Bookishly Ever After (Ever After #1)(15)
A milkshake floated in front of my eyes, blocking my view of the page. Condensation dripped off of the plastic cup and I squeaked as a drop hit my page. I scrambled to wipe up the water before looking up at the culprit.
“What the heck—” I stopped short as Dev’s greenish eyes came into focus. “Dev?”
He was clutching a bag and bottle of soda in the hand that wasn’t holding the milkshake. Dev looked apologetic. “Sorry.” He wiggled the milkshake at me again. “Peace offering? It’s mint chocolate chip. Your favorite.”
I carefully marked my place in the book by closing it around my bowstring and took the milkshake from him.
“Let me guess. Em told you.” I took a sip and closed my eyes in pure bliss. There was nothing on the planet as good as that milkshake at that moment.
“Yeah, I texted her. I thought you might be thirsty,” he said, then shook the bag before placing it on the floor in front of me, “and hungry by now. Four hours is a long time.”
I opened the bag to find those tiny soft pretzel bite things. I had a sandwich in my purse, but nudged it behind me. “This is really, really sweet. Thank you, but you really didn’t have to.”
He shrugged. “Someday, I’ll be in a mall line for something and you can pay me back. Until then,” Dev sat down on the floor next to me, folding his tall frame into the small space outlined in yellow tape on the floor, “I’ve got nowhere to be right now. I’ll wait with you for a little bit.” The girl behind me started grumbling and he gave me an amused look before turning around to face her. “Relax. I’m not cutting in line. I’m her illiterate, degenerate friend. I’m not into books about—” he squinted at the book in my hands. “What’s it about?”
“A girl finds out she can see evil fairytale creatures trying to invade the Seelie Court and our world. She partners with a hot leprechaun and uses her skills to tackle these subversive elements. It’s like…CSI meets fairies.” I popped a pretzel into my mouth and chased it with the milkshake. Salty, minty goodness.
“I’m definitely not into books about whatever she said, so your precious space in line is safe.” He then purposely turned his back on the girl and held out his hand to me with an even wider grin. “Annoying book people make me hungry. Pass me a pretzel.”
“Maeve fans are dangerous. We learn how to wield pointy objects,” I told him as I handed him the bag. “You shouldn’t upset them.”
“I’ll take the risk. You’ll defend me, right?” He picked up my bow and I squeaked as he lost my page in the process. Oblivious to my pawing through the book to find where I had left off, he swung the bow around to check out the sight.
“I don’t know,” I said, trying to sound cute and not the least bit relieved about finding my page. “If someone shows up with a bigger bow, you’re on your own.” I gently pried the bow out of his hands
He nearly choked on his soda. “Size-ist,” he managed between coughs and suppressed laughter.
Oh. My. God. I didn’t need a mirror to know my face had to match the red that still hadn’t completely washed out of my hair. “I didn’t mean—you couldn’t possibly think I meant that.” I glanced at the other people in line for support, but except for a few audible snickers, everyone’s heads were buried in their books.
“Who knows what those books are teaching you?”
“Shut up.” I bit my lip. Were you supposed to say shut up to guys who were maybe into you? Unless they were snarky bad boys, but Dev wasn’t one of those. Bad boys didn’t bring you milkshakes and pretzels and risk whatever standing they had in the high school hierarchy by hanging out with geeky girls in costume. But good guys didn’t just pull double entendres on you…did they?
“Hey, you were the one who started talking about bigger bows…”
“Dev,” I hissed through my teeth, “there are middle schoolers and parents here.”
“I know. You should have known better.”
I couldn’t help it. I tried to keep my expression serious, but dissolved into a bout of snort-y laughter. “You are so bad.”
“And that’s why you like me.”
That comment stopped me midlaugh and I had to force out a few more giggles to cover it up. What did he mean by ‘like’? Was he trying to figure out how I felt? Was he trying to tell me something? I was going to kill Em for making me read things from his comments that probably weren’t there and confusing me enough that comments like that made me question what my own ‘yes’ might mean. My posture stiffened. Maybe combine a yes with some snark?
“Um, yeah. It has to be the bad-boy vibes. It’s definitely not your sparkling wit.”
His grin quirked up a notch. “I’ve always wanted to be one of those bad boys. But my parents would kill me. Being bad doesn’t get you into ‘top universities.’” He air quoted the last two words with one hand while grabbing a handful of pretzels with the other.
I took a long sip from my milkshake and pasted a mock frown on my face. I narrowed my eyes and pretended to study him. “Let me guess…med school?”
His hazel eyes danced. “Engineering, even though I have the mechanical aptitude of a rock. I think they’re aiming for a stereotypical Indian kid success story.”