Out of Character (True Colors 2)

“Actually, I won’t. That would leave me open to Alex, and I’d prefer to win this round. Like I said, think ahead. But suit yourself.”

“Fine,” he huffed, then smiled for Alexandra. “You winning wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.”

“I win a lot.” Her eyes sparkled. “What happened to your leg? I’m here because I had surgery on mine. Again.”

Milo was silent for a long moment. “A mistake. A mistake happened. And I had surgery too. More than one. Swear the second was worse than the first.”

“Word.” She gave him an awkward high five. “Anesthesia makes me puke.”

“Me too.”

“Somehow I’m not surprised,” I added.

“Hey, I don’t always hurl.”

“But when you do, it’s generally spectacularly awful.” This sort of teasing felt good, almost too good, like no time at all had passed and we were back to joking about the amusement-park trip the summer before freshman year.

“You might have a point,” Milo agreed before ending his turn. Alex, who was surprisingly bloodthirsty, took me out on her next turn despite my best plans to avoid defeat. That left her and Milo, who drew a card and frowned. “Heck.”

“You can’t bluff worth s—”

“Alex,” her mother warned, looking up from her crocheting.

“Sorry.” Alex’s smile didn’t dim one bit. “Come at me.”

And Milo did, losing in short order. “Heck. Good game.”

“Warned you,” I reminded him a short time later as we cleaned up the cards.

“That you did.”

“Jasper, are you coming for dinner? I’ve got chili in the slow cooker.” My mom already had her purse and coat, and she barely spared a glance for Milo.

“Uh.” I had been planning to do more card searching with Milo, but I didn’t want to admit that to her and risk a lecture later. “I have plans. And a test to study for. Sorry.”

“It’s okay. Stop by tomorrow any time. I’ll have some leftovers for you in the fridge.”

“Thanks.” I gave her a fast kiss before she and April headed out.

“So…” Milo shuffled his feet. “Guess I’ll get changed. Good luck with your test.”

“Dork,” I teased, the light mood from earlier carrying over. “The plans are with you. Unless you’ve changed your mind?”

“Nah. We’re on.” Milo’s smile in that moment was close to perfect, warm and open and dangerous. Dangerous because it made me want in a way I hadn’t wanted in a very long time. With each interaction, Milo was wearing down my defenses, making me forget all the reasons why we couldn’t be friends—or anything else.

Chapter Sixteen

Milo

“Back to regular me.” Jasper’s smile seemed a little down as he met me in the bathroom after we finished changing. We stowed the costumes and headed to the hall.

“You sound sad about getting changed,” I teased him. We’d been in a light, good place all afternoon, and I wanted to keep it going.

“The Frog Wizard is more fun than me.” Jasper’s tone was still a little mournful, and I couldn’t tell how serious he was. I liked him in costume a lot more than I’d thought I would, but I also liked him like this, in his scruffy jeans and a sweatshirt with a twenty-sided die on it. I tried to decide how sincere a compliment to give him as we approached the cafeteria.

“I wouldn’t say that. You’re—”

Jasper cut me off as he pulled up short. “What’s that smell?”

“Ugh.” It was truly rank. Not at all the coffee and roasted-meat smell of the week prior. My stomach gave a precarious lurch. “Burned cabbage? Flaming kale? Whatever it is, my stomach is seriously rebelling.”

“Hot-dog machine malfunction,” the bored cashier standing near us supplied.

“We can’t work here.” Groaning, Jasper adjusted his bags. “Which sucks because I had ideas for you I wanted to go over.”

I had plans, too, plans to enjoy his company. I had…thoughts on him not telling his mom that we were going to hang out, but I had no room to complain. Besides, she’d glared my way more than once that afternoon. I couldn’t blame Jasper for not wanting to hear her opinion on us being…whatever this was. I didn’t know what to call someone who sent me pics of sexy drawings and who teased me almost like flirting but who might still hate me with good reason. And even with all that uncertainty, I’d still been looking forward to this.

“Dang it. Maybe—” I was about to propose sucking it up and working here anyway, but then a fresh wave of the stench hit my nose. My stomach had definite opinions about this smell, and none of them were good. Sighing, I shuffled my feet. “Nah, I guess you’re right.”

Instead of heading for the exit like I’d expected, Jasper stood there, head tilted and mouth pursed. Damn, he was cute when he was thinking.

“Hey. You still like pizza?”

“Is the sun yellow?” When I was younger, I was pretty convinced the only food better than pizza was my grandmother’s ravioli. And damn was I tired of various variations on canned soup.