“Fine! Have it your way!” She straightens out her shirt and flips her long hair over her shoulder. “I’ll be seeing you around—” She pauses, shooting me daggers. “Oliver.”
I scoff at her thinly veiled threat. “Ooo, I’m scared.”Wait, when did I tell her my name?
“Welcome to Hilton,” she says in an eerily threatening tone and then checks her watch. “You better get going, homeroom is in an hour.”
“See you around,Kennedy,” I sing. This girl doesn’t know what she just started.
Or maybe you won’t, a voice in my head counters as I watch her storm away.
four
More Issues Than Vogue
KENNEDY
“Maxine,don’tevenstartwith me!” I exclaim, rushing past my best friend. I can’t believe I just kissed that low-life! This is not happening. This is a dream. No! This is a freaking nightmare. I’ve clearly been possessed. Maybe my dad was right...I should go to church more often.
Maxine grabs my hand and tugs me backward. “Dude! What the fuck was that? I thought you were going to gotalkto him, notmake outwith him!”
“We didn’t make out! It was—uh, just a peck,” I stutter, full-blown anxiety coursing through my veins. “Can we talk about this later? We have to go do campus tours. We can’t leave the freshmen to fend for themselves.” I try to pull away, but her grip is ironclad. Maxine crosses her arms, her eyes ridiculously assertive.
“Screw the tours! Explain yourself, woman!”
Grunting with deep-seated frustration, I drop my face into my hands. “I was just telling him to move his motorcycle and then we started arguing and then I saw Sawyer with Corrine, and I just...snapped.” I jerk my head up. “Wait, you saw us kissing, right? Do you thinkSawyersaw?”
It blows my mind that Sawyer, after years of telling me how much Corrine annoys him, is dating her! I shouldn’t be this surprised though, I guess with Corrine he knows he’ll getsome. Every other guy in our class has. They don’t call her The Joint for nothing.Puff Puff Pass.A smidgen of guilt for referring to her by that misogynistic nickname passes through me but quickly fades as I remember all the shit she's called me over the years.
“Dude, everyone within a thirty-yard radius saw you two kissing. You were arguing pretty fucking loud.” Maxine pulls out her phone. “I even got a video!”
My face pales. “You were recording us? Max! That’s so creepy! Why?” This is horrible. She has physical evidence of my momentary insanity. “You didn’t post it anywhere...right?” If she did, my life is over.
Maxine smirks, forcing my heart to drop into my stomach. “Oh relax, Kenny,” she laughs. “I didn’t post it. I just wanted to document the wildest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Imagine witnessing Santa Claus smoke crack—same energy.”
I blink. Her analogies have never been on point, but this one...kind of makes sense. “God, why did I do that?” I whine. “So stupid.”
Maxine pats me on the shoulder. “Hmm...let’s see...spite, jealousy, hormones, a not yet fully developed frontal lobe. Or! Maybe because you thought he was hot? Hmm?”
“He isnothot!” I scoff. “He is the rudest, most infuriating person I have ever met! If he didn’t have an accent, I wouldn’t be able to list any positive qualities, like at all!”
Maxine springs up, her eyes gleaming with intrigue. “He has anaccent?”
I roll my eyes. “Yeah, he’s British or something,” I mutter, his annoying voice ringing in my head. “He called me an idiot, Max! Me!”
Maxine starts laughing, looping her arm through mine. “Why did he call you an idiot?” she probes in an overly sweet tone.
I suck in a sharp breath and give Max a play-by-play of our conversation as we make our way to the group of lost freshmen.Oliverbetter be in a grade below us. I refuse to breathe the same air as that asshole.
After twenty minutes of showing all the skittish and nervous fourteen-year-olds around the campus, Max and I scurry off to Building C for homeroom with Mrs. Patella.
“Okay, remember what we talked about, right?” Maxine whispers in my ear. “Don’t stare at Sawyer. It’ll make you look desperate and creepy, and we don’t want that. Just ignore him. Pretend he doesn’t exist. Okay?”
Easier said than done. With his classic good looks, sparkling smile, and never-ending entourage following him around like he’s a king, Sawyer is pretty freaking hard to avoid. Everyone always thought it was odd that we were a couple; why would the jock fall in love with the brainiac? But those people didn’t know Sawyer like I knew him. We shared the same goals, the same sense of humor, and the same values—or so I thought.
A sour taste manifests in my mouth as soon as we turn the corner and Mrs. Patella’s classroom comes into view. I knew Sawyer and Corrine would be in the same homeroom as us this year; what Ididn’t knowis how sick I’d feel watching them hold hands and make goo-goo eyes at each other.Gross.
Lingering outside the classroom, Leon and Felicity both turn their heads when Maxine yells, “Bitches!” at the top of her lungs and runs up to them, waving her hands in the air like a maniac. I follow closely behind, making sure to avert my gaze from my ex-boyfriend and his newgirlfriend.
“Kennedy! Maxine! My angels! Come here!” Felicity spreads her freckled pale arms and pulls us into a group hug, almost clonking our heads together. “How I’ve missed you!”
