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“Check it out.” Gauge grins, motioning his head in their direction. Blake and Remy follow his gaze. Their attention focused on the last place I want it. On Dahlia and her infectious smile as she reads over the menu.
“Well hello,” Remy murmurs, a sly expression spreading across his face. “That’s a happy surprise.”
I think about kicking him under the table, but I’m unable to tear my eyes away from Dahlia. She’s beautiful. Outshining everyone else in the room. Even from this distance, I can see her lips twitching with amusement as she tries to ignore me.
“Should we go say hi? Or ask if she wants to join us?” Gauge elbows me in the ribs with a mischievous glint in his eye.
“Maybe later,” I reply, trying to sound nonchalant. Deep down, I’m torn. Part of me wants to invite Dahlia over here. Not even to rub her in Britney’s face, though that would be a nice bonus. I hesitate, afraid of what might happen if I let her in too close. She’s always seen through me. Plus, I don’t want these dipshits hanging all over her.
Chapter Eight
As soon as we step into the burger place, a pang of nostalgia washes over me. My dad would have loved it here. The first thing I notice is a Back to The Future poster. He loved those movies. The second thing I observe is that Kyson is here with his butthead friends. So much for whatever spat they were having yesterday.
Boys are weird and more dramatic than girls tend to be. Girls are catty by nature, but guys are hard to get a read on. They bottle everything up until it explodes into chaos. I push my shoulders back and follow Lauren to a table away from them, pretending I don’t notice their presence.
She introduces me to some of her friends, but I’m too distracted to really pay them much attention. I can barely keep it together long enough to order my food. I glance around the restaurant with a knot of anxiety looping in my lower belly. I wish I was oblivious to the tension crackling between Kyson and me.
I’ve felt his eyes on me since I walked through the door. It’s unnerving wondering if he’s going to try something. I’m sure he’d love nothing more than to make a scene and embarrass me.
The knot forming in my stomach continues to grow with each passing second.
Matt hasn’t texted me all day and I shouldn’t worry, but what if Kyson did something like send him that stupid fake picture? I twist my fingers together under the table, trying to resist the urge to text Matt again. The guilt of what I did last night weighs on me.
Lauren and her friend chatter about some party that’s happening tomorrow night. I nod along, but my mind is elsewhere–specifically where it shouldn’t be. On Kyson and his jerk friends.
“Hey.” Lauren squeezes my forearm. “You okay? You seem a million miles away.”
“Yeah,” I lie, forcing a smile. “Just hungry, since I skipped out on lunch.”
“Good thing our food will be here soon, then.” She grins, trying to lighten the mood. “They have the best fries. Perfect ratio of salt and grease.”
Right on cue, the server arrives with our order. “One bacon cheeseburger,” he announces, setting the plate in front of me. He’s cute, but too old for any of us. He has to be in his mid-twenties, and he has some serious ink on his neck and on his forearms.
Lauren beams at him, but I can’t help glancing over my shoulder to the other side of the room, to where Kyson goofs off with his friends.
Even from here, I can tell he’s staring back at me. His dark blue eyes linger on my face, making my heart race. Part of me wants to march right over to his table and tell him to leave me the hell alone. Another part of me wants to hide, to avoid the inevitable confrontation that would follow. Then there’s the other part of me that I need to bury down deep, because that piece of me wonders if he’s been thinking about our stolen kisses.
I stop staring before he accuses me of stalking him or something.
“Let’s eat,” I say, more to distract myself than anything else. We eat in silence for a moment, the weight of my thoughts pressing down on me. I can’t rid myself of the image of Kyson from last night when we were alone and the sadness in his eyes when he’d thought I wasn’t paying attention.
There’s more to him than the persona he puts on for everyone else. I shouldn’t care or want to dig deeper below the surface to find out what makes him tick. I know I can’t fix him or save him from himself and yet I want to try.
“Okay. Out with it,” Lauren mumbles, pausing with a half of a chicken tender dangling between her lips. “Something’s bugging you. You’ve barely said five words since we left school.”
“Guess I’m not the best company today.” I pick at my burger and take a small bite while I glance at my phone. “I’m just…thinking.”
“Okay. Well, I’m a great listener if you want to talk about something or someone,” she presses gently, looking toward Kyson.
“Not Kyson. I’m stressing about Matt,” I admit, finally voicing my concerns. “I’m not sure what’s going on with him, but he hasn’t messaged all day. He’s confusing.”
“Wait. Who is Matt?”
“Sorry. He’s my boyfriend.” I shove a fry in my mouth as heat floods my cheeks.
“Your boyfriend,” she parrots, wearing a frown.
“We’ve been together forever. It’s only I’m here, and he’s away at college.” I sigh. “We’re in a weird place. Things are so different and the distance. It’s hard.”
