Page 82 of Better Than the Movies
“That sounds gross.” I made the joke, but I didn’t like that he’d said he wasn’t my friend.
He ignored the joke and said, “It’s true, though. We’relikefriends, for now, but the fairy godfather is all about helping you get what you want. Once the magic starts happening, he doesn’t stick around for the fairy-tale ending. I mean, how creepy wouldthatbe?”
“Reallycreepy?” I fake-laughed, like we were on the same page. But was he saying that if I ended up with Michael, then we wouldn’t be friends anymore? That we really weren’t friends at all now, but merely role-players making my wish happen?
It made sense after what he’d said last night.
“That’s right, Buxbaum.” He reached across the table and touched the tip of my nose—a boop—with his finger. “Creepy as hell.”
I was struggling to keep up, to process what he was saying and what it meant for us, while also overanalyzing the fact that even afinger-boop made my stomach go wild, when his mouth turned into a smirk and he said, “Now finish those fries so we can get you to your Michael.”
“Done.” I shoved the last fry into my mouth and pushed back my chair, needing to get out into some fresh air before my brain exploded. “Let’s go, fairy godfather.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling you’ll find that love actually is all around.”
—Love Actually
“Hey, it’s Mrs. Potato Head!”
I followed Wes through the kitchen door and smiled when I saw Adam standing at the center island, loading up a plate full of Pizza Rolls. I gave him a chin-nod and said, “It’s me.”
“Your face looks way better, by the way. You’re very un-potatoey now.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“Noah felt like shit about breaking your face, so make sure you make him feel extra bad.” He picked up his plate and grabbed a can of Coke. “He deserves it.”
Wes and I went into the living room behind him, and it was clear we were the last ones there. The room was filled with mostly the same people from the basketball game, plus three others. Ashley, the girl who’d puked on me; Laney (ugh); and Alex, the one who liked Wes.
Talk about a nightmarish trifecta of people, right?
“Liz, I am so sorry about your nose.” Noah was sitting on thesofa between Alex and Ashley, and he pointed at my face. “It looks good now, though.”
That made me smile. “Thanks. And don’t worry about it.”
Adam said, “Come on, Potato Head—you had one job.”
“I know, and I’m sorry.”
“Oh, hey, Liz!” Laney, who was stretched out in the recliner, smiled over at us. “I didn’t know you guys were coming.”
My brain mocked her in a high-pitched, Muppet Babies kind of voice before I just said, “Yeah.”
“Hey, guys. Snacks are in the kitchen and the movie’s about to start.” Michael popped up from where he was lying on the floor and gave us a small wave.
“That’s good,” Wes said from behind me. “Because I think Liz’s probably getting hungry.”
“Haha.” I turned around, and his face did that thing to my stomach again, which pissed me off because he didn’t even think of me as his friend. “I eat a lot; you’re hilarious.”
“I know.”
There wasn’t a way for me to remove myself from Wes without causing weirdness, so we sat together on the floor, and everyone got quiet as the movie started. It was this really intense thriller, and everyone was silent so they wouldn’t miss out on anything important. But I couldn’t concentrate on the movie because I was trying to figure out why Wes was making me irrationally emotional.
I also couldn’t concentrate because my thigh was touching Wes’s thigh.
We both had our legs stretched out in front of us as we leanedback on our palms; nothing was intimate about our position. But it’s like the spot where my right outer thigh touched his left outer thigh was inflamed and I couldn’t ignore it. Every tiny molecule of my existence was focused on that one solitary spot.
