The Year I Became Isabella Anders (Sunnyvale, #1)(46)

“You look fine,” Kai says, misreading my primping.

My hands fall to my lap. “I was just trying to make my hair bounce more.”

He taps on the brake to slow for a stoplight then twists in the seat, looking at me with his brow cocked. “Bounce? I didn’t know hair bounced.”

“Tell that to my cousin Indigo, because she seems to think hair needs to bounce all the time.”

“I’ll never understand girls sometimes.”

“And I’ll never understand guys sometimes. It’s like one minute, you’re sweet, and then the next, you’re all like,” I drop my voice to a low baritone, “‘Whatever, I don’t care about anything anymore.’”

“I always care about stuff,” he says, driving forward as the light turns green. “Sometimes I just can’t show it.”

“That’s really silly.”

“About as silly as pretending we were wizards.”

“Hey, I was a witch.” I smile as I remember how during our walks home, we’d sometimes stop at the park and pretend we were awesome enough to possess the power of magic. “Not a wizard.”

“Whatever. It was still silly. I mean, we were almost thirteen years old for god’s sake. We were too old to be playing make-believe.” Even though his eyes are glued to the road, I can sense the tension flowing off him.

“Well, I didn’t. And I still don’t think it’s silly.” I focus on the shops, the local bank, and the small grocery store lining the street, trying to ignore the pain over how he thinks our time together was silly—that I’m silly.

“You’re still the same,” he remarks, and I can feel his eyes on me.

“I’m a little different,” I reply without looking at him. “But yeah, I’m kind of the same too.”

“That’s not a bad thing, Isa.” His fingers brush right above my injured knee.

I jolt in the seat as his touch ripples across my body and zaps my heart like a defibrillator. What in the wild, wild, crazyland was that?

“I know it’s not a bad thing. I know I’m weird, but I’ve always been pretty okay with that. I just wish I knew why.” An unsteady breath eases from my lips as I peek down at Kai’s hand on my leg and then over to him.

He quickly withdraws his hand and places it on the steering wheel. “Why what?”

“Why I am the way that I am. I’ve never fit in with anyone, especially my family. And then I found out that Lynn isn’t my mom and I kind of, I don’t know, felt relieved, which probably makes me a bad person, but that’s how I feel.”

“That doesn’t make you a bad person at all. I’ve heard some of Hannah’s stories, about the stuff they’ve done to you. You should hate her.”

“She’s told people about the things she’s done to me?” Nausea sets in as I think about all the incriminating pictures she snapped of me doing embarrassing, dorky things. What if she’s shown them to everyone?

He offers me a look of empathy. “I’m sorry. I thought you knew.”

“No, but I’m not surprised.” I scrape at the black nail polish on my fingernails. “Sometimes I wonder if Hannah’s always known that we don’t have the same mom, and that’s why she treats me bad.”

“Hannah treats you bad, because she’s a spoiled princess.” Kai downshifts the car. “She’s basically gotten everything she’s wanted since we were kids.”

“I know . . . I don’t get why people even like her.”

“Because they’re afraid of her. They’d rather be her friend than her enemy.”

“So, you were afraid of her then?” I ask. “Because you liked her once.”

“I’ve never liked her.” He grinds his teeth. “I told you I just hit on her, because I knew Kyler had a thing for her and it would piss him off. There was never anything more to it.”

“If Kyler had a thing for her, then why isn’t he dating her anymore?” I attempt not to sound bitter, but fail epically.

“He liked her when he was younger, but grew out of it,” he explains, making a right down a side road that weaves between the rolling foothills. “It’s probably the one smart thing he’s ever done in his life. The whole date thing at the beginning of the summer pretty much happened only because Hannah’s pushy as fuck when she wants something.”

“I completely agree.” I restrain a smile, but it’s difficult when I just found out Kyler never really wanted to go out with Hannah. He was probably being nice.

“So, you’re still obsessed with him, huh?” Kai asks, jostling me of my Kyler Lust Trance.

“What . . . no . . . I’m not . . .” My cheeks erupt in flames, but fortunately, it’s dark enough that there’s no way Kai can see my mortification.

“Relax, Isa.” He pats my uninjured knee, all buddy, buddy like. “It’s not really that big of a secret.”

I frown. “But it makes me sound pathetic. Obsessing over some guy for years, who I have no chance in hell of ever going out with.”

“Why don’t you have a chance?” he asks, genuinely baffled.

“Um, because I’m me.”

“Yeah, so? He asked you to his football game, didn’t he?”