Under the Lights

“Thanks,” I replied, and I meant it. Knowing Ivy, she’d have me brownies every day this week. Once again proving what a dick I was for trying to get free from taking her to the homecoming dance.

“I also made sure that they got you cheesy bread with that sauce you like. I know you love it with your pizza.”

Again there she was making me feel terrible. If she could just be the annoying clingy girl, it would be easier. But then she does nice stuff like this, and I feel bad.

“Great. Thank you,” I said again.

We walked into the cafeteria with her still holding on to my arm in her very blatant sign that I was taken. Or so she wanted me to be. Not that the girls around here really cared. They would flirt with me just to piss her off. Ivy wanted a meaningful relationship. And I just didn’t feel the same way about Ivy.

Turning my attention back to Gunner and Willa, I saw her sit down at our table with him. Interesting. Everyone on the football team got to invite one person to the table homecoming week to eat with them, and Gunner had chosen Willa. I had to choose Ivy. She’d made sure I had cheesy bread and brownies, dammit. Best I could do was go sit beside her. Which I hurried over there to do before someone else could. Ivy would have to deal with it.

“I swear to God! Not lost a homecoming since our freshman year and not about to start,” Gunner was bragging to Willa. She glanced up at me as I sat down on the other side of her. Gunner was at the end of the table, and Willa was sitting to his right, on the side facing the door. I guess she wanted to keep her escape in sight if she needed to get away from all of us.

“Smack talk. I like it,” I said.

Willa smiled at me. “This will be my first game. I hope y’all are right about all this football-god stuff. I hate to cheer for losers.” The teasing tone of her voice made me break into a grin. That and the fact she was coming to our game. I hadn’t expected that. My pleased smile began to fade as I considered who she might be coming with. I thought it was just Gunner I had to worry about. Was there someone else, too?

“Who are you coming with?” I asked, wondering if she had a date for homecoming and I missed it.

She shrugged. “Myself.” Most girls I knew wouldn’t be so cool with admitting they had no friends to go to a game with. The only two Willa had would be on the field. I hadn’t seen any of the girls actually speak to her except Maggie. As if she had read my mind from across the table as she and West took their seats, Maggie spoke up. “You can go with me. I always need someone to sit with while West plays.”

I wanted to high-five my cousin for being so awesome. A month ago she didn’t even speak. At least not to anyone but West. To the rest of the world she was a mute. She’d come a long way.

“After the game you can ride with me and West to the dance, too,” she added.

I liked that idea. Especially if I was able to end things with Ivy. Still trying to figure out how to do that without hurting her. She didn’t deserve that.

“Oh, okay. But I wasn’t planning on going to the dance.”

Maggie didn’t press that. She just nodded.

“You not have a date?” Nash asked, waggling his eyebrows like he was about to ask.

“No, but I don’t do dances,” Willa replied.

“I’m just glad you’re coming to the game,” I said, hoping to change the subject before it went in a direction I didn’t want.

“What color is your dress, Maggie?” Ivy spoke up as her hold on my arm tightened.

Maggie shifted her gaze to Ivy, then glanced back at me. Maggie wasn’t one for fashion talk. “Um, I don’t know yet.”

Mom was going to take Maggie shopping for a dress this week. Maggie hadn’t pressed, and, to be honest, my mother was more excited than Maggie about getting her a dress. She’d have been fine wearing something she already had.

“Seriously? I’ve had mine bought since August. It’s gorgeous with gold shimmer fabric that clings in all the right places.”

I didn’t respond and wiggled my arm free of Ivy’s hold. When she tried to hold on to it, I got annoyed. “I gotta eat,” I told her, and then jerked it free. Sometimes it was hard to be nice to her. The hurt look in her eyes made me feel sick to my stomach though. Dammit.

You Gonna Feed Her Next?

CHAPTER 27

WILLA

Ivy verged on annoying. No. I was being nice. She annoyed me. Earplugs so I wouldn’t have to hear her high-pitched voice constantly demanding the entire table’s attention would be nice. I missed my picnic table outside, where I had been sitting alone with my brown-paper-bag lunch that Nonna packed me and my book. It was quieter out there.

Gunner had come after me and asked me to come eat with him, so I said yes without thinking that through. I’d been passing their table on my way outside for days now, and I knew it was full of people like Ivy who I didn’t particularly care for.

Poppy would have started mimicking her by this point while whispering in my ear. I’d be giggling and unable to control my laughs from escaping. My heart squeezed at the thought. I missed her.

“The dance is fun. You should go,” Brady leaned down and whispered, then reached out to get a plate with cheese pizza and put it down in front of me. I only ate cheese pizza. There were three other choices being placed at the center of the table by what looked like overdressed mothers. I wasn’t sure what that was all about. I didn’t much care. What I did care about was that Brady had gotten me the correct one.

“Was that a lucky guess?” I asked him.

He flashed me a pleased grin. “No. I picked more than one pepperoni off your pizza back in the day Miss I-Only-Eat-Cheese-on-My-Pizza.”