Beautiful Chaos (Caster Chronicles 3)

“I am. It’s the pin that’s not.” His hand was shaking.

I cleared my throat, and they looked up. Liv turned even pinker when she saw me. John stood taller.

“Hello there.” Liv was still blushing.

“Hi.” I couldn’t think of what else to say.

“This is awkward.” John smiled as if we were friends. I turned to Lena without answering, because we weren’t.

“Even if this wasn’t the weirdest idea you’ve ever come up with—and I’m not saying it isn’t—how do you think we’re going to pull this off? Neither one of them goes to Jackson.”

Lena held up two more tickets to the Slush Ball. “You bought two, I bought two.” She gestured to John. “Meet my date.”

Excuse me?

She looked at Liv. “And yours.”

Why are you doing this?

“We can bring whoever we want as our dates. It’s just until we get inside.”

Are you crazy, L?

No. It’s a favor for a friend.

I looked at John and Liv.

Which one is suddenly your friend?

She reached up to put her hands on my shoulders, and kissed my cheek. “You.”

“I don’t understand.”

We’re moving forward. Let things be as they are.

I looked at John and Liv.

This is your idea of moving forward?

Lena nodded.

“Hello? If you two want to actually talk out loud, we can wait in the other room.” John was watching us impatiently.

“Sorry. We’re good now.” Lena gave me a meaningful look. “Right?”

Maybe we were, but I knew someone who wouldn’t be. “Do you have any idea what Link is gonna say about this? He’s waiting in the car with Savannah right now.”

Lena nodded at John, and I heard the ripping noise again, coming from outside. The music blasting from the Beater suddenly stopped. “Link’s already at the dance. So I guess we go, right?” John grabbed Liv’s hand.

“You ripped Link?” I felt my shoulders stiffen. “You weren’t even touching him.”

John shrugged. “I told you, I’m not really a rules kinda guy. I can do a lot of things. Most of the time, I don’t even know how.”

“That makes me feel a lot better.”

“Relax. It was your girlfriend’s idea.”

“What’s Savannah gonna think?” I could imagine her telling this story to her mom.