Page 35 of I Would Stay Forever
“I didn’t lie to him,” Dean said quickly. Given that I hadn’t said anything about lying, I had a feeling he’d been thinking about this as well. “I just thought it was easier if I didn’t tell him.”
“Did you now?” I asked rhetorically, flipping another page in my book. “Fascinating.”
He narrowed his eyes. “It’s not like you told him either.”
“And how do you know that?”
“Because if you had, he would have asked me about it the same way you are now.”
I laughed. “Was that your plan? You wanted to force me to tell him?”
“You didn’thaveto do anything. It just didn’t come up when I was talking to him.”
I found that hard to believe, especially since we had this project together, but I just shrugged and continued flipping my pages. We sat in silence for a couple of minutes, deciding on the things we needed to look at and were going to discuss them in a couple of minutes.
Finally, he slammed his book back down on the table, leaned in, and said, “Look, I didn’t tell him because you know how he gets when you hang out with his friends.”
I put my own book down more gently than he did, noting that Ms. Price had only glared at him and not at me, then leaned forward to stare him in the eyes. “It’s a group project, Dean. Not a date.”
“I know it’s not a...” He stopped himself and looked around again quickly before dropping his voice to a whisper. “I know it’s not a date, but you know that he would make that assumption if he saw us.”
“Yes, I do know that,” I said, “which is why I suggested we work in the library instead of on the bleachers where he was bound to see us.”
Dean stared at me for a long moment, then leaned back. “Huh.”
“Huh, indeed.” I grabbed my bag and pulled out the black shirt that I’d shoved in there along with my books. I passed it across the table. “Speaking of sneaking around, here.”
Dean frowned as he took the shirt until he unfurled it and saw what it was. “You could have kept it.”
“Why would I want to keep your shirt?”
He shrugged, and instead of the frown that had been gracing his face the whole time we’d been sitting here, his usual smirk came back. “You know, in case you wanted a memento of me.”
“Oh yeah, just what I needed,” I said flatly. “A memento of the time my brother’s best friend gave me a shirt at a party because I spilled fruit punch all over my shirt.”
He shrugged. “You never know what girls are into.”
I ignored this. “By the way, because you lent it to me, my mother now thinks we’re having sex.”
Dean choked on air. “Excuse me?”
“Don’t worry, I set her straight,” I said, flipping my pen through my fingers. Dean, still coughing, opened his water bottle and started chugging. I waited until he added a mouthful before I added, “I reassured her that we haven’t gotten to that point yet, and that we’ve only made it to second base.”
He spat his water all over. I laughed, even as Ms. Price turned to glare at us. When he finally got his breathing under control again, he said, “You didn’t actually tell her that, did you?”
I threw my eraser at him. “No, you idiot. I told her that you very kindly lent me your shirt because I spilled a drink on mine, and after that point, she didn’t even consider the fact that youmight have done it in a romantic way. Rest assured, nobody in my family thinks we’d make a good couple.”
An expression crossed his face, but it was gone before I could recognize it. “Right. Well, I guess that’s good.”
“You guess?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.
He rolled his eyes. “Okay, I know.”
I watched as he moved the shirt off to the side so he could pull his textbook toward him. That look was back on his face, one I still couldn’t make sense of, and although his eyes were trained on the book in front of him, it didn’t seem like he was actually reading.
“Thanks again,” I said, wondering if he was upset about me giving back the shirt for some reason. “For lending me the shirt. You were a total lifesaver.”
“Well, I couldn’t let you go walking around in a bra, now could I?” he asked. His mouth curled up. “It’s much more appropriate to go around in your pajamas.”
