More Than Maybe - Erin Hahn Page 0,55

you can do is be lax about when we return to our lunches.

Luke is standing with Zack and a few of the basketball guys in the middle of a grove of evergreens. He doesn’t see me, and I don’t try to catch his eye. Instead, he’s intent on Lindsay, and he looks … bothered. The thing is, Sunday night was … amazing. The slow dancing, the hand holding, the giddy smiling. All of it. And then the song happened. And then it really, really happened when person after person shared the link …

“Don’t tell her that,” Cate is saying, still referring to Lindsay and the prom date that wasn’t. “I saw her at the Nordstrom’s at Briarwood a few weeks back.” Cate stabs at her chili fries with a spork while sharing Laura’s log. Some meat sauce drips on her Converse, and she brushes it off in the grass.

“I feel the need to remind you all that it’s March,” Ahmed says blandly, his fingers clicking across his phone screen.

Cate flicks her long, sandy layers over her shoulder and throws a glare at him. “You can’t just buy a gown last minute, not if you don’t want the same one every other girl is wearing.”

Heather agrees. “I’m planning to check out Grand Rapids next weekend.”

Jesus. Not that I’ve ever gone or ever planned to go, but still. Last year, instead of the junior prom, my mom took Meg and me to see Judah & the Lion in Detroit. They were fabulous.

“What about you, Vada?” Laura asks politely. That about sums up my friendship with these guys. Polite. Vaguely interested.

I shake my head. “I don’t have a date.”

“Well, it’s still early. You can get the dress now and worry about a date later,” Cate says.

“Easy for you to say,” Heather says. “You’ve had a permanent date since sophomore year. I don’t want to end up like Lindsay with an expensive dress and no one to see it.”

“It was a breakup,” Ahmed says. “Not the end of the world.”

“Correction. A breakup followed by a very public, very viral, grand gesture about another girl.”

“Brutal,” Ja’kai agrees.

“You guys make it sound like Luke meant for the song to go viral,” I say, working hard to keep the defensiveness from my voice. The internet is weird. It only takes the right pair of eyes—or, in this case, ears—at the right moment, and your life blows up. “I don’t think he had any idea Cullen would post it.” Not with the way he spoke about his rejection of his dad’s plans for a career in performing. No way.

“Did you even listen to it? I mean, that shit was definitely intentional,” Laura says. “It had to be a setup. Isn’t their dad like extra famous in England?”

“He was. But Luke doesn’t want anything to do with that.”

Heather narrows her eyes at me, and I fiddle with the pages of Les Mis, deliberately not glancing in the direction of Luke and his friends. “How do you know?”

I shrug, trying to look disinterested, but I doubt I pull it off. I suck at pretense. “We work together. He told me. It’s not his thing.”

“Sure sounded like it was his thing.”

I shrug again. Not that I would admit it—I’m mortified at how little self-control I have when it comes to Luke—but I’ve probably listened to his song at least a hundred times. It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard, featuring the purest and most beautiful vocals from the throat of the most beautiful boy I’ve ever seen.

It’s a holy trifecta of hot mess, and I can’t be held accountable.

“Did you see what happened last night? Fucking Buzzfeed ran some article of the ‘Most Romantic Gestures in Teen Rom-Coms,’ and to finish it off with a real-life clip, they linked to the podcast. It’s not going anywhere,” Ja’Kai says.

Oh God. Now I feel even worse. No wonder Luke looks so … well, objectively still good, but not like good good. He looks stunned, honestly.

Heather whistles low. “No wonder Lindsay’s upset. She lives for that kind of thing.” I feel my lips pucker in a grimace, but it can’t be helped. Lindsay is upset? How selfish is she? Did she not know him at all?

“Isn’t that why they split up?” I can’t help but point out. “Didn’t she try to Instagram their first kiss or something bananas like that?” She’s the wooooooorst.

Ja’Kai snickers, dipping a handful of fries into ketchup. “Bet she wishes she’d held off on that.”

I shudder. “That’s super weird.