I nod too. “Okay, I guess I’ll go now, and find him.”
But before I go, I give him this, this one last thing.
That I instinctively know he wants.
“It’s Watermelon Sugar.”
His eyes drop to my mouth because he already knows what I’m talking about. That I’m telling him the name of my lipstick.
He keeps his gaze on it for a bit.
As if to memorize the shade of it, different from Desert Rose, which I wore the last time. This one’s a brighter shade of pink with some red mixed in.
When he’s done, he steps back.
Like he did the other night, putting himself in the background so I can focus on his best friend.
And I do.
I go in search of Lucas.
And as I walk, I tell my heart to stop beating for Reign when I’m going to see his best friend. I tell my mind to focus on the task at hand and not at the fact that he saved Lucas once upon a time.
By the time I see Lucas, I’ve managed to get all my thoughts under control.
Like Reign said, Lucas is alone except for this one guy with him, and they’re both sort of huddled together at the edge of the party, in a secluded area. But when they see me coming, the guy leaves and Lucas stands there, his eyes pinned on me.
“Hi,” I say, reaching him.
“You’re here.”
“I came to see you.”
“Another apology?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“Last time it didn’t go so well.”
His lips twitch at my morose statement. “No, it didn’t.”
A very subtle movement but my heart leaps in my chest. “So I was wondering…” I wring my hands, debating how to best put it. “Uh, I’m probably,definitely, the last person you want to see right now but I was wondering if we could just… talk? I know you’re going through a hard time and you don’t… you don’t have to talk about that if you don’t want to. You probably don’t want to and… We can talk about something else, anything, catch up?” God, that sounds awful, catch up, as if all we had been was distant friends and nothing more. “Or you know, whatever.”
I wait for him to reject me.
This is even worse than the apology that I’d given him the other night.
I might as well turn around now and go back.
But as it happens, I don’t have to because he says, “Okay.”
“What?”
He roves his eyes over my features. “Let’s talk.”
My heart leaps in my chest again. “Oh, uh, okay.” I smile hesitantly then. “Okay, I —”