Page 46 of Notice Me, Jameson Hart
“Yeah, Kevin was telling me about some book recommendations he gave you.” Ethan’s voice is perfectly even,but I see the glint in his eye. The little troublemaker knows exactly what he’s doing.
“Cool,” Jameson says, and is it my imagination, or are his cheeks turning pink? It’s probably the exertion from practice. “Ready to head out?”
Ethan chatters about something as they walk toward the parking lot. Jameson listens with the patience of a good older brother. Right before they’re out of sight, Jameson glances back. Our eyes meet again, and this time, I don’t look away. He nods and flashes me a soft smile.
“Ready?” Adam asks, appearing at my side with his gear bag slung over his shoulder. His face is caked in sweat and dirt, and I wrinkle my nose at the stench wafting off of him.
“Yeah,” I say. “Let’s get home so you guys can shower. You reek.”
He shoves me lightly, and I stumble. I shove him back, but he barely moves an inch. “I hate you,” I grumble.
“I love you,” he says in a baby voice and with puckered lips.
When we’re back in the van and heading home, my phone vibrates.
Rita
Status report! How was Operation Football Observation?
I think about Jameson’s guilty pause when Ethan mentioned books. About young adult novels purchased but never delivered. About the way he glanced back at me, like maybe he wanted to come back and say something more.
Me
Complicated.
Rita
AHHHH!!! Kevin Pryor, I need details immediately!
Me
Later. Still processing.
And I am. Processing the fact that Jameson Hart might have used his brother as an excuse to talk to me. That he might be secretly reading LGBTQ romance novels. That perhaps I’m not the only one with a crush that doesn’t make sense.
But that’s definitely too much to hope for. Right?
CHAPTER 12
too darn hot
Ihave never been closer to spontaneous human combustion than I am now. The sun is a bully with a magnifying glass, and the surface of my skin sizzles as if it’s one big strip of bacon. I try to burrow deeper into the inflatable donut I’m floating on, but the thing is sticky and half-deflated, and there’s no escaping the fact that the East Coast heat wave has finally broken me.
Rita floats beside me in a watermelon slice pool raft, shapeless and starfish-sprawled. She’s wearing her “hey, sailor” two-piece, a red-and-white striped vintage number she bought online for five bucks, and her hair is a frizz-ball. She has her sunglasses on, but I know she’s awake because she’s humming “Anything Goes.” The radio sits perched near the edge of the pool, balanced on a faded blue towel, and the DJ is giving a play-by-play of the historic temperatures.
“We’re officially at one-oh-four, folks, and still rising! Downtown Arcadia has set a record for the second day in a row. If you’re not already inside, get there and stay hydrated. I repeat,stay hydrated. The city is opening cooling centers at—” The wind shifts and the radio static swallows his words.
It’s too hot to move, too hot to think about moving, but I try anyway. I paddle with one foot, drifting over to where Rita floats, and nudge her raft with my elbow. “You dead?”
She peels one eye open and aims it at me, then closes it again. “Nah. I’m manifesting my higher self. Did you bring the popsicles?”
I reach blindly for the cooler floating beside me and unzip it. The popsicles have melted into a soup of colors—blue razz, cherry, and artificial lime all sloshed together. “We have achieved slush,” I report. “Want a hit?”
Rita sits up with effort and dips her finger into one of the bags, then licks it thoughtfully. “It’s like a unicorn bled out in here,” she says, sounding pleased. “Hand it over.”
I paddle the cooler her way and watch as she drinks straight from the bag. “You’re not worried about double-dipping?” I ask.
“Kevin, we’ve shared eight tubes of ChapStick. I’m pretty sure our DNA is already intermingled.” She wipes her mouth with the back of her hand and lies down again, popping her sunglasses up onto her head. “Are you ever going to tell me what’s on your mind, or am I supposed to intuit it from the shape of your aura?”
