Page 115 of Better Than the Movies
“Sorry.” I looked down at my shoes and muttered, “Lucky coin.”
“Really? You’re sticking to that?”
I just shrugged and stared at my Chucks, clueless about what to say. Everything I’d planned to tell him during my wholebe bravephase felt too hard to say after seeing him with Alex. Especially when he’d looked so unhappy to see me in the Secret Area.
I still couldn’t believe he’d taken her back there.
His nostrils flared and he said, “Oh, well, that explains everything.”
“Why do you seem mad at me?” I raised my eyes to his face and waited for an answer. I was the one who wished to spontaneously combust. Why washebeing salty?
His jaw flexed before he said, “Because I hate games.”
“What games?”
“What games?” His eyes were hot, and yeah—he was mad. “You won your precious Michael, but as soon as I looked twice at Alex, you’re burning me this unbelievable CD and rambling about luckypennies in a way that makes me think I’m the penny in that particular scenario. While wearing my baseball hoodie. What are you doing to me?”
“You saw the CD?” I bit the inside of my cheek and wondered how much humiliation a person could take before it literally killed them. Because as I pictured the ketchup initials I’d put on the CD cover, I felt like I was close to combusting and gently floating to the ground as ash.
He stuck his hands into his coat pockets. “I’m not oblivious, Liz. I also saw the note, the soggy s’mores supplies, and the busted CD player.”
“Oh.” I took a shuddering breath as his dark eyes bore into me. Then I blurted, “So do you like her?”
His eyebrows furrowed together like he hadn’t expected the question, which was fair, because I hadn’t expected to ask it.
But I needed to know.
He swallowed and I thought he wasn’t going to answer, but then he said, “Alex is great.”
“Oh.” I hoped my face didn’t show how close I was to crying, how that one syllable was like a punch to the stomach. “Well, yay. I’ve got to go.”
I took a step around him, but he grabbed my arm and stopped me. “That’s it? You’re not going to explain what all of that was?”
“It doesn’t matter now.”
“It might.”
“It doesn’t, okay?” I tried to sound light and easy, like I was fine with everything as he dropped his hand. “I made the CD and set anembarrassing scene because I realized that Michael isn’t the person I can’t stop thinking about, and I wanted to tell you. I mean, he’s great, but being with him is nothing like eating burgers with you, or sneaking out to the Secret Area to make s’mores and look at the stars, or fighting with you over a parking space. But it took me too long to figure that out, and now you’ve got Alex.”
He opened his mouth, but I shook my head.
“No. It’s fine—I get it. She’s flawless and sweet, and as much as I hate to say it, you deserve someone like her.” I took a big, shaky breath as those dark eyes made me so sorry for everything I’d done to get us here. “Because I was wrong, Wes. Youarethe good stuff.”
He scratched his chin and looked past me, down the street. Then he settled his eyes on my face and said, “That’s not the only thing you’re wrong about.”
“What?” Leave it to him to kick me when I’m down. “What’re you talking about?”
“You’re wrong about Alex. She’s not flawless.”
“Bennett, no one is totally flawless—come on.” I couldn’t believe his nerve. “She’s pretty dang close, though.”
“I suppose.”
“Yousuppose? What on earth could she possibly be lacking? Do you want bigger boobs or something? Is she not—”
“She’s not you.”
“What?”
