Picking Up the Pieces (Pieces, #2)(63)

“He’s got the big dick part down. And I’m not talking about his penis size,” Amanda quickly retorted.

I saw the exact moment when she realized what she said. Her head snapped toward Kyle who raised his eyebrows at her. They both looked stealthily toward Shane, and then back to each other. Nope, Shane definitely doesn't know about the sexcapades that went on between Amanda and Kyle.

Shane either didn’t register the comment or chose to ignore it.

I spoke, hoping to move us past the deafening silence. “Yup, I’ve been stood up in favor of a puking teenager. I must have really lost my appeal. I need to step up my game.”

“You have no game,” Amanda said.

“And you do?”

“Of course. How do you think I wrangled this sexy beast over here?” She roughly patted Shane’s thigh to emphasize her words.

“By shoving your tits in my face,” Shane countered.

“Bullshit!” Amanda yelled. “I never did that. I had you at hello.”

“Had me agitated and contemplating homicide maybe.”

“You don’t value your life at all, do you?” Amanda threatened.

“Clearly not. Look at what I subject myself to.” Shane waved a hand in Amanda’s direction. When she didn’t reply, he quickly looked over and saw her menacing glare before swinging his eyes back to the road. When, after a full minute, she still hadn’t replied, Shane chanced another glance at her. Her eyes were still boring into his head as though she were trying to incinerate him with them. “Why are you staring at me like that?”

“I’m trying to figure out if you look better in blue or gray.”

“What? Why does that matter?”

“So I know which suit to dress you in for your funeral.”

“Oh,” Shane said, relaxing. “Definitely gray.”

“Blue it is,” she replied as she slinked back into her seat.

“Just don’t f*ck up my face. I’d like to have an open casket.” Shane was obviously trying to keep her talking in an effort to gauge whether or not she was really mad or just messing around. I couldn’t blame him. Amanda could be a difficult person to read.

“I can’t make any promises.” Amanda tried to keep her voice serious, but I could hear the smile behind it.

Shane reached across the center console and grabbed Amanda’s hand, pulling it back toward him so he could comfortably hold it.

“Lily?” Kyle asked sweetly.

“Yeah?” I replied.

“Would you hold my hand all the way to the stadium? I want to be totally lame like Amanda and Shane.”

I burst out laughing as Amanda hissed out a “Fuck you” and Shane shook his head.

I finally managed to suck in enough air to reply. “I dunno. Won’t that mean we’re going steady?”

“Absolutely. I’ll even give you my letterman’s jacket to sweeten the deal.”

“Groovy,” I released breathily.

“Alright, *s,” Amanda humorlessly interjected. “Unless you want to walk the rest of the way to the stadium, knock it the hell off.”

“She’s so snippy,” I whispered loudly enough for Amanda to hear.

“I know. She must have gotten caught necking at the drive-in,” Kyle added.

“Enough!” Amanda yelled, which caused Kyle and me to completely lose it in the backseat.

The rest of the drive passed with Kyle and me teasing Amanda and Shane, and Amanda pretending it pissed her off. It was the lightest I’d felt in weeks.

***

Kyle and I were quite a pair. After skipping hand-in-hand into the stadium behind Amanda and Shane, begging “mom and dad” to buy us dinner, and asking them to take us to the bathroom, we made our way to our seats. When Shane led us onto the escalator, Amanda must have noticed the mischievous gleam in my eyes because she immediately warned, “If you start doing something stupid like running back down this escalator, I swear I will tell your principal about your deviant behavior in his school last year.”

My eyes narrowed on her. This traitorous slut did not just say that in front of Shane and Kyle.

She propped her hand on her hip and threw me a smug look that said, “Oh yes, I did.”

It took Kyle about five seconds to process Amanda’s words, but I knew the second it finally clicked. He immediately whipped toward me, his mouth agape. “Please tell me that’s true.”

“I can neither confirm nor deny,” I said coolly as I crossed my arms over my chest.

“Holy shit! In a school? Where there are children?”

I winced at his words. Despite obviously knowing that there were children in my school, I hadn’t really thought about them being there. That may seem ridiculous, considering they provided the background chatter to one of my more illicit sexual encounters in the backstage of the auditorium, but I hadn’t felt as dirty and creepy about it then as I did now. Well, too late to do anything about it.

Kyle took my silence as tacit agreement.

“Stop staring at me,” I snapped at him, though my lips quirked into a half smile.

“I can’t. You’re like a unicorn. I thought this one had no shame,” he said as he jerked a thumb in Amanda’s direction, “but you’re on a whole new level.”