Swallowing a sigh, I picked at the Salisbury steak as I watched Anna and Keira check out each other’s bracelets. Gold and silver bangles with charms.
Maybe it was what I heard this morning. I had no idea, but I forced my tongue off the roof of my mouth. “They are so...pretty.”
Anna glanced at Jo quickly and then grinned at me, covering her surprise. “They’re Alex and Ani bracelets. I have a few at home,” she said. “They’re the best.”
Jo extended her arm and shook her wrist. She had three on. “Vilma got us addicted.”
I concentrated on cutting a piece of steak. “Vilma?”
“She graduated last year,” Keira explained. “Used to be the captain of the squad. She’s actually cheering for WVU now.”
Anna nodded as she picked a crinkle fry off my plate. “I swear, she would hand-sell those bracelets.”
I inched my plate closer to her, and she snatched up a couple of the fries. The conversation quickly changed, and I started to think about speech class. I couldn’t remember what Keira was doing her informative speech on, but I wondered if she planned to practice.
My lips parted and my tongue started to wrap itself around some vowels and syllables, but could I even practice my speech in front of her? It would take forever for me to work up the nerve. Would she think I was weird? Probably. I’d end up having to eat lunch in the library or something. I chickened out before I even got one word out.
Sigh.
I was almost done with what I was hoping wasn’t kangaroo meat, when I felt someone drop into the empty seat beside me. I recognized the earthy scent as I glanced up.
Keira grinned. “Hey, Jayden.”
“Yo,” he said, sitting sideways in the chair with his arm propped on the table. “You beautiful ladies looked lonely. Thought I’d come over and bless you with my presence.”
Jo snorted. “Looks like you just woke up and got to school.”
“Maybe I did.” Jayden went for my fries, ignoring Anna’s narrowed gaze. “Thanks, babe.”
“You two know each other?” Jo gestured between Jayden and me with her fork.
Before I could nod, he dropped an arm over my shoulders. “She’s my bae.”
I grinned.
“Bae?” Keira sighed. “I hate that word. Do you know what it really means?”
“Poop,” I answered without thinking. “In Danish.”
My eyes widened. Holy crap. I’d spoken without hesitation at lunch! Holy crap! No one recognized my internal freak-out over it, but I couldn’t believe it. I sat there and spoke with no problem.
I needed to give myself a cookie.
Anna giggled. “Oh, man. I know. I know. Still think it’s a cute word.”
Across from her, Keira rolled her eyes. “It literally means shit.”
“Mallory is the shit, though,” Jayden reasoned as he dropped his arm.
I raised a brow.
“Where’s your brother at?” Jo asked. “I’ll be his bae.”
Jayden snorted. “Why? He’s a loser. Me? I’m baby-faced fresh. He’s old, crusty news.”
Laughing, I brushed my hair over my shoulder as Jo wrinkled her nose. “Crusty?” she said. “That’s not a word I normally associate with Hector.”
“You should.”
Jayden went back and forth with the girls for the rest of the lunch period, and he was... He was something else. Hilarious. Oddly charming. In a few years, I bet he was going to be as much a handful as I imagined Hector was. I smiled so much listening to him that I wondered if I’d have premature wrinkles from it.
The smile didn’t go away when I ran into Rider in the stairwell as I was making my way to speech. It was the first time I’d seen him today. Wearing another faded shirt and worn jeans, his hair a little disheveled, he looked like he might’ve slept through his last class.
A lazy grin pulled at his lips. “I was just coming for you.”
My smile, unbelievably, kicked up a notch as I joined him on the landing. He wheeled around and walked beside me.
“I was thinking about the whole speech-practice thing,” he said. “You still want me to help you with that, right?”
A nervous flutter started deep in my belly. I wanted to practice with Rider, but after what happened this morning, that would not be wise. I took a deep breath. “You don’t have to do that. I mean, I’m sure...you have better things to do.”
“But I want to help you.” He caught the swinging door and held it open as he frowned. “If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have offered.”
I stepped through, forcing the words out. “I know, but...”
“I want to help you practice,” he repeated without a moment of hesitation, and that flutter in my stomach spread to my chest as we started down the stairs. “Why wouldn’t you want to practice?” He paused. “With me?”
Glancing up at him as we rounded the landing, I saw the confusion in his hazel gaze. I bit the inside of my lip. Dammit. “I just wanted to make sure...you didn’t feel like you had to.”
He grinned. “I’m free Thursday.”