I’m about to shut the window for a second time, but then he says, “I know you’re angry, but it’s not serious. Sabrina’s just something I stick my dick in—”
“I don’t need details.”
“Fuck.” The muscles in his arms strain as he speaks. “What I’m trying to say is…you’re more important. I won’t fuck her again, okay?”
I should tell him to go fuck himself, but he is hanging from a tree outside my bedroom. In the rain.
All so he can try and make things right between us.
“Promise?”
Eyes locked with mine, he nods. “Yeah.”
And then he falls.
Fortunately, the wet grass below breaks the brunt of it.
My phone lights up with a text as soon as he makes it to his car.
Phoenix: We cool?
Lennon: We’re cool.
Phoenix: I’ll pick you up tomorrow night.
I try to quell the rush of exhilaration those words fill me with but fail miserably.
Because Phoenix wasn’t the only one who lied before.
I was angry…
But I was also jealous.
Even though I have no right to be.
Because I’m not the kind of girl who gets the guy.
The final is three days before graduation, which means we have less than two weeks to get Phoenix ready for it.
He’s been working really hard, so I’m trying to make tonight fun. Which is why I asked Storm to join us for our study session.
Even though dyslexia is the main problem we’re facing, Phoenix still has to know the material because there will be more than essays on the final. Therefore, I declared tonight flashcard night.
Storm picks up a card from the stack and reads it. “In the following sentence, which word is an adverb? The events in the movie are mostly true.”
Phoenix thinks about this for several moments before he answers.
“Mostly is the adverb.”
Despite sounding unsure, he’s correct.
“Yep,” Storm tells him.
With a cocky grin, Phoenix looks at me. “Make sure it’s pepperoni, Groupie.”
I told him if he got more questions right than wrong by the time we reached the halfway mark, I’d order a pizza.
As if on cue, Storm’s grandmother opens the door, carrying two large pizzas and some paper plates.
The three of us quickly rush over to help her.
“Goodness gracious, settle down.” Breezing past us, she walks over to the futon and sets the boxes on one of the crates we set up as a makeshift table. “Y’all act like I’m old or something.”
The three of us exchange a glance, but wisely stay silent.
“I hope you took some for yourself,” I tell her when she starts to leave.
She waves a hand. “Thank you, dear, but cheese gives me the Hershey squirts.”
“Jesus Christ, Grams,” Storm mutters under his breath as Phoenix laughs.
For a moment I don’t think she heard her grandson because Phoenix told me she’s hard of hearing, but she must have those aids turned up to max because she wags a finger at him. “Oh, hush, Reese. It’s a normal bodily function.”
I mean, the woman isn’t wrong.
“Anyway,” she continues. “I’m going to bed, but enjoy your pizza and study hard for that big test.” Her eyes land on Phoenix. “I like her. You better keep this one around or I’ll kick your handsome little ass.”
Storm snorts and I stand there utterly confused because his poor, sweet grandmother must be deaf and blind if she thinks Phoenix would ever be into me.
“I gotta take a leak,” Storm announces shortly after she leaves.
I can feel Phoenix eyeing me as he digs into his pizza. “How’d the pizza get here so quick?”
“I ordered it before we started.” I shuffle the small pile of flashcards he didn’t get right and add them to the stack we still have left. “I knew you had it in the bag.”
His expression is inscrutable before changing to one of curiosity. “Why aren’t you eating?”
Because fat girls don’t eat in front of hot guys they have crushes on.
It’s sort of an unwritten rule.
It’s almost as if not drawing attention to my fatal flaw will somehow make him forget about it.
My cheeks heat with embarrassment, so I look anywhere but at him. “I ate dinner right before you picked me up.”
He opens his mouth to say something, but thankfully Storm comes back.
I shuffle the stack of flashcards again. “Okay, you two eat and I’ll ask the questions this time.” I shoot them a hopeful look. “Maybe after we’re done, I can hear you two play?”