Don't Kiss the Messenger (Edgelake High School, #1)(21)

She nodded a few times and tucked a loose piece of hair behind her ear. She stared down at the cover, trying to read the title upside down. I pushed Bryn forward before she could ruin the moment by being an idiot.

Emmett watched us walk away.

When we got outside we were met with blazing noon sunlight bathing the concrete sidewalk in light. Aisha and VanBree were waiting for us by the doors, staring at their cell phones. Aisha glanced up.

“You look a little pale,” Aisha told Bryn.

Bryn pressed a hand to her chest. “I just got Brady-ied,” she said. Aisha and VanBree nodded at a euphemism I had apparently missed during locker room talk.

“It’s when Emmett looks you directly in the eyes and smiles at the same time. It has this electric shock effect that stuns you into a euphoric paralysis, which we refer to as being Brady-ied,” Aisha informed me.

“Got it,” I said.

“What happened after the party?” I asked Bryn, and instantly regretted the question. I didn’t want to hear her post-hook up glowing recaps of their sexual escapades.

She tipped her head sadly to the side. “Nothing happened,” she said. “We danced for a while. He thanked me for coming, that was it. I even asked if I could see his room, but he said he’d rather just dance with me.”

I was surprised Bryn looked slightly offended that Emmett would rather dance than immediately try to sleep with her after seeing her in her post-game clothes.

“Hey, whose book is this anyway?” Bryn asked, holding up the cover.

Aisha held up her hand and called for it. Bryn threw the book like it was a Frisbee. The pages flapped in the air like a bird before it crashed in the sandy concrete near Aisha’s feet.

I frowned at Bryn for her lack of respect for amazing literature.

“Didn’t anyone ever tell you, you should never throw a book?"

Aisha examined the creased front cover. “Shit, now I can’t sell it back, Bryn. Thanks a lot.”

I was appalled at the idea of Aisha wanting to ever willingly get rid of that book.

“Keep it,” I told her. “It’s brilliant—the way the author ties together philosophies by Parmenides and Nietzsche about the heaviness and lightness of existing. It discusses eternal recurrence, and the search for life’s meaning better than any other work of fiction. In my opinion,” I added.

Bryn and Aisha looked over at me like I was defending an imaginary best friend. A dorky imaginary best friend.

I sucked in a deep breath, reminding myself not everyone shared my obsession with books.

“CeCe, I heard you kicked some ass last night,” Aisha said, waving her phone at me. The digital gossip had begun.

I looked away, toward the tall wrought iron gates in the distance that framed the campus entrance. I had really hoped to avoid this topic. I had an emotional hangover and I overslept for the captains meeting. I just wanted coffee.

“There was no ass kicking,” I set the record straight. “We just exchanged a few words.”

“Twelve key phrases to be exact,” VanBree said.

Aisha nodded. “That’s the rumor flying around,” she said.

I winced.

“I’m bummed I missed it,” Aisha said. “I love it when you go all verbal kung-fu on people.”

“Thanks,” I mumbled.

“Kyle got some of it on video, if you want to see highlights,” VanBree offered.

“Let’s not,” I said and raised my hand up like a crossing guard, trying to stop the conversation.

“Everyone was talking about it in the weight room,” VanBree said.

I sighed and looked down at the ground.

“I heard you were brilliant,” Aisha said.

I crouched down to tie my shoelace. “From who?”

“Emmett,” Bryn said. “He was in the weight room this morning. He kept talking about how funny you were. He called you a verbal assassin.”

I felt my face heat up with a mixture of pride and humiliation. I stood up with surprise.

“Emmett was talking about me?” I asked.

“Seriously, he was going on and on about you,” Bryn said. “Practically doing a play by play.” She looked down at her phone and mumbled a curse. “I’m late,” Bryn said. She grabbed VanBree’s arm and together they headed across the parking lot.

Aisha offered to get coffee with me. I couldn’t swipe the giddy smile from my face. Emmett was talking about me? It felt like my feet had suddenly grown springs.

While we walked, we passed two girls sitting on the grass next to the sidewalk, working on homework. One of them looked at my face and gasped. She had the nerve to point in my direction.

Aisha instinctively grabbed my arm and pulled me close to her side.

“Don’t do it.”

Instead of wriggling my arm free, I tightened it around hers. I felt like skipping.

“I’m fine,” I said with a smile. “Isn’t it a beautiful day?” I inhaled a deep, delicious breath. “They need to make leaf-scented candles.”

Her mouth fell open with surprise. “What is wrong with you?” she asked.

“What?”

“You didn’t go all ape-shit on that girl. She pointed at your scar and did that gasping thing that you can’t stand.”

I looked over my shoulder as the girls disappeared behind a row of hedges. “It’s okay.”