Bookishly Ever After (Ever After #1)(53)
32
“Phoebe?”
“Hmm?” I looked up from Shanghai Summer and sandwich to see Em frowning at me as she unpacked her own lunch.
“So, first, I swear I didn’t plan this,” she said, her words flowing together faster than usual.
“O-kay…” I said, taking a bite of my sandwich and waiting for Em to launch into an overly dramatized play-byplay of a beaker blowing up in Chemistry lab or something.
She unconsciously popped the lid of her salad Tupperware open and closed over and over in typical worried-Em fashion. “I tried to convince him we could do this right before rehearsal, but he didn’t think we’d have enough time…” Em looked over her shoulder at the lunch line, then turned back to frown at me.
I shrugged, cutting her off before she could keep apologizing for something that really wasn’t a big deal. “We can watch Mystical tomorrow if you need to do something with Wilhelm,” I offered. It wouldn’t be the first time one of us had to reschedule watching our favorite tv show together.
She squinted at me confusedly. “Huh? Wilhelm? No, I was talking about Dev.”
I froze. “Dev?” Alec and Grace looked over at us on that and Grace shook her head at Em, frowning.
“We need to run our lines together before rehearsal tonight. So, he’s going to sit here today. I’m so sorry.” Em’s expression was part sympathetic, part guilt. “Really sorry.”
My heart dropped into my stomach—Dev had stopped coming regularly to our lunch table back in January, around the time I was avoiding everyone by eating in the band room. I forced a bland expression and another shrug as I looked from Em to Alec and Grace, who had stopped midconversation, too. “It’s okay. We’re in class together. I’m fine. You guys act like I’m super delicate or something.”
But, as I said that, the crowd parted like something out of a movie and Dev broke through, balancing a tray that he slid right next to my lunch bag. “Hey, Phoebe, Em, guys.”
I quickly dropped my head and focused on my book, mumbling a hi before turning the page. I started taking a mental inventory of my outfit—glasses, a sweater and skirt just like Marissa’s in the Hidden goodbye scene, and bright red lipstick that matched the sweater—then remembered I didn’t care how I looked around him.
“Hi, everyone.” Lexie’s voice made me look up again to see her hovering right over me. She shoved her own tray in the nonexistent space between my lunch and Dev’s and squeezed herself onto the bench between us, forcing me to scoot over so I was perilously balancing on the edge.
I don’t care how I look around Dev, I repeated silently to myself, dipping my nose even deeper into my book. Especially since Lexie had Velcro-ed herself to Dev since January. Next to her cute, casual model-y look, my outfit and lipstick suddenly felt like I was trying too hard. I blinked at the page and frowned when I realized I’d read the same sentence for the fifth time. Flipping back a page, I started again, but I just couldn’t concentrate on Lian’s story with the conversation around me. Lexie laughed and I held back a cringe.
I looked up just in time to see Em, Alec, and Grace share a quick series of worried looks before Grace nodded at both of them and said, “I’m going to the bathroom. Phoebe, you’re coming with me, right?” She stood up, gently reached over to close my book, and pulled me to standing.
Alec snorted. “I will never understand why you girls need company when you go to the bathroom.”
Dev stopped midline and laughed. “Right? I have a sister and I still can’t figure that out.”
“Ha, ha. You guys are cute,” Em said sarcastically. “Dev, focus. We only have ten minutes before lunch ends.”
Grace grabbed my sweater sleeve and pulled me out of the lunchroom and into the thankfully empty girl’s bathroom. As soon as we stepped inside, she turned to face me, her lips set in a frown. “Hey, are you okay?”
I opened my mouth, closed it, then started again, saying carefully, “I’m fine.” I didn’t want my friends to think I was this weak, silly girl who couldn’t handle being around a guy she had—“had” in the past-tense—crushed on.
Grace made a humming sound, then looked away from me to check her eyeliner in the mirror. “That’s good, then. I personally wanted to kick Lexie for being so rude back there,” she said casually. She studied me in the mirror, her brow furrowing as she moved her attention from my face to the rest of me. “What are you wearing?”
I tugged at my bright red sweater, loving that the wide neckline fell a little off my shoulder in a totally non-dress code appropriate but so perfectly Marissa-y way. Still, I had no problem defending my style instead of talking about Dev and Lexie. “It’s really warm. And cute, right?”
She stopped, tilted her head, and twisted her lips in a “you’ve got to be kidding me” expression. “It’s way too baggy for you. I swear, it’s amazing how you have this magical ability to knit things that are absolutely perfect for anyone and then turn around and forget everything you know the second you step in a store. For my sake, can we at least try to acknowledge basic fit rules exist?”
“It’s really funny how seriously you’re taking this stylist thing. You’d think I was asking for help in chemistry or something.”