“Hey,” I said.
“Hey.” She was staring at the display on her camera instead of at me. “Look, I’m sorry about yesterday. I was just trying to help.”
“Trying to help? You were trying to get my uncle to lock me away like Rapunzel.”
She slowly swallowed the green beans she’d just put in her mouth and finally looked up at me. “No. I was trying to push you toward Matt instead of Felix. Because…you two make more sense.”
“Yeah…no. He’s still not speaking to me in public.”
She put her chin in her hand. “But he’s staring at you.”
“He’s not staring…” my words died away when I turned around to look at the Untouchables’ table. Matt was still staring. Directly at me. I swallowed hard and turned back around. “Random coincidence. But it doesn’t matter anyway. Because my uncle calmed down and now he wants to meet Felix.”
Kennedy spit water out all over the table. “He what?”
“Geez. Watch it.” I grabbed a napkin and started blotting up her mess.
“What do you mean he wants to meet him? Why would Uncle Jim want to meet Felix?”
“Because I told him how much I like him.”
“But…that’s…that’s not…but…”
“Hey,” Felix said and sat down next to me. “Thanks for saving me a seat.”
Kennedy closed her mouth. And then opened it again. Closed it again. And then a smile spread over her face. “Hey, Felix. So great that you could join us.”
“It is?” he asked. “Why do I feel like this is some kind of trick?”
“What?” She laughed but it came out way higher than usual like she was pretending to be someone else. “I was just saying how fun it would be if you ate lunch with us today.”
She most definitely hadn’t been. I watched as she started eating again without spitting anything anywhere.
“Uh…yeah,” Felix said. “I was kinda hoping to make it a normal thing.”
Kennedy swallowed the food in her mouth. “Awesome. We can be the three amigos. Amigas? Probably amigas since there’s only one boy.” She reached across the table and lightly flicked Felix’s hand.
“Sure. Are you feeling okay, Kennedy? You’re acting all…well…more like you used to freshman year.”
“What do you mean?”
“Like…nice to me.”
“Psh.” She waved her fork in the air.
The other day I would have been worried she’d stab him with it. But she didn’t look murderous today.
“When have I ever acted mean toward you? We go way back. We knew each other before Brooklyn even started going here. Before she even moved to this state. We were already a twosome. The first twosome.”
“Right.” Felix gave me a weird look. “Well, great. I’ll even be part of your awesome girl group if that’s what you want.”
“Definitely. The three of us can hang out all the time. Like…always together all three of us. Speaking of which, what are you guys doing Thursday night? I was thinking we could all hang out.”
“Kennedy,” I said. “I just told you Felix was going to meet my uncle on Thursday. We’re having dinner...”
“Great! What time? I’ll be there.”
Felix glanced at me again and then back at her. “Actually, Kennedy it was more of a date kinda thing.”
