Misfits Like Us (Like Us #11)(78)

It’s pretty sweet of them, and another plus, Donnelly isn’t near Delilah. He’s safe from her.

“All is well,” I mutter to myself.

“Have you tried one of these?” Frog asks me, suddenly appearing and licking frosting off a cupcake. “So freaking good.”

“I think Audrey might have made them,” I say. “She volunteered to help for Homecoming. She’s a talented little bean.”

“That, she totally is.”

Bobbing my head to the music, I take the cupcake that Frog offers me and lick frosting like she did. The DJ starts playing “Barbie Girl” by Aqua and the teens go wild for all the throwback songs.

Girl squad are in full bouncing mode, jumping on their feet in a fit of laughter. Despite not being seniors yet, those four look like the life of the party. Everyone seems to want to jump with them.

Xander hangs out near the outskirts, even when Delilah keeps trying to draw him further inside the cluster of students.

My brother has a lot of rhythm. I’ve seen him break dance at home a million-and-one times. Yet, he’s struggling to move. First dance nerves are strong with this one.

I wish I could wiggle my fingers and magically give him all the confidence he needs.

He bobs his head to the beat, and Delilah resorts to just dancing around him.

I glance to the bleachers.

Donnelly shimmies his shoulders and mouths the words to both the guy and girl roles. I instantly grin. Frog follows my gaze to the bleachers. “So…Luna…?”

“Huh?” I ask.

“I don’t know if you know this about me, but I’m quite perceptive. I see things.”

“You do?” I take a bite of cupcake.

“Yeah, and if you need a wingwoman to get a certain bodyguard to come over here, I’m your girl.”

I swallow a lump of cupcake. Two thoughts hit me. 1.) Am I that obvious? And 2.) Frog is the best bodyguard, willing to help and not rat me out to anyone.

Do I need help to get Donnelly in my orbit?

I think he’s been in my orbit for so long. Now he’s living in the penthouse. And this very second, Frog is offering her assistance to ensure our planes of existence cross and try to overlap.

But we can’t overlap.

That’s the thing.

It’s just one moment. We’re friends, and we’ve never really avoided each other before. I’m not starting now. “What did you have in mind?” I ask Frog.

She clicks her mic. “Frog to Donnelly. I have a female bodyguard emergency that involves a sudden period. Have to go use the ladies’ restroom to stop the flow, you know? Could use a tap out, thanks.”

I break into a big smile. Yep, she’s solidifying herself as my all-time favorite bodyguard. Akara better not take his cousin away from me.

Frog grins as Donnelly ditches his post by the bleaches. “Easy peasy,” Frog says. “Boys don’t even question periods. They’re like allergic to them.”

That’s what she thinks. But as soon as Donnelly is at the snack table beside us, he saunters over with a cool easy gait. He runs a hand through his hair and asks her, “You need me to get you a tampon or something?”

Frog looks both shocked and horrified that she has to entertain this conversation. “I’m good. You just…wait here.” She gives me a look like what the hell?

I really, really like him, unearthly reader. And a part of me will always hate how much I do. Longing for things beyond my reach seems to be the saddest routine for me.

Frog dashes away to the bathroom but not before grabbing two frosted cookies on her way out. Donnelly watches skeptically. “What’s she doing with cookies in the bathroom?”

“Periods give you the munchies.”

He nods like that makes sense and then he looks me up and down. “Jellyfish?”

I grin. “I’m a Jellyfish-erone. The cool kinda chaperone.”

“Does the Jellyfish-erone need a break holding her mushroom cap?” he asks.

My arm is a little sore from hoisting the umbrella. “Sure.”

He grips the handle and holds it above my head but joins me underneath. My heart skips again. Fairy lights cascade around us in our own cove, and Donnelly glows more beneath the umbrella’s luminescence. I wonder if I look the same to him.

He smiles at me as a new song starts playing.

“You know this song too?” I ask him.

“The Cure,” he answers, his grin radiant beneath the light. “This Homecoming already beats mine back in the day.”

“I was gonna ask if you ever went to yours.”

“Just one before I dropped out. Made a short appearance and left after two songs.” He surveys the dance floor, spotting Xander who’s still head-bobbing, then glances to me. “It was just missing some things to make it worth staying.”

“Good music,” I nod.

“And good people.”

I stare ahead, remembering mine back in the day, too. “Yeah, I get that.”

Donnelly studies me for a beat. I know he’s going to ask before he does. “You went to yours?”

“Uh-huh. Just the one when I was seventeen.”

It dawns on him, realization all over his eyes. He was a bodyguard to Beckett at the time, and I’m sure security talked. So he knows.