Page 26 of The Sitcom Star
Adrian managed not to spit his drink all over the table.Barely.
“Sydney,” he hissed.
“Oh, sh—Oops.”Sydney covered her mouth.“Did you not know?I assumed he’d told you.Or he’d made it so obvious when he was thirteen that it was impossible to miss.”
Adrian tried not to look as horrified as he felt.Usually, it was easier to laugh things off, but then again, his friends weren’t usually revealing his grade-school crushes.It wouldn’t have bothered him so much…if he didn’t still like Maddie.
“Is that true?”Maddie asked him.He couldn’t quite read her expression.
Sydney wassogoing to pay for this later.How, he wasn’t sure, but he’d think of something.Maybe he’d buy Sadie the world’s loudest and most annoying toy.
For now, he shrugged.Pretended he was a laidback guy.“Might have.”
“But you didn’t ask me to slow dance.Remember the school dances in the gym?We had a few.They played NSYNC and stuff like that.”Maddie started singing a few lines of “This I Promise You”—naturally, she had a lovely voice—and Noah and Sydney cracked up.
“Would you have said yes?”Noah asked Maddie.
Adrian didn’t know why he cared quite so much about the answer to this question.It was just a hypothetical question about life twenty years ago, before he’d had to shave or get a job.And yet…
“Probably,” she said.
Noah hooted.
And Adrian felt the pleasure of that single word seeping into his veins.Probably.
“You know what else I remember?”Maddie said.“School pictures.One year, you wanted spiky hair, but your mom wouldn’t let you use gel, so right before the pictures, you went to the washroom and spiked your hair with water.”Her eyes danced as she looked at him.
“Yeah, that was grade six,” he said, swallowing.“My mom wasn’t very happy with me.When my grandma asked about school pictures that year, Mom told her they didn’t turn out.”
“I bet you looked cute,” Sydney said.
“Cool,” Adrian corrected.“Very cool, notcute.”He shuddered in an exaggerated fashion.
A few minutes later, Maddie headed to the washroom, and Adrian turned to Sydney.
“I can’t believe you told her that!”he said.
“I honestly thought she knew,” Sydney said.
“Well, she didn’t.Why would I have mentioned it?”
“You think it’ll interfere with your plans to seduce her?”
“Sydney!”
“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Noah said.“She seems to like you.I mean, she’s willingly hanging out with us for an evening rather than, I don’t know.”He gestured vaguely in the air.“Whatever TV-star things she could be doing.”
“But seriously,” Sydney said.“I do like her.She’s surprisingly normal.Logically, I knew she wouldn’t act like Waverly, but because that’s the only role I’ve seen her play, that’s sort of what I envisioned in my mind, you know?I think she’s into you, Adrian.”
The fact that both of his friends seemed to believe that?It was promising, but he still felt agitated.“Could you guys just, like, be cool?”
“Of course.I’ll head to the washroom and…” Sydney slid her fingers through her bob.“Put some water in my hair to make it spiky.Then I’ll beverycool.”
Noah laughed, and Adrian mock-glared at his friends.
When Maddie returned from the washroom, Sydney said, “Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure,” Maddie said.
