It’s nice to have her around, especially considering Nevaeh and Sally barely respond to me anymore.
“Amelia seemed okay at first, but the more I’m around her, it seems like she’s just a Kimber-in-the-making. And Henry’s too shy and introverted. I can’t break through his shell.”
“You mean he hasn’t let you in yet,” Danyella corrects, lifting up a single finger for emphasis. “Not yet. Give it time.”
I sigh and help her gather the costumes into a pile, dreading the idea of leaving the theater. Parrish is acting even colder than usual—didn’t think it was possible, but the guy’s a pro—and anyway, the only time we’ve had together is in the car on the way to school with Kimber present. There’s nothing I can say around her. Somehow, I know that if she finds out that her brother and I were making out, she’ll kick sibling convention out the window and go running to Tess to blab.
There’s that, and then there’s Chasm.
Chasm.
He was smiling and laughing with a group of friends in the hallway today—most of them girls. Parrish is that cold, rich, King Sloth dickhead that everyone secretly lusts after. Chasm is the smarty-pants sweetheart that everyone’s openly in love with. The longer I’m here, the more I see it. That slouchy bad boy thing is all an act. He’s like, aggressively good-natured.
And, I made out with Parrish and he saw. He saw his best friend touching my boob.
Danyella picks up the box with a sigh, and I reach out to fix her glasses for her. They fall off her nose about thirty times a day, and she just pops the lenses back in place. It drives me insane. I think she’s too in her head to care about smudged or broken glasses.
“You’re blushing again,” she says, and I look down at the few undone buttons at the top of my shirt. It’s quite clear that my boobs are red again. “Is this about the Parrish thing?”
“It just happened yesterday,” I murmur, just before Lumen breaks into the theatre like she’s in a teen movie from the early 2000s. The whole world should slow down and “Yoo Hoo” by Imperial Teen should be playing. I’m a Y2K expert, thanks to Saffron. The only mother-daughter things she really liked to do with me and Maxine—on the rare occasions she did anything with us—was watch old movies and shop.
Which, you know, is better than Tess even with minimal effort.
“What are you up to, my bitches?” Lumen asks, collapsing into one of the theater chairs and crossing her legs at the ankle. Her other friends look around the place like they’ve never seen it before—and that they think that’s a good thing. They seem to be as afraid of Lumen as Kimber is of Parrish, though, and keep their mouths shut.
“Using bitches as a companionable term doesn’t erases decades of its use as a misogynistic insult. I’m sorry, but I don’t support the repurposing of hate-filled words.” Danyella sets the box down on the table at the front of the room, but as usual, Lumen ignores her.
“Come to our Young Republicans meeting today,” she begs, and Danyella throws her a dark look. “Not you, obviously. I know you’re a left-wing nut.”
“And you’re a right-wing nut, what’s the difference?” Danyella retorts, labelling the box Useful Scraps with a Sharpie. I’m officially in the drama club now, with the title of ‘extra hand’. That is, someone with absolutely zero skills but who’s allowed to participate anyway. Thank god for that: this is the only activity Tess will allow me to do after school and only because she reluctantly agreed that extracurriculars look good on college apps. “And you know Dakota falls about dead center. She doesn’t want to come with you.”
“I hear you nearly fucked Parrish again yesterday,” Lumen blurts, eyes glittering as she leans forward. Her girlfriends—there are too many, and they’re like a revolving door anyway, coming and going so I don’t know their names—titter and gossip behind their hands.
With a groan, I sink down in one of the theater chairs and let my head fall back, eyes closed. As soon as I walked into the building today, everyone was staring at me like it was my first day all over again. I got a lot of high fives though, and some serious nods, acknowledgements of my newfound clout. How this happened, I’m not sure. I guess telling a bunch of people to fuck off on a live feed, and then demanding a famous novelist eat a bag of dicks will do that to a person.
“Is that what I said when I texted you?” I grumble, wishing she’d keep this to herself. Unfortunately, everything of interest that happens is something Lumen believes should be shared with the world. “I said that Chasm walked in on Parrish and me making out.”
“Should I be jealous?” Lumen asks, standing up and then moving over to sit on my lap. For the life of me I can’t decide if she actually has a crush on me or is just using me. She throws her arms around my neck and leans in close. “Parrish doesn’t stand a chance if I turn my full charm on.”
“Is that so?” a voice asks from behind me, and I let out an embarrassing shriek. Lumen smirks at the newcomer; clearly she could see him come in the theater through the back door.
“Hello Parrish,” she drawls, leaning close and nuzzling her cheek against mine. “Did you come to see what my girlfriend and I were up to?”
“Doesn’t daddy hate lesbians?” he asks, but Lumen just laughs.
“The whole world hates lesbians—they’re the only group on the planet that doesn’t need, want, or care about dick. Unfortunately for me, I’m bisexual. If I could choose my sexuality, I guarantee you that I’d have picked ‘lesbian’. Besides, what my dad doesn’t know, doesn’t hurt him.” She presses a sweet-smelling kiss to my cheek before standing up.
What Parrish is doing in the theater today is beyond me. Did he come looking for me?
I turn around to glance at him, but he may as well be in a lecture hall listening to the mating habits of banana slugs. That’s how bored he is right now.
“Hey, have you heard that song by Ashnikko? “Slumber Party?”” Lumen asks innocently, and then she makes a V with her fingers and sings the line about … well, it’s about giving someone else’s girlfriend cunnilingus on her couch.
This, at least, gives Parrish a slight tightening of the face that tells me he does care at least a little.
“Are you here to apologize to Dakota for abandoning her yesterday?” Danyella asks blatantly, and my face pales. Parrish turns slowly to look at her, like she’s something small that needs to be squashed. To be fair, he looks at most people that way. He must decide that arguing with Danyella is too much, reverting back to his lazy sloth behavior as he turns back to me.
“Your boxes arrived. Tess wants you to come home early today to deal with it.” He looks at me like he didn’t say all sorts of confusing things to me, about Chasm, about Lumen … I snatch my book bag off the ground, knocking loose the metal heart pin. With a sigh, I pick it up and hook it back to the strap. Considering the way Tess has been acting, I should just throw it out.
Too bad I’m not that sort of person.
“You’re such a coward,” Danyella murmurs, but Parrish pretends not to hear her.
“Since you’re grounded again, I guess I won’t see at my house on Friday?” Lumen calls out, but I just turn around and toss her an overexaggerated grin.