Page 62 of Incipient

“So, you’ve never seen them before yesterday?”

She shook her head. “Apparently they’re from out of town.” She shrugged her shoulder. “Some cousins and an aunt—I think that’s what they said. Honestly, I just wanted to get out of there. They gave me the heebie jeebies.”

Something about this wasn’t sitting well with me, though I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Why would Nikki’s family not allow her to see her own best-friend? And since when did Nikki allowanyoneto tell her what to do?

I was going to need to pay Nikki another visit. And soon. “I take it she’s not going to the meeting tonight?”

“I wouldn’t count on it,” she said and pushed a lock of curls behind her ear. “But you never know with Nikki.”

“What about Nikki?” asked Trace as he and Ben returned to our lunch table with trays in hand. He placed mine in front of me and then sat down, his eyes still on me.

“I was just asking if she was going to the meeting tonight,” I said as I skimmed a French-fry off the top of the pile.

“Why?” he asked, looking wholly confused as to why I suddenly gave a crap about where Nikki was going to be.

I really needed to learn to think before I spoke. It would free up so much of the time I spent trying to come up with plausible stories to make up for the dumb crap that came out of my mouth. “We have a project together for English,” I lied, avoiding his probing eyes. “It’s not a big deal. I’ll catch her some other time.”

I wasn’t sure if he bought the excuse or not, nor did I venture a look in his direction out of fear that he would see the lie in my eyes.

“Well, now that all the boring homework shit is out of the way, let’s talk about something actually important,” declared Ben as he dug into his own cheeseburger. “The Blood Ball,” he mumbled with a full mouth.

I nearly choked on my food. “Thewhatnow?”

“The Halloween dance,” chirped Carly, her face completely lit up at the mere mention of it. “I’m on the decorating committee this year, and not to brag, but I’m going to knock it out of the field.”

“Park,” corrected Caleb absentmindedly.

“Huh?” She turned to her brother, confused.

“The saying is ‘knock it out of the park.’”

She rolled her eyes at him. “Whatever. Anyways, it’s going to be the highlight of the entire Fall Festival. You’re going, right?” Her question was directed at me.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I mean—”

“No. Youhaveto come,” she cut in before I could finish my sentence. “It’s tradition. Everyone goes.”

“Oh, okay. Yeah, I mean. I guess I’ll go.” At that point, I honestly didn’t feel like I had a choice in the matter. She was beyond intense, and frankly, she was scaring me a little. I’d come up with an excuse some other time.

“So, who are you going to ask to the dance?” asked Ben, his mouth stuffed with food again. He really needed to learn to speak in between bites. “Since it’s lady’s choice and all.”

“That’s the best part!” Carly nodded excitedly. “Girls have to ask the guys!”

I had no idea why that was ‘the best part’. Just the thought of it had me breaking out in a cold sweat.

“Just so you know, if you askme, I’ll definitely say yes,” informed Caleb, grinning from across the table.

Trace immediately shot him a murderous glare.

“What?” he asked, looking innocently at Trace. “I’m just letting her know she has options.”

Ben laughed. “Dude. You have no chance. We all know she’s going to ask Trace.”

My cheeks all but burst into flames. Why was this conversation even happening to me right now? I seriously should have stayed home today.

“You guys are such plebs. You’re embarrassing the hell out of her,” said Morgan, shooting warning glances all around the table. “She’ll ask whoever she wants to ask when she’s good and ready to ask.”

Woah. Did Morgan just defend me?Shrinking further into my chair, I gave her a thankful look and avoided making eye contact with everyone else. Seriously, though. Who knew Morgan could be decent?

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