Page 33 of Only Mostly Devastated

“Fuck no, I’m not making out with any Labradors, what kind of bestiality fetish do you think I’ve got?”

The same mischievous, playful, fist-bumping kind of attitude that’d pissed me off coming from Will in class was way more palatable outside of it. I still found the cocky posture and wry eyebrow raise a bit of a turnoff, but a part of me liked how much the other guys admired Will,and the way they pounced on him the second he joined a group. It even made me jealous, in a way. It didn’t seem to matter what he said, or how terrible his jokes were, or whether he put his foot in it, they drank it up. It was just his energy. He was ineffably charismatic. Life came so easily to him.

Suddenly, the guys drifted away, the Labrador paradox apparently resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. Matt to speak to Lara, Darnell to moon over a slightly perked-up Niamh, and the others to head outside. All at once, Will and I were alone in a crowded room. I swallowed, turning red. Was he going to pretend he didn’t know me? Back away so he wouldn’t be seen with me? If he did, I decided, that was it. No more second chances.

Instead, he shoved his hands in his pockets and drew closer. “You’re full of surprises, aren’t you?”

“How so?”

“You looked very… different up there. Like, relaxed and confident.”

I couldn’t help it, I flushed with a little spark of pleasure. “Did I? I guess I’m comfortable performing. I’ve been doing it for years.”

He took a sip of his spiked Coke, then held the glass ahead of us. “Hey, who do you ship more? Darnell and Niamh or Lara and Matt?”

I let out a scornful noise, relaxing into the conversation. This was like talking to music class Will. Or the lake Will. “Lara and Matt? No way. She’s into someone else.”

“Really? Who?”

Why was he so interested? I shrugged. “That’s her business. I’d put money on it, though. I notice things.”

“Yeah. I know you do.”

Matt was leaning against the bar, all attention on Lara.He definitely liked her, anyone could see that. She was giving him a little bit back, sure. Giggling, hair tossing, et cetera. But she kept looking around the room, like she was keeping tabs on someone.

Darnell and Niamh, on the other hand, had pulled away from the group. He gave a shocked-sounding laugh at something and nudged her shoulder. She rubbed the spot he’d touched with a wide grin, then curled the tips of her glorious, long hair around one finger.

“Definitely Darniamh,” I decided. “They’re an inevitability.”

“Darniamh,” Will repeated. “That’s perfect, isn’t it?”

“Another reason Lara and Matt don’t fit. What can you do with those names?”

“Latt? Mara?”

“Larmatt?” I tried, and Will choked on his drink.

“That’s ridiculous. It sounds like a cleaning product,” he said, wiping his chin.

“You think? I thought it was more like a ground surface. Like, hey, I’ll meet you out on the Larmatt.”

“Let’s go shoot some hoops on the Larmatt court.”

It wasn’t even that funny, but we started giggling until we were helpless anyway. Half of it was me laughing at the stupidity of it. The other half was because it felt so damn good to be talking to Will out in the open.

When I’d calmed myself—which took an embarrassingly long time, because every time me and Will caught each other’s eyes we cracked up again, despite the weird looks we were getting—I straightened and noticed something.

Over near the stage, red-haired Renee—Lara’s Renee—was standing beside a guy I didn’t recognize. Not that that was unusual. Whatwasunusual was how close she stood tohim. With her hand in his. And her cheek leaning against his shoulder.

That wasn’t the body language of someone who was flirting, or even someone who was about to hook up with someone. Nope, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, that was unmistakably the body language of someone in a relationship with someone.

Lara was nowhere to be seen. I did a quick sweep of the bar. Niamh and Juliette didn’t seem to have noticed she was gone. Although, to be fair, Niamh looked like she’d forgotten anyone other than Darnell was in the room at all.

Maybe Lara was in the bathroom or something. But maybe not. “Hey, I’ll be back in a minute,” I said to Will. An apparently naive part of me wanted to check that Lara was all right. For some unexplainable reason, I gave a shit.

Well, she definitely wasn’t in the crowd anywhere. She wasn’t backstage, or hanging out on the sidewalk outside like a few others were. I stood outside, crossing my arms and looking around, then decided to head back in. Just before I did, though, I wandered around the side to peek down the alley. There was Lara. She was sitting on the edge of the curb, her soft pink, tulle skirt haloing around her on the dirty concrete and her stockinged legs stretched out in front of her. She was clutching her leather jacket across her chest for warmth, staring ahead at nothing.

Without a word, I sat next to her, plonking myself right above the storm drain.

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