—and go on some of your own."
I laughed. "I don’t think the race is going to come through Haverford."
Diego ignored that. “You two have been watching TV a lot lately."
"Yeah, well, Mia was upset yesterday,” Aaron said.
"I know that. I was there." The look he gave me showed concern. "How are you feeling today?"
"Better. But I hope if I get to talk to Sara next week, it goes better."
"I do too. But that doesn’t change the fact that you two have been sitting here so long you’re starting to grow roots."
"What are we supposed to do?" Aaron asked, a little defensively.
I bit back a grin. He sounded like a little boy whose mom had told him to go outside and play.
"Anything outside this living room, for starters. Hell, go apply for American Adventures if that’s your thing."
"That’s it!" Aaron said, bolting upright.
"It is?" Diego sounded incredulous.
Was he serious? "I don’t want to be on TV."
"Not that. The campus scavenger hunt."
"Never heard of it,” I said, taking a quick glance at Diego. It looked as if he hadn’t either.
"It’s organized by the student council. We could enter, it’s two people per team.”
“Wait, really?” Did scavenger hunts involve racing or running? I’d never done one.
Diego clapped his hands together, looking pleased. "I think that’s a great idea."
"When is it?" I asked.
"Tomorrow,” Aaron answered.
"Tomorrow?" I echoed, my pitch rising.
"Yeah. For Halloween." He said it like it was obvious.
Oh god, I’d forgotten that tomorrow was the real Halloween, since I’d already been to that Halloween party. Which I didn’t want to think about while Diego was in such close proximity. Or while we were both near a sofa.
"Isn’t it too late to enter?" I asked, half hoping it was.
"I don’t think so, but I can find out."
After a few seconds, I came up with another objection. "I have class in the morning."
"It’s in the afternoon. You don’t have class then, do you?"
"No, but..."
"I think this is a good idea," Diego said.
"That’s because you don’t have to run all over campus like a crazy person."
"We could do something else," Aaron said, turning back to me. "Maybe go to a Halloween party? Diego, you want to come too?"
Diego and I both said "no" at the exact same moment, and I glued my eyes to the floor, not looking anywhere near him.
"All right then. I’ll find out more about the scavenger hunt,” Aaron said. “It starts at noon, so can you meet here at ten thirty tomorrow?"
"Yes. That’s after my chemistry class."
Of course, that meant I wouldn’t be able to go out for coffee with Cody afterward, but he might not want to go anyway, given how the last time ended.
"All right, well... ten thirty it is."
"Good." Diego stood up. "Good luck on your travels. Do our house proud." His voice was a trifle sarcastic, but it honestly seemed like he was pleased by this development.
I shook my head as he left. What the hell had I just agreed to?
"Happy Halloween," I told Cody at the end of chemistry class the next day. Though he hadn’t exactly sought me out after class, for the first time, he didn’t look like he wanted to dash off. In fact, if I hadn’t known any better, I’d say he was waiting for me to walk up to the back row.
"Oh yeah. Halloween. I forgot."
I laughed. "You did notice that Professor Beringer had on a black cape and false vampire teeth, right?"
He frowned, looking to the front of the room, but our professor had already left. "No.”
Was he ever going to listen in class? “I guess it was a good day to tune out. The fake teeth made him lisp the entire time."
“Not sorry I missed that.”
"I’m going back to the house to meet Aaron. Are you going there, or headed somewhere else?"
He was silent for a moment, thinking it through. I didn’t want to set up the expectation that we would do something after every single class. That might make him feel suffocated. To be honest, I didn’t know if that’s what I wanted either.
But I liked the fact that he didn’t look ready to bolt.
"The house."
We didn’t say much on the walk, but it was nice to be side by side. It was a pretty day, too—at least while leisurely walking along the uncrowded sidewalk. I somehow doubted the scavenger hunt would be this peaceful.
That peace ended the moment I stepped into the house.
"There you are!" Aaron rushed over. Cody gave me a quick glance and jogged up the stairs.
"I’m not late, am I?"
He looked upset, and his brown hair was sticking up at odd angles, as if he’d been absently running his fingers through it. "I’ve got some bad news. Two pieces of bad news, actually."
"Uh-oh." I set my bag down on the floor by the door, and then remembered we weren’t supposed to leave them there. I hung it on the hook behind the door instead.
"What’s the first one?"
"All scavenger hunt teams have to wear costumes. Since it’s Halloween."
"Costumes? I don’t have a costume."
"It doesn’t have to be much. Like, you could wear an eyepatch and call yourself a pirate."
"I don’t have an eyepatch, either." The only thing I did have were the cat ears on a headband I’d worn to the party three weeks ago—and no way in hell was I ever going to wear that again. Especially not anywhere Diego might see.
This scavenger hunt was starting to be more trouble than it was worth. "Wait, you said there were two pieces of bad news."
"Yeah. Um... I can’t participate because I’m on the student council."
"What? You can’t?” To my surprise, I was a little disappointed. I’d been looking forward to spending the afternoon with Aaron. I liked the idea of the two of us being a team.
We walked slowly to the dining room. Diego sat at the end of the table with a pile of books in front of him. He looked up when we came in. I didn’t want to bother him while he was studying, but Aaron had no qualms and sat down at the opposite end. A moment later, I did too.
"I didn’t have anything to do with planning it, but they say I’m still not allowed to do it.”
"Well, that’s okay.” I mentally rearranged my afternoon, trying to figure out a way to keep Aaron a part of it. “We can do some homework. And maybe later, we could watch television,” I whispered the last word. “As long as Diego doesn’t find out.”
Diego looked up from his work and shot me a quick grin. To my surprise, he had on black-rimmed glasses that I’d never seen before. They looked good on him.
But Aaron wasn’t on board. "No, I want you to still get to do this. I think you’ll have a lot of fun. We’ll just have to find someone else to go with you." His brow wrinkled as he thought it over. “What about, uh, that friend of yours... Terry?"
"Tori? I don’t know what she’s up to today, and she lives about 45 minutes from school, so... I don’t think she could get here in time. It’s okay, Aaron. I don’t need to?—"
"What about you, Diego?" Aaron asked him.
He looked startled. "I’ve got a paper due Monday."
“Damn it.” Aaron pulled out his phone. I peered at the text he was typing on the screen. Get your ass down to the dining room, it said. "We’ve got an hour before it starts. We’ll find somebody."
"It’s really okay." There was no way I was going to find someone else to go with and come up with a costume in the next hour. I opened my mouth to tell him that, but then I hesitated. Aaron seemed to really want me to do this. Maybe he thought it was important to me? I couldn’t think how to tell him that it wasn’t, not without hurting his feelings.
He just seemed to really want to do this for me, so it would’ve been rude to say it wasn’t a big deal.
Cody appeared, looking not at all ruffled by the abrupt summons.
"What’s up?" he said.
"Mia needs a partner for the campus scavenger hunt this afternoon."
"Scavenger hunt?" He said it in the exact tone of skepticism I’d used last night. "Why would you want to do that?"
Okay, Cody and I had more in common than I thought, and I couldn’t help smiling at him when Aaron wasn’t looking.
"Because it’s fun. Can you go with her? You don’t have to do anything. She’ll do all the work,” Aaron said, greatly overestimating my scavenger hunting skills, which were non-existent.
Cody shook his head. "I can’t. I have to accompany Suzanne."
That got my attention. Who was Suzanne, and how well did he know her? "Where are you accompanying her to?"
He smiled slightly. "I’m accompanying her on the piano. She’s trying out for first chair violin."
"Oh." That made more sense.
Aaron was frustrated. "How about Jenna?"
"She’s already gone for the weekend," Diego said. "She and Seth went down to Atlanta."
"Evan? Raymond?" Aaron kept trying.
"I haven’t seen them today,” I said. And I hoped it stayed that way, even though Evan seemed like a nice guy. He seemed very young, even for a freshman. And spending the afternoon with Raymond was definitely not my idea of fun.
"It’s got to be you," Aaron said, turning to Diego.
Diego took off his glasses, looking like Clark Kent turning into Superman. "I told you, I’ve got a paper due."
"Weren’t you the one who told us to get our asses off the couch and do something outside the living room?” Aaron persisted. “Doesn’t the same apply to you, too?”
"When was my ass on the couch?" Diego asked, and memories came flooding back to me. Sitting on his lap, grinding myself against him. Oh god, I needed to stop thinking about that.
"It’s okay, Aaron.” It seemed like I’d said that a lot in the last ten minutes.
"I want you to do this, Mia. Besides, the prizes are great."
He likely had a point there. Most people at the school were so rich the prize was probably a Lamborghini or something.
Aaron looked directly at Diego. "If you don’t go with her, she can’t go."
I opened my mouth to say yet again that it was okay, but it was clear that for whatever reason, this was important to Aaron. I exchanged a glance with Diego. He knew it, too.
With a sigh, he closed his book. "All right. Where do we have to go?"
Except, as it turned out, that was the wrong question. Because the first thing we had to do was somehow find Halloween costumes in the next half hour.
To my surprise, Diego said he had something he could wear.
"You have a Halloween costume?" He hadn’t been wearing one at that party.
"No, but I’ve lived in this house for three years. I have a bunch of crap in my room. I’ll find something."
Aaron looked relieved that something was finally working out. "How about you? Do you have anything?"
Again, I thought of those cat ears and the little black dress I’d worn at the party. I definitely wasn’t admitting to that.
"Maybe Jenna does,” Cody suggested.
"She’s gone for the weekend."
Aaron jumped on the idea. "But maybe she’s got something you can borrow. Again, it just has to be a bare minimum of a costume. If nothing else, you can go as a digital communications major."
Well, at least I did, presumably, look like one of those. "All right, I’ll text Jenna."
To my surprise, she called back right away.
"Hey, we’re driving. I just got your message. And I’ve got the perfect thing. It’s going to look great on you."
"You do? It is?"
"Yeah. You’re in the house, right? Go up to my room and I’ll tell you where everything is."
"Okay... what’s the costume?"
I listened for a moment.
"You’ve got to be kidding me."
The prize for this stupid scavenger hunt had better be a damn Lamborghini.