Complete Nothing (True Love #2)(27)
“Only if I can sit next to Peter,” she said.
I kicked Gavin’s foot. “Move.”
Gavin’s jaw dropped, but he got up. The way that girl moved her hips when she walked toward me should have been illegal. She paused next to the empty space on the bench and smirked.
“On second thought.”
She sat down on my lap. Just wedged herself in there and put one arm around my neck. She touched the lollipop to her lips, looking me directly in the eye.
“I’m Josie,” she said.
Then she rolled the pop around inside her mouth.
“Holy shit,” Lester said, watching us.
“P-Peter,” I stammered. “I’m Peter.”
“I know that,” she said with this laugh that filled the entire gym. Her butt pressed down firmly into my lap before she pushed herself up and took Gavin’s spot on the bench. Which I could suddenly not imagine Gavin ever sitting in. Not when it was filled with that skin and that hair and those lips.
“Hey, football players!” Liza announced. “We’re ready for you. Let’s practice the player roll call.”
While the rest of the team got up and tromped down toward the floor, Josie trailed her fingertips down my arm, and I did everything in my power to look her in the eye and not check out her body again.
“Hey, Marrott!” Liza shouted. “Way to be a leader, Captain!”
I glanced around and saw that Josie and I were the only people left on the bleachers.
“Oops,” I said.
And everyone laughed. Everyone except Claudia, who was turning purple. Josie got up and we walked down together as I told myself there was no reason to feel guilty.
Claudia and I weren’t together anymore. And apparently she was auditioning homecoming dates. The thought maybe made me want to strangle someone, but it also meant I could do whatever the hell I wanted.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
True
“Did you know that you’re the second-tallest girl in the junior class?”
I blinked up at the guy standing next to the lunch table Hephaestus and I occupied. It took me a second to focus. I had been so intent on watching Peter watch Claudia with a sourpuss look on his face that it was like waking up from a dream. That girl who had come on to him at pep rally rehearsal had been a momentary distraction, clearly. Peter was practically turning green while I watched. My plan was already working.
“Wallace Bracken, right?”
He was holding that electronic pad thingie he always had at Boosters against his chest and smirking at me. The boy wasn’t bad-looking with his porcelain complexion, aquiline nose, and shiny dark hair hanging over his forehead. If only he wasn’t constantly bent over his contraption, I might be able to find him a nice girl.
“Yep. You wanna know how I know you’re the second-tallest girl in the junior class?” he asked excitedly.
He was already pulling a chair over to the end of our table and sitting in it. I looked at Hephaestus, who seemed nonplussed. We hadn’t been talking much, what with me watching Peter and Claudia and not having a clue how to talk to him—or whether I should—about my mother, so this was a welcome distraction.
“I know I’d like to know,” Hephaestus said, leaning in.
“I created this app,” Wallace said, putting the electronic tablet down and hitting the screen a few times. A picture of me came up, taken the other day while I was talking to Claudia, Peter, and Orion at Boosters. “I can take a picture of anyone, and the app will calculate their height, weight, and body mass index. Provided they’re standing, of course. My margin of error is only three percent.”
“Hey. That’s actually pretty cool,” Hephaestus said.
Wallace blushed pleasantly. “Thanks.”
“Does it have any practical use?” I asked.
“True,” Hephaestus said, somehow scolding me with one syllable.
“I’m just saying, what would you do with this knowledge?” I was genuinely curious as I leaned over his shoulder and bit into a carrot stick. “Why do you want to know everyone’s height, weight, and whatever else you said there?”
“Well, aren’t you glad to know you’re the second-tallest girl in your class?” he asked plainly.
I lifted a shoulder. “I suppose.”
“Here. Give me your phone.” He held out his hand, which bore one thick purple band on its ring finger. “I’ll download the app for you.”
“I don’t have a cell phone,” I told him.
His whole face went slack. “You don’t have a cell phone?”
“Nope.”
His hand hit the table with a crack, and I winced. That had to hurt. But he didn’t flinch. “How do you text?”
“I don’t.”
“How do you tweet? Update Facebook? Instagram? Play games? Listen to music?”
I sat up straight at this. “Wait. You can use them to listen to music?”
Wallace looked at Hephaestus as if I’d just dropped in through the ceiling from some far-flung galaxy.
“I know, dude,” Hephaestus said, biting into an apple. “She’s weird.”
Wallace put his pad thingie away and took out his phone, which looked just like the pad thingie, only smaller. He placed his phone on the table and opened up a screen that had songs and bands listed with prices next to each one.