Playing Hooky with the Hottie - Maggie Dallen Page 0,27

again,” Charlotte whispered.

“Sweetie, I’m gonna have to take this granola bar away from you if you keep glaring at it like this,” Emma said. “It’s freaking Charlotte out.”

Lulu giggled beside her, and I gave her a wry smile. “Sorry. I guess I’m just...confused today, that’s all.”

Emma, Lulu, and Charlotte looked at me with wide eyes. Max looked….well, she looked way too knowing for my liking.

“You?” Lulu asked. “Confused?”

I shrugged. “Is that so hard to believe?”

There was a short silence before Charlotte said, “Yes.”

Emma nodded. “It kind of is, actually.”

“Why?” I tossed the granola bar down. I wasn’t even hungry anyway.

Lulu shrugged as she reached for a carrot stick. “Because you always seem to know what you want.”

“Yeah, that’s kind of your thing,” Emma added. She put her hands in front of her in a straight line, like she was air traffic control guiding a plane. “You know what you want, and you go for it.”

I stared at her for a second too long. That was my thing. That was who I am. Even my type-A family teased me about being so single-minded and focused.

I knew what I wanted. And what I wanted was to be the best swimmer at this school. That had me sitting up straighter, because right about now...that was the only thing I felt certain of.

Yesterday I’d been sure that I had a crush on Justin.

But then Will had kissed me, and I was pretty sure I didn’t know anything anymore.

“I’m confused,” I said.

The silence was overwhelming until Lulu reached over and placed a hand on my arm. “Welcome to the club.”

She said it so seriously, my lips twitched up a bit in response.

“We’re in high school, we’re supposed to be confused,” Emma said.

Charlotte nodded. “Don’t put so much pressure on yourself to know all the answers. You don’t have to.”

This was kind of funny coming from the school’s smartest student, but I decided not to point that out. I suspected she wasn’t talking about facts and figures.

“Seriously, though,” Emma said, her tone shifting to one of amusement. “What’s the deal with Justin? Don’t tell me he wasn’t salivating over those pictures of you in a swimsuit.”

I rolled my eyes. “He sees me in a swimsuit every day.”

“Yeah, but not like that,” Lulu pointed out.

I tipped my head to the side in acknowledgement. Will hadn’t just captured me frolicking in the water or eating a picnic lunch by the lake...he’d made me look beautiful. And I wasn’t even sure how he’d done it.

Plus, it didn’t hurt that I was wearing a swimsuit minus the swim cap. No one looked sexy in a swim cap.

“He had to have noticed,” Max said. “Everyone’s been talking about this new and improved Hazel they’re seeing in their feeds.”

I scrunched up at my nose. “I’m not new or improved,” I said.

“Ah, but that is the power of social media, grasshopper,” Emma said in a wise man tone that had the others snickering. “It’s all about what they see.”

“And what they see is some wet and wild chick having fun and being carefree,” Lulu finished. She and Emma looked absurdly smug that their plan was working.

“I know, it’s just…” I glanced over at Max who was still watching me with an inscrutable expression. “It just feels like a lie. My personality hasn’t changed—”

“But you did have fun,” Max interjected.

I rolled my eyes. I should have known that the ace reporter of our group wouldn’t let a question go without getting an answer.

“Yeah, alright. I had fun. So sue me.” I had a lot of fun. I had the best day I’d had in...I had no idea how long. Even after that kiss, things between me and Will went back to being easy and effortless. He made me laugh, we talked about everything...we talked about nothing at all. Conversation just...happened. And I didn’t have to think about it. Not even once.

To my surprise, Max grinned and popped a cheeto into her mouth. “That’s what I thought.”

Emma and I shared a look at that comment.

What did that mean, that’s what she thought?

I shook it off. Didn’t matter. What mattered was that I liked Justin, and that kiss with Will didn’t mean anything.

It couldn’t, because he’d outright told me it didn’t mean anything.

I crumpled up my sandwich wrapper and shoved it into my lunch sack. It wasn’t like that hurt me or anything. That sharp stinging sensation was just the side effect of being temporarily confused.

It was Justin I wanted, and he was the one I