Lying Out Loud(30)

The grin that split my face was almost painful. Grunge! He was broadening his musical horizons because of me! I wanted to squeal. To hug him. And then to make out with him, right here, in the middle of this crowded electronics store.

But I couldn’t.

Because, in Ryder’s mind, we were little more than acquaintances.

Sometimes I had to remind myself of that.

“Grunge is great,” I said. “What albums have you tried? Anything you really like?”

He opened his mouth to respond, but his answer was drowned out by another voice.

“Sonny!”

I groaned, and then felt awful for it.

Amy had found us. She was coming up behind me, a box tucked under her arm. “There you are,” she said. “I’m so sorry we got separated. I didn’t mean to lose you. I looked —” She stopped midsentence when she noticed Ryder. “Oh. Hi.”

“Hey, Amy,” he said, his face totally lighting up.

And now I wanted to shake him.

Even if his continuing affection for her was sort of my fault.

“You play video games?” he asked, gesturing to the box under her arm.

“Huh? Oh. No. This is for my brother.”

“Hey, speaking of shopping,” I said, my voice louder than I’d intended. “You should probably get that iPod, Ryder. You don’t want them all to be taken.”

“Good point. I’ll be right back.”

He walked a few feet away, disappearing into a crowd of desperate people clambering to get their hands on Apple products.

I grabbed Amy’s arm. “When he comes back, do something.”

“Something like what?”

“I don’t know. Something weird. Something he won’t like.”

“Sonny, you know I’m bad at this.”

“You’re not. You’d be a great actress if you tried.”

“But I don’t have a script here,” she pointed out. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to be weird.”

“You’re the only teenager with that problem.” I glanced around, searching for inspiration, and found it standing a few feet away. There was a guy — blond, early twenties, built like a Ken doll — on the other side of the aisle. And he was totally trying to catch Amy’s eye. “Perfect,” I said.

“What?”

I jerked my head toward the stranger. “Him.”

“What about him?”

“When Ryder comes back, go flirt with him. Right in front of Ryder,” I whispered. “It’ll make him think you’re super flaky and kind of mean.”

“Sonny, I don’t want to do that,” Amy whispered back. “That’s too much. It’s cruel to Ryder and to that guy.”

“Please. You’ll be making the other guy’s day. Plus, he’s cute. So it could be worse.”

“But —”

“Here he comes. Get ready.”

“I don’t —”

“Got the iPod,” Ryder announced as he moved toward us. “Some guy with a mullet tried to take it right out of my hands, but I managed to hold on to it.”

“Glad you survived,” I said.

“Me, too.” He glanced over at Amy, as if waiting for her to say something.

And I elbowed her. Hard.

She let out a tiny squeak. “I, um …” She looked at me, her eyes desperate.

Go, I thought, staring back at her. Just do it already.

Amy turned to Ryder, a forced smile on her pretty pink lips. “Just a second,” she said. Then she walked over to the Ken doll, who was checking out some tablets now, just down the aisle. His face brightened when he saw Amy approaching. And even though her greeting of “Hey … you” was super awkward, he didn’t stop smiling.

“Hi,” Ken Doll said.

The rest of their conversation was drowned out by a pack of women nearby, shouting at a Tech Plus employee about a guy who had taken one of their items before they could check out. But we could still see what was happening. The guy leaned toward Amy; she giggled, batted his arm. All the typical obvious flirting moves. Actually, it was probably more convincing this way, with Amy’s inevitably embarrassing words on mute.

“Does she know that guy?” Ryder asked, frowning as Ken Doll took a step closer to Amy.

“No,” I said. “That’s just Amy. She’s always flirting with someone.”

“Oh.”

We both watched the scene for a minute longer, then Ryder, face fallen, took a step back. “I should go pay,” he said. “I’m pretty exhausted.”

Even though I knew this was in both of our best interests, I felt bad for him. He thought he had a connection with Amy, and here she was, seemingly apathetic to that and hitting on other dudes right in front of him. It had to sting.

It was supposed to sting.

“It was nice running into you,” I said. “Literally.”

“Yeah. Sorry about that. Anyway … tell Amy I said good-bye.”

“Okay.”

He gave Amy one last glance before turning away, disappearing into the crowd.

As soon as he was gone, I ran over to Amy, interrupting her conversation with the Ken doll.

“Hey,” I said. “He’s gone. We’re good.”