Misfits Like Us (Like Us #11)(62)

I’ve never looked at Joana like that.

“Donnelly,” Oscar calls over. “Explain yourself, bro.”

I pull slightly away from Joana, not enough to break contact. Her fingers are still tucked in my waistband.

“I’m his date, obviously,” Joana replies first.

“Thank you, Jo, but I asked him.”

I spread out my hands. “She’s my date.” I’m hoping I sound as calm as I want to feel. This isn’t landing right, though. Not without a good-humored grin, but I can’t even force one. “You asked me to bring someone, and I brought Jo.”

Oscar is stuck shaking his head.

I’d normally make a quip about it, but the joke races beyond my frozen state.

Eliot has stood up, and he pulls out a chair for Joana, the one closest to Jack. Thankfully, she peels away from me to sit down, and she pats the vacant seat beside her. “Come on, Don Don.”

“Don Don,” Oscar tries to grin. “You’re fucking with me.” He points at me.

Joana is glaring at me to keep this joke intact.

“Alright, Jo Jo.” I play into the nicknames we thought of on the way here. My feet move before my brain, and I’m sitting beside Jo. It’s not a big deal.

It’s not that serious.

“What are we drinking?” Joana asks, and I pass her a menu. Her hand skates up and down my thigh.

Since we’re on SFO’s side of the table, Oscar sees the thigh-touch.

I play dumb and scan the foliage around us. “Welcome to the jungle.” I flash the rock on hand sign too loosely. Needs a tongue wag and more gusto that I’m not feeling.

“Where the lions have come to play,” Eliot grins, eyeing me and Joana like he sees through the joke.

“I eat lions for breakfast,” Joana retorts. “Tell your brother that next time you see him.”

“Which one?” Tom asks, drumming the table with his fingers.

“The aggravating one.”

Don’t look at Luna.

I shift my leg a little and Jo’s hand falls. She doesn’t notice.

Eliot twirls a fork. “We’re all aggravating given the right circumstance and perspective, but I’m going to guess Charlie.”

“Has to be Charlie,” Tom nods.

“And they say Cobalts are smart,” Joana retorts.

Oscar has his fingers to his face like he’s in a horror flick, and Farrow is near laughter at Jo’s roast. I want to make a joke again, but my tongue feels heavy.

Don’t look at Luna. All I wanna do is look at her.

Eliot bypasses her shot at him. “Ben, then.”

“Beckett,” she forces out, and my blood runs cold hearing his name.

Is this my hell or what? One of my own making.

“Beckett?” Tom and Eliot say in unison.

“Why so shocked?” Jo asks with heat.

“Uh, because it’s Beckett,” Tom gapes at her. “He’s the antithesis of aggravating.”

“He’s the calmest of us,” Eliot adds.

I know.

I remember.

I try to block Beckett out of my head too. Craning my neck backwards into the planter of ferns, I’m almost able to catch Oscar’s attention. Maybe I can quietly alert him that this is all a joke without Joana seeing and feeling betrayed by me. That way I won’t hurt her, too.

“Well, he’s an ass,” Joana states plainly, and Oscar is too roped into the drama to notice my eyes on him.

“I am both bewildered and intrigued,” Eliot leans towards Jo. “Do say more.”

She can’t. The server comes in to cut the conversation but not the tension.

Explain myself. Where do I even begin? How I’ve been trying not to be hung up on Luna. How I didn’t want to be fucked and dumped at the end of tonight. How the person I really want is sitting at the other end of this table, but I can’t even bear to look her way.

It hurts too much to say any of it to anyone, and I’m tired of being in pain.

Is she alright?

I finally look.

Luna has her hands on her round cheeks. Nearly covering her face. The way her bony shoulders curve in, she looks like she’s hiding from the world.

The chair beside her is empty. Where’s Korey with a K? I tense more, and Maximoff suddenly fills the empty seat to talk to his sister. She nods a little at him.

“Donnelly.” Jo elbows my side.

I can’t speak.

Her brows arch. “What do you want to drink?” She begins to frown. “You okay?”

No. The server is looking at me. “Just a water,” I tell him, and the other two people at the table introduce themselves to me.

In my daze, I don’t catch their names. Girl must be a Talia Simone lookalike, though. Could be sisters.

Once the server is gone, I finally motion to Oscar and capture his gaze.

Joana whirls towards me. Shit. She notices her brother looking at us and scoots further into me, cupping my jaw. “You remember last night?” Her palm ascends my thigh to my dick, and I pull back—but her words alone puncture something in Oscar.

“No, no, no.” He shoots out an arm and shoves me away from Jo.

“I didn’t—” I cut myself off because Oscar is speaking heatedly in Portuguese to Joana. She speaks with the same energy in the same language.