“Don’t mind her, she’s a bitch,” Daria says when Elaine is gone. She pulls out some lip gloss and smooths it over her full lips.
I want to stand up for Elaine for some reason, but I don’t want Daria talking about me instead. So, I don’t say anything. Kinda my specialty.
“She thinks just because she’s head cheerleader this year that she owns this place,” Daria says to Lindsey.
Lindsey stands and gathers her things. “I’ve gotta run too. It was really nice to meet you, Sky.” She gives Chase a quick hug before leaving, and I realize I’d forgotten he was even there. The newness of everything, and talking to Lindsey, was like being sucked into a vortex, and now I’m rushing back to reality. Seeing her hug Chase sends a pang of envy through me that’s sharp enough to burst any bubble I might have.
Chase may have brought me here, but he’s got plenty of other girls to choose from.
six
Now Playing:
“Dying for It”—The Vaselines
As soon as I agree meet on Thursday night for research, I curse myself for letting Chase come over to the house where I live. He’s going to think I’m homeless or something, not even having a house of our own. I have a pull-out couch for a bed, since I’m staying in what used to be the office-slash-storage room. I can’t decide whether to pull it out or leave it in. Chase will think it’s weird that I have a couch instead of a bed. But if it’s a bed, he might think…well, it’s abed. And I’ll be here, and Chase will be here.
I pull it out. Kick my stuffed animals under. Then I put it back to a couch. Pick up stuffed animals and arrange them on the couch. No, too childish. I toss them in the closet. Take them out. Finally, I put them on the windowsill behind a row of picture frames, like they haven’t been out for a long time.
Mom stops in my doorway and says, “Just studying, right?”
I hate the suspicious look on her face.
The doorbell rings, and my heart lurches. “Wanna get that?” Mom asks.
“No,” I say. “Just tell him to come up.” I try to sound casual, but my voice is strangled.
The moment Chase walks into my room, he owns it like everything else. It could be his room for how at home he seems to feel—and how awkward I feel. My heart leaps like a burning lump into my throat when I see him, but at least I’m not blushing yet.
“Hey, New Girl,” he says, taking a little tour around my room. “You sleep on a couch?”
I cross my arms and rock back on my heels. “It’s a bed.”
“Huh. You are one strange lady.” He stops and looks over my tower of nineties rock and alternative CDs. “Old school.”
“Yeah,” I say, shoving a hand in my back pocket.
He sinks onto my couch, then catches sight of my picture frames and immediately gets up. He studies the pictures of me and Meghan, me and Mom, me and Lily. Without comment, he straightens and turns my four bears the other way.
“Now they can see out the window,” he says, his back still turned. I don’t know what it is, but there’s something so sweet and touching in the gesture from this douchey, confident football player. A smile tugs at my lips, and I can’t seem to make it go away. I turn to my laptop, so he won’t see me smiling like an insane clown.
Chase comes over and plucks my laptop from my hands before dropping onto the couch.
“Hey,” I protest. “Rude much?”
“I thought I’d look stuff up,” he says.
“Yeah, that’s kinda the whole point of research,” I say. “But what am I supposed to do?”
“You can boss me around,” he says, laying an arm along the top of the couch and grinning up at me.
“Wow.” I shake my head and sit down, leaning forward so his arm isn’t too close to being around me. I think I’d spontaneously combust if he did that.
“What?” he asks, drawing back to look at me.
“Nothing.”
“Tell me,” he says, reaching forward to tug at my springy ponytail.