Devi chimes in. ‘So, zero. I heard zero.’
‘And when you tried to avoid the subject, he insisted you talk about it?’ Raina asks.
‘Well, yes, but—’
‘Just like he did when hefinallymade you talk about May Madness and apologised for hissmallrole,’ she continues. ‘Which, by the way. . . I love you, Mads, but you had massively overplayed how involved he was in that.’
‘He stood there while she mocked me! Using his words!’ I say.
‘A total dick move, of course.’ Devi nods. ‘But you’ve always made it sound like he was the one throwing the punches.’
‘Because it felt like he was!’
‘Because you’ve always liked him!’
‘Devi!’ Kimi and Raina scream in unison.
I sit up, horrified. They grow silent, passing scared but knowing looks between them. None of them dare look my way as Devi scrambles for more words.
‘I’m s-sorry, it just slipped out,’ she stammers.
‘What? What’s going on?’ I ask.
They stay mute, deeply guilty frowns on their faces.
‘Guys?’
The silence continues. Eventually, Raina takes one for the team, letting out a long, pained sigh as she lifts her eyes back up to my face.
‘We always said we weren’t going to say anything,’ she says, as the others nod softly. ‘We were waiting for you to figure it out for yourself, if you even wanted to. But then you kissed him and he knocked on your bedroom door, and we were hoping we’d be over pretending that you haven’t always been pining for him.’
I instantly choke on my spit, coughing and spluttering as Raina rubs my back and Kimi screams at me to breathe.
‘I’m fine,’ I pant, trying to regain my composure. ‘I just– what? Pining forAiden?’
‘Mads,no onestays that obsessed with someone for that many years,’ Raina says, softly shaking her head. ‘Even if they felt like they made a fool of them at uni.’
‘If it helps, he is as equally into you,’ Devi adds.
Kimi muses, ‘Maybe even more so.’
I instantly shake my head. ‘You guys are so wrong. I read—’
‘The group chat.’ They finish for me in high-pitched, mocking voices.
‘His friends are trash– we know this. But I think you’re too quick to assume he’s the same. From what you’ve said, it sounded like he was mad at them too,’ Raina says.
‘You don’t know that.’
‘And neither do you, because you didn’t give him a chance to talk about it!’ Kimi says. ‘You got scared and ran, and I get it, Ido. But you made us promise we’d stop you from wading and get your butt diving, so that is what we’re going to do.’
‘He’s in your office tomorrow, right?’ Devi asks, as the three of them reanimate.
‘Yep, and then every day until the Summer Splash. We had to amend our initial schedule.’
‘Perfect!’ she says, before glancing over to Raina’s ready-to-burst face. ‘Raina, go on.’
‘Go to him!’ Raina says. ‘Apologise for overthinking and tell him that you want to see where this goes!’
