Page 55 of Wallflower

"Aha," I said. "I knew it. You can trust me, Dare. I won't tell anyone."

Dare studied me a moment. Finally he said, "I'll think about it."

"Sounds good," I said—then unable to help myself, "Is it Darrence?"

"Viola," he said flatly.

"Daylor? Darwin? Darvey?"

Dare shook his head. "You're impossible."

"Dart?" I tried.

At that, he laughed. "Good one," he said. "But no."

My lips pursed at the puzzle before me. Before I could figure it out, I heard footsteps followed by the sound of my dad's voice. He was coming this way. Oh goodness, here we go. I looked to Dare and found him staring back at me with a smile.

"Whatever I do right now, it's all for the revenge plot," I said. "I just wanted to make sure that's clear."

Dare chuckled under his breath then lifted his chin. "Okay. Make your move, flower. I'll follow your lead."

I took a deep breath, and then acted without thought. After all, if I thought too much about it, there was no way I'd go through with this. Putting my hands on Dare's shoulders, I pushed him until his back met the wall, trying and failing not to take in the breadth and strength I felt beneath my palms. In the same moment, I hopped up and wrapped my legs around his waist—or at least, I tried to. Dare hadn't expected that. With his delayed reaction, his palm caught one of my legs while I ended up sliding back down his body, plastered against his chest like a baby koala. Ugh.

His brows rose. "Thisis your plan?" he said, his face so close to mine. "You want Coach to find us like this?"

"No," I hissed, pulling back a bit so I could look him in the eye. "I wanted him to find me in your arms. But unfortunately, you foiled my plans when you didn't catch me."

Dare's eyes went wide. "How was I supposed to know to catch you?"

"It was obvious what I was doing," I said.

"It wasn't," Dare argued. "Did I miss something? Did you say you were going to jump me, send the thought through telepathy?"

I huffed, the movement making me aware all at once of every single place we touched. Dare seemed to realize it at the same time I did. He cleared his throat.

"So," he said, "what now?"

"Now, we wait," I said.

"Cool," Dare said. "I'm good with waiting."

His hand flexed against my thigh—yes, he was still holding my leg for some reason—and I gasped at the feel of it, the warmth of his palm seeping right through my jeans into my skin.

"You okay?" he asked.

Before I could answer—or faint—my father appeared.

"Viola," he called out. It took me a few moments to disentangle myself. Fainting became a real possibility again as Dare's hand trailed down my leg, but once we were standing a good distance apart, my father had sidled up next to us. "Frost. What are you two doing?"

I shrugged. "Oh nothing, we were just practicing some dance moves. For theater class."

"Theater? I didn't know you were taking that." Dad blinked. I imagined his mind going through everything he'd just seen, analyzing it, but a second later, he shrugged. "Good thing you and Dare are friends, so you can be partners in the class."

"Yeah," I said, slightly disappointed. He hadn't even batted an eye, just accepted my lame story. This was the thanks I got for never lying to my parents—until now anyway.

"Well, Frost, I'm glad you're helping my daughter." Dad tossed me a smile and then went on. "But I better see you out on the field in five. We've got a lot to do. Have to be ready for the game coming up. Don't be late."

"I won't, Coach," Dare said.

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