“What?”
Shit. “Uh… never mind. Thinking about something else. Like hoes. And bros.”
“What about them?”
“I have no idea,” I said honestly.
He squinted at me. “You’re odd sometimes.”
“Pretty much all the time. Let’s talk about—”
“So, Mervin was a Sam Girl. Not a Foxy Lady at all.”
“Oh, we’re still going to talk about that,” I said. “That’s super.”
“Did you know about that? Sam Girls?”
Of course I did. I had invented the term. “Nope. I had n
o idea.”
“Apparently it’s a big thing.”
“As it should be. I’m awesome.” I shouldn’t have said that.
“True. You don’t seem very surprised.”
“That I’m awesome?”
“Sam.”
“I am awesome.”
“HaveHeart is apparently a thing too,” he said, not once taking his eyes away from me.
So I said, “It’s always nice to have a heart.”
“No, that’s not what it means. It means you and me.”
“There is no you and me,” I said.
Something flickered across his face. Something I couldn’t quite make out. It almost seemed like hurt and pain, but it was gone behind the mask he usually wore, stoic and strangely charming. “True. Rystin was the other one. You know. For me and Justin.”
“Very fitting,” I said. Rystin sounded like a contagious genital disease. “It suits you two.” I chose that moment to glance over at Tiggy and Gary so Ryan wouldn’t see through my bullshit. They were off in some corner, whispering to some stranger, looking back over at us and then whispering some more. Gary was plotting. This wasn’t going to end well.
“I just thought it was fascinating,” Ryan said. “People pairing us up like that. I wonder what that was about?”
“I don’t know,” I said. We belong together! “Must be something they see that we don’t.” Put your dick in me! “Absolutely no idea.” All the ideas! I have all the ideas!
“Anyway,” he said, “I signed some autographs. The leader or whatever. She was very adamant. Tiffany, I think her name was.”
“Tina,” I said.
His eyes widened slightly.
I blanched. “Teee naaa,” I said like a moron. “Tina. Go. Tinago Fall. Is a waterfall. In the Luri Desert. And that is your fun fact for the day. Because geography is knowledge and knowledge is power.” I gave him an enthusiastic thumbs-up. I probably looked a little manic.
“Knowledge is power,” he repeated. “You okay there, Sam?”