Unscripted - Nicole Kronzer Page 0,41

“That Ben of yours—”

Emily and Sirena flopped down across from us. “Ben of yours?” Emily mirrored my frown. “He’s yours?”

“No!” I exclaimed. I felt like I was tripping over myself to get ahead of the explanation. “He—he spent all day yelling at me. He’s not mine. I mean, he’s beautiful, of course.” For a split second, I imagined him running his hand through his hair and grinning at me. I shook the image away. “But he’s my coach. My coach who never stands up for me. My coach who’s always yelling at me.”

Sirena and Emily exchanged a look out of the corner of their eyes.

“You guys,” I pleaded, thumping my head on the table. “He’s the worrrrrst.” I was lying a little, but there was no room for nuance here.

“He does look at you a lot,” Sirena said, her eyes catching my gaze, inviting me to confide.

“He’s my coach,” I repeated.

“Sure, but he looks at you more than he looks at those other guys on your team. And you are very talented,” Sirena said. I opened my mouth to protest, but she cut me off with a hand. “You are. Sometimes I think about Agnes Ruffles and just start giggling out loud in public.” She sighed dramatically. “Thanks to you, people think I’m very weird now.”

I chuckled.

“And talent is attractive,” Sirena finished, shrugging.

“Also, you’re not very ugly,” Hanna added, waggling her eyebrows at me. “Nothing major, anyway. No arms where your eyes should be, for instance.”

Sirena and Emily smiled, but I shook my head. This part I felt more sure about. I might be thinking thoughts about Ben, but after what I did on the ropes course, there was no way he was interested in me like that. Had he ever been? He definitely wasn’t anymore. “Guys don’t like me like that,” I said. “I’m friends with guys. I wish I could show you my phone. My texts are all, ‘When’s rehearsal?’ and ‘Who was that actor we were all talking about?’ and ‘I’m having problems with my girlfriend. You’re the only one I can talk to.’ ”

“Well, you’ve never-had-a-girlfriend-or-a-boyfriend-but-you-think-you’re-probably-straight, right?” Emily joked.

“Unfortunately,” I said.

“Then why don’t they like you back?” she demanded. “Look at you! You’re nice and funny and . . .” She blushed and sort of gestured at me.

Hanna smiled. “Emily means you have nice boobs.”

“I do not! I just meant pretty in general! You’re an overall pretty and nice and funny person!”

I laughed.

Sirena started unscrewing her water bottle. “Look. If you think guys aren’t going to like you, they won’t like you. You’ve got a lot going for you, Zelda. Know that. Be that girl.”

I nodded. “Thanks. That’s sweet of you, Sirena.”

She smiled and took a swig of water.

“But don’t be that girl for Ben,” Hanna added, making a face at me.

“Why not? I mean—I’m not,” I said, automatically searching for him among the tables.

Emily and Sirena simultaneously gave me side-eye.

“I’m not!” I exclaimed.

“See—you do that leaning in thing and your boobs just—” Hanna made jazz hands.

“I wear too many buttoned-up flannel shirts. That must be the thing keeping the boys away,” I joked.

Paloma marched over and sat down with a thump. Three pencils fell out of her hair.

“Are those all mine?” she marveled.

We cracked up.

“Who needs that many pencils?” Hanna cackled.

“I don’t need three,” Paloma clarified, “I just keep tucking them in there and they get lost!” She shook her head. A fourth plunked on the table.

We were goners.

She chuckled good-naturedly as she gathered the pencils and tucked them into her back pocket. When we were down to the hiccuping portion of the laughter, she asked, “How was high ropes, Zelda?”

I coughed and blew some air through my lips. “Weird. Bad. Yelly. It feels like everyone hates me.”

She pushed my shoulder. “But you’re fighting, right? You’re doing this for us?”

“Yeah,” I said, wrapping my arms around my torso, “I’m doing this for us.”

I felt him behind me before I heard him.

“Hey.”

Ben. I took a deep breath and looked over my shoulder. “Hi.”

Was he going to still be mad at me for not listening to him? Or would he apologize for yelling and then I’d apologize for not listening and then he’d apologize for not standing up for Jake and me?

“Where did you go after high ropes?”

At that moment, the dinner bell rang and the food was laid out at the buffet. Chairs scraped all around us. I stood up so we could hear each other, and he took my elbow and guided me a few