“Trust me, I know I’m not.”
“It makes so much sense now. All of it. Why you’ve been avoiding me, why you reacted the way you did when I saw your dad was calling,” he says. “I was fully prepared to come out here and end up hating you.”
“I was trying to prepare for you to hate me,” I say. “But I don’t want you to hate me.”
“I don’t,” he says. “I feel like I know the real you now, and I really like the real you.”
“So we can still be friends?” I ask.
“There is nothing that could make me not want to be your friend,” Estaine says.
I lean my head over on his shoulder, feeling so much relief. This definitely turned out better than any scenario that I imagined. “You know, I haven’t told anybody else besides you. I mean, my family knows, obviously, and the secret service. So, this is kind of a big deal. A huge deal. I’m pretty sure if I told Uncle Matty and Jake, they would freak out, possibly threaten you, and pull me out of school.”
“Then we just have to make sure they don’t find out,” he says. “I promise I won’t tell anybody, because I want you here.”
“You do?”
“Of course. East Raven was boring before you.”
“I doubt that. My life was pretty boring until I came here,” I say. “I mean, besides the whole getting kidnapped thing. All I ever did was hang out with my stepbrother and his friends. Last year, one of Charlie’s friends felt sorry for me, and asked me to homecoming so I wouldn’t have to go alone.”
“I doubt that was his reason.”
“No. He literally told me that he didn’t figure anybody else would ask me, so he asked me.”
“I can’t believe you said yes,” he says.
“I said no. But then I realized I kind of did want to go to homecoming. Charlie was dating some girl at the time, and I knew if I didn’t go with his friend, I wouldn’t be able to go,” I say. “It was fun, even if the guy was a really bad dancer.”
“I’m a great dancer,” Estaine says.
This surprises me, so I lift my head and look at him. “Seriously?”
He laughs. “No. Not at all.”
“I’m not a particularly good dancer, either,” I say.
“Well, that’s perfect then. You and I will go to homecoming together and we can suck together,” he says.
“Definitely,” I say.
I think he’s joking about going to homecoming together. If he’s not, it probably would be for the best, anyway. I don’t think I can exactly bring Brooks to my homecoming, even if he’s convinced I can go to West Raven for his. I would have fun with Estaine.
“By the way, what is up with your t-shirt tonight?” Estaine asks me.
I look down to see which one I’m wearing. My t-shirt is white and in black letters it says, ‘Got to have fries on Friday.’
“You don’t get it?” I ask. “It’s kind of a spoof from that video that went viral years ago. The Friday song by Rebecca Black. But it doesn’t matter what day it is, because every day is a fry day.”
“You are one weird chick, Phoenix,” Estaine says.
“I know.”
11pm.
Story of my life.
Estaine and I got to talking, and didn’t realize that it was a few minutes past curfew, so we both run back to our dorms—and I get detention. The amount of time you get in detention is based on how late you are for curfew. I was ten minutes late so I have to do twice that amount. Twenty minutes on Monday.
I walk to my dorm room, thinking how much Monday is going to suck.
I have never had detention before. I’ve never been late for class, never acted out of line, nor did anything worthy of detention. The fact that I’m in trouble for being late for a stupid curfew, makes me mad. Why do we even have a curfew? My mom never gave me a curfew before.
When I open the door, Teagan is sitting up on her bed.
“Oh, my gosh! Tell. Me. Everything,” she says.
“I got detention for being late,” I say, sitting down on my own bed.
She waves me off. “I’ve already had detention twice this year for being late. It’s not a big deal. I mean with Estaine. Tell me everything that happened.”
“Oh,” I say. “We just talked.”
“About what?”
“Stuff. Life,” I answer.
“Are you dating now?” she asks.
“No.”
She frowns, obviously disappointed.
“He did say he wants to take me to homecoming, though, I’m not sure if he was being serious,” I say.
She lets out a squeal. “I knew it! He’s so into you!”
“Shut up, he’s not,” I say.
“But you like him, right?”
“He’s my friend. And he is super attractive,” I say. But I’m kind of into somebody else. “Right now, I kind of just want to be his friend. And I’m pretty sure he feels the same way as I do.”
“Okay,” she says. “I get it. You guys want to go slow.”
I have a feeling that Teagan never does anything slow.
“Slow isn’t a bad thing,” I say.
“You’re right. Some of the best relationships start out with being just friends,” she says.