More Than Maybe - Erin Hahn Page 0,44
She was meeting me!” Meg says in a harried voice, stripping off her jacket as she jogs up. “Lord, it’s warm out.”
“Well, it is fly-fishing season,” I say glibly. She snorts, and I turn to everyone else. “This is Meg. Meg, this is Zack, Cullen, and Luke. Luke Greenly,” I say and bite the inside of my cheek when I see her eyes light up. “Luke and Cullen Greenly, I mean. They’re twins.” Jesus, Vada, just stop.
She immediately holds out a hand to Luke, who’s staring at her rainbow fairy wings with interest. “Pleasure to meet you.”
“I’m Luke,” he says.
“And I’m Cullen,” his brother interjects. “Love your wings.”
Meg curtsies. “Thank you. I feel they add a bit of whimsy, don’t you?”
“Absolutely,” says Zack, straight-faced. “Not just anyone can pull off wings.”
I press my lips together, watching Luke take in my best friend. Because this is sort of a deal breaker for me. Meg’s important, and we’re a package deal. Not that anything is, like, happening with Luke. But just in case. Best to know ahead of time.
“Do you listen to Lorde at all?” Luke asks after a beat.
Meg’s smile is megawatt. “Heck yeah, I do.”
Luke squints. “You remind me of the ‘Green Light’ video. Have you seen it?”
“Oh my gosh, yes!” I agree excitedly. “Oh my god, Meg. Totally. Lorde dances down the street alone in her dress and sneakers, and it’s so adorable and whimsical as fuck. It’s perfectly you.”
Meg is already pulling up the video on her phone as we move off to the side to allow people into the club. A few seconds later, she’s twirling under Zack’s arm and singing along. For a giant basketball star, Zack is remarkably graceful.
I glance at Luke, and out of the corner of my mouth, I whisper, “You got all that from fairy wings?”
His eyes brighten. “It’s a gift. Sort of like that whole genre-aesthetic thing you do. She feels like Lorde dancing down the boulevard in the middle of the night to me.”
“Incredible,” I say. I’m tempted to ask what song makes him think of me, but I squash the thought quickly.
His full lips lift in a small smile as if he can read my mind, and he shakes his head. “I’m still working on you. Some people jump right out at you. Meg and Cullen, for instance. Cull’s clearly Panic! at the Disco—”
I hold up a hand. “Wait! Let me think.” I watch Cullen with Zack and Meg. All three are dancing, Meg the pixie belle of the ball. Zack, stalwart and warm, steady as they come. But Cullen? He’s like this brilliant technicolor. I think of every Panic! at the Disco song I’ve ever heard. So many come to mind, but … “‘Dancing’s Not a Crime,’” I say.
Luke raises his brows under his blond waves. “Are you sure?”
“One hundred percent.”
He nods, looking at his twin. “It’s like it was written for him. Even Zack agrees.”
“It could be his life’s motto.”
“I’m pretty sure he’s been advocating to make it the prom theme.”
“If anyone could do it…”
Luke agrees. “If he could channel just an ounce of that superpower into philanthropy, he’d be able to fix global warming.”
Lorde wraps up, and we’re starting to get stares from people walking into the bar. “Where’re you three headed?” Meg asks, tucking her phone in her back pocket.
Cullen points across the street. “Only the best place in the universe. Pinball Pete’s.”
“The arcade?” I ask. “I’ve never been.”
Zack blinks. “You work across the street.”
“But I always enter and leave out the back. It’s not really on my radar.”
“Well, today is your lucky day,” Cullen says, taking my arm. “Inside those Day-Glo doors is a mood ring with your name on it.”
* * *
“Cullen. We would need to pool all our tickets for a mood ring! It’s like seven hundred tickets for something that will inevitably turn my finger green. It’s not even real science.”
“Hush,” he says over the loud tinkling and chiming of the zillions of games.
This place is like a fever dream. Blinking strobe lights, loud music echoing from the row of driving games, and the clatter of change machines spewing more chances.
Also, super fun. Way more fun than I’d expected when we first descended the stairs into this dungeon of an arcade. Turns out, we all suck at pinball, despite my lifelong assumption I would be great at it. But we’ve found our hot spots. Zack is murdering Luke in Skee-Ball, and Meg won’t leave the moving shelf game. She’s got a