Although Pixie was one of my closest friends, we didn’t hang out with the same crowd most of the time. She tended to flock around Braxton’s crew, whereas I kept away from them as much as I could.
She shrugged and didn’t respond right away, and I knew it was because she probably assumed what I would say. I knew she was going to ask if I wanted to go to Braxton’s party after the game this weekend. And my initial, instant reaction was to say hell no. But then she looked at me, and the expression on her face was one where she thought she could get her way if she looked pathetic.
“You know how Braxton is having that party?”
I made a disgusted sound in the back of my throat and took another drink of water so I wouldn’t start bitching about him.
“He invited me, but I’m not going alone. Will you come with me?”
I was already shaking my head, but she gave me this big, watery look.
I rolled my eyes and shook my head more before setting my water bottle on the table. “Pixie, you know that doesn’t work on me. I’m immune to your pathetic expressions.”
She held her hands up and clasped them together, as if begging me.
“Please?” She drew out the word, leaning in close and resting her head on my shoulder. “I know you hate him and his friends, and I can see why, but he hasn’t ever really shown me much interest until now, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to jump on that opportunity, even if it’s just for that night.”
She lifted her head from my shoulder, and I snapped my head in her direction, my eyes wide. “Pixie, he’s an asshole. You know he just wants to use you, right?”
She shrugged and opened her bag of chips, popping one in her mouth and crunching away while she wore a damn smirk. “Or maybe I’m the one using him.” She waggled her eyebrows, and I couldn’t help but chuckle and shake my head.
Pixie was in a league all her own. “I really don’t want to go. I can’t stand him. He creeps me out.” Before she could respond, Aiden was setting his books on the seat in front of me and then sitting down. I swore the table went silent as Pixie and I stared at him and as the other students at the end of the table glanced over in our direction. He never sat with anyone and instead kept to himself during lunch.
“Hey,” he said in that deep, masculine voice that had tingles instantly moving throughout my body.
I had a hand around my water bottle and involuntarily squeezed the plastic, the crunching noise seeming deafening. I loosened my grip and gave him a smile, but I felt my face already starting to heat.
Now was not the time to be awkward.
“Hi.” We didn’t say anything else for long seconds, and I saw him glance at Pixie. I looked at her and could see she stared at him with wide eyes and this little smirk on her face.
Please don’t let her embarrass me. Please don’t let her tell Aiden how much I stare at him, even if he does probably notice.
“It’s Aiden, right?” she asked and rested her elbows on the table, propping her head in one of her hands as she looked at him. “I’m Pixie, Harlow’s best friend.”
He nodded and shifted on the bench-style seating so his shoulder was up against the window.
“You like it here?” Pixie asked, and I saw Aiden smirk.
“Sure” was all he said.
Pixie snorted but immediately started with more conversation. “So, Aiden, do you have any plans this weekend?”
I snapped my head in Pixie’s direction and clenched my jaw, giving her a look that told her to shut up. And even though she wasn’t actually looking at me to see my silent demand, I could tell by the smile she wore that she could see me well enough out of her peripheral.
She didn’t wait for him to respond before she started in again. “I was trying to talk Harlow into going with me to a party Saturday after the game. She’s not really having it, but I think if you tagged along, it would make is so much more fun.” Pixie looked at me then, her grin clearly shit-eating now.
Oh that bitch.
I narrowed my eyes at her, and she started chuckling.
“And if Harlow has somebody there to keep her busy, I can go do other things.” She was speaking to Aiden but looking right at me, and you didn’t have to be a genius to know what “other things” she was referring to.
I swallowed roughly and looked at Aiden. His expression was stoic, and his focus was on me, and in that moment, I felt like it was just the two of us—that Pixie wasn’t sitting right beside me, that there wasn’t a room full of students surrounding us, that the noise wasn’t ear-splitting.