Page 49 of What I Like About You

All I know is my mentions are worse than ever.

Breathe.

“I didn’t peg you as aFireflies and Youfan, Upstate.”

I drop my phone facedown on my lap, flipping the switch from vibrate to silent. Nash hands me my ginger ale and laughs, taking a seat next to me. There isn’t even a cushion of space between us.

I need to be way more careful with my phone in public. Thank God it was another EW article and not the OTP Twitter feed.

“Fanis a strong word right now,” I say, taking a sip of my soda.

“I know,” he says. “It’s hard to admit fandom when the creator turns out to be trash. Miriam would be so pissed.”

I blink. “You knew my grandmother?”

It’s shocking, hearing her name come out of Nash’s mouth so casually. Kels’s Nash is—was—on a first-name basis with Grams? I swallow the lump in my throat and fight the pressure that builds behind my eyes. How is it possible that she never told me this? Did the last name throw her off too or did she know the whole time? I’ll never get to ask her.

Nash nods. “Yeah. She saw me reading during anonegone time. I think I was, like, nine. The next week, she gave me an advance copy of the sequel. It was the best day ever.”

Grams knew Nash. “What book?” I ask.

“Ridley Myers Had a Bad Day.”

I nod. “Grams loved working on those. Good choice.”

I’m so desperate to have a normal conversation about Grams, totalkabout her, I ignore the fact that talking about books with Nash is not a good idea. Still, I’m grateful when we’re cut off by Molly announcing that karaoke is finally set up. Le Crew surrounds us with plates of food and laughter and Autumn saysscoochand plops down between Nash and me. I’m grateful there’s a person separating us and the subject is changing, but then my phone lights up against my thigh.

Nash Stevens

Omg the Alanna drama? Shit is going DOWN.

8:17 PM

I peek out of the corner of my eye to confirm he’s not paying attention before I answer.

yeah. it’s SO bad

8:18 PM

i don’t know what to do

8:18 PM

You don’t have to do anything?

8:19 PM

everyone is waiting for me to say something. Like I’m just supposed to not love F&Y anymore. alanna is SO wrong and her takes are so bad that I want to stick up for my people, but i still think i want to see the movie. does that make me terrible?

8:20 PM

I don’t think you owe anyone an explanation. Plus, the people who are making the movie probably aren’t big fans of Alanna right now either.…

8:22 PM

It’s not their fault or yours that she’s isolating her audience in the name of some backwards idea of Literary Merit, or whatever.

8:23 PM

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