She Drives Me Crazy(24)

“Fine,” I say. “Sell this with all you’ve got.”

She snorts, tucking her keys into her bag. “You’re forgetting that I spend half my time performing. It’s you we need to worry about.”

I ignore the jab and push my way out of the car. We stand up at the same time, side-eyeing each other across the roof. Already, I can feel the attention on us. Heads are turning our way.

Irene meets me at the front of the car and grabs my hand in the loosest grip imaginable. “I’m only doing this until we get to your locker,” she says under her breath. “God, your hands are sweaty.”

“And yours are as cold as your heart,” I snip back. “Just smile and work your hot-girl magic.”

She takes a deep breath. I ignore the nervousness in her eyes as I take a deep breath of my own.

And then she’s pulling me along like a puppy dog, strutting her way through the parking lot with a winning smile on her face. I keep my eyes locked ahead of me and grin as wide as I can. Everything’s a blur, but I know we’re having the desired effect: People are stopping to watch us.

“The fuck?” Gino laughs.

“Are they together?” some girl shrieks.

“Since when are you gay, Abraham?” someone else calls. Irene twitches reflexively, but she keeps her head held high.

When we reach the senior locker hall, the effect is magnified: the shocked whispers and hissing gossip are almost enough to give me cold feet. Without meaning to, I clasp Irene’s hand tighter.

I don’t know how she’s handling this with such poise. Several people are blatantly gawking at us. One guy has the nerve to snap our picture. Charlotte Pascal actually stops in the middle of FaceTiming her Candlehawk boyfriend to turn our way and say, “You’re fucking kidding me right now.”

Irene ignores her and continues through the chaos like a queen in a fucking parade. I’ve got to hand it to her: When she sets her mind to do something, she goes full throttle.

It’s not until we reach my locker, all the way at the end of the hallway, that I realize I’ve been holding my breath. I relax my shoulders and loosen my grip on Irene’s hand. I didn’t realize how tightly I’d been holding it.

Danielle watches us approach. Whereas everyone else in our class seems to be jumping at this piece of gossip, Danielle’s eyes are narrowed like she just caught Teddy sneaking candy.

“Fascinating couple,” she says as Irene steers me to my locker.

Irene all but drops my sweaty hand and wastes no time in wiping her palm on her skinny jeans.

“Jesus. Can you get her some gloves or something?” she asks Danielle.

“What the hell are you two doing?” Danielle says.

“You can’t tell? We’ve fallen for each other,” Irene says, batting her eyelashes at me.

“Give it a rest,” I tell her.

“Fine.” She resumes her usual tone. Now that we’re past the rest of the hallway, her nerves are on display again. “I’ll see you later. Oh, and if anyone asks, which they definitely will”—she lowers her voice and leans closer to me—“you asked me out.”

I scoff. She shakes a hand through her hair, and then she’s gone, wading back through the sea of onlookers.

I try to avoid Danielle’s pointed stare, but she moves to block me from my locker. She won’t even hand me my coffee.

“Scottie. What. The fuck.”

“What?” I say innocently. “Just trying something new.”

“Are you blackmailing her or something?”

“Why does everyone assume I’m blackmailing?”

“What’s your angle here? Do you realize the entire hallway was staring at you?”

I give her a smug smile. “Yes. And hopefully Tally has seen their Stories by now.”

Danielle’s jaw drops. “Seriously, Scottie? God, I know you’re upset about the breakup, but this is really going off the deep end. Does Irene even like girls?”

I pull her around the corner so we can talk more quietly. “Yes,” I tell her firmly. I recount the conversation I heard between Irene and Honey-Belle, plus the conversation Irene and I had at the tracks.

“But you’re doing all this just to make Tally jealous?” Danielle whispers, shaking her head.

“Come on, give me some more credit than that.” I whip out the homemade blueberry muffin I brought for her this morning. We both know it’s her favorite. She purses her lips but finally hands over my coffee.

“Tally is just the tip of the iceberg,” I explain. “You said it yourself that driving Irene brought so much attention to our team. Didn’t you see how well we played when she kept bringing a whole cheering section to our practices? You know more people will show up now that they think I’m dating her, especially if they cheer at our games. It’s exactly the confidence booster we need. We’re going to beat Candlehawk in the Christmas Classic, and then we’re going to slaughter them in the district championship. Can you argue with that, Captain?”

For once, Danielle is speechless. I’ve got her on that one.



* * *



When I look back someday, my “coming out” with Irene will really be something for the books. For the first time in my high school career, people are straight-up fawning over me. I feel it between classes, in the cafeteria, and even in the bathroom, where some random freshman lets me cut in front of her in line. It’s like the secondhand celebrity I felt after our car accident, but magnified times a thousand.