Love, Bitterly Sweet

Chapter Two

“W-what?,” I stutter as I shake my head, perhaps a tad too vehemently to be believable. “No. Of course not.”

“No to which question?,” Dylan asks, a teasing lilt in his voice.

“To both! I don’t know him enough either to like him or to have figured out if he’s my mate. Besides, I already told you that Clair likes him. And I don’t think he’s a were.”

“So? And that’s directed at both of your obviously pathetic attempts at denying what I can already tell, even though I haven’t actually met him yet.”

How could he know? He couldn’t, right? “W-what do you mean?”

Oh geez. I can feel my face heating up, and from the wicked glint in Dylan’s eyes, he can see it. Which means he knows that I have at least a bit of a crush on Max. Which is stupid since what I said is true – I don’t know him.

“Come on, Lily. I’ve held the title of your best friend for far too long to be fooled.”

I refuse to admit anything. It’s just asking for trouble. Not that I don’t trust Dylan to keep my secret, I just don’t want to own up to something I’m not even sure is true yet. But I guess my silence is enough to convince my cousin.

Dylan suddenly stops in the middle of the hallway, forcing me to a halt as well. He clasps his hands together, exaggeratingly bats his eyelashes, and says, “You like him, you really like him,” in a ridiculously high-pitched voice, perfectly misquoting whoever said it all those years ago.

“Dylan!,” I hiss at him since he’s drawn enough attention to himself that people are now stopping to watch us. I grab his arm to drag him away, but he easily resists.

“Admit it or I’m going to continue.”

Crap. I chew my bottom lip in thought. There’s no way out of this. I know he’ll follow through with his threat if I don’t admit it. And as long as no one here knows what we’re talking about exactly, I guess it doesn’t really matter if I do.

“Fine. But it’s nothing. It doesn’t mean anything. Okay?”

Dylan lets out a short squeal. “I knew it!”

I roll my eyes at him, but I’m also kind of giddy about the fact that I did admit it. Out loud. It was oddly freeing in a way, like I’ve just been granted permission to like Max or something. Like Dylan has just given me his approval. It’s not as if I’m going to try and start anything with Max, especially considering there’s still Clair to think about, but it feels good knowing that Dylan agrees with my choice of crush, even though he doesn’t know Max yet. 

“You know, sometimes I wonder about you. Times like these, you definitely take more after your mom than your dad.”

Dylan shrugs casually before tossing his arm around my shoulder. “I know – it was the squeal, wasn’t it? That just came out. Probably from growing up with my mom and sister.”

We both laugh as we hurry to our next class, which we luckily have together. We manage to make it before the bell and as I slip into my seat, I release a deep breath. Max isn’t in this class. Clair had mentioned that he had History first period, and since he obviously isn’t here now, it means that I have at least one more period where I don’t have to be hyper-aware of his presence. I’m not totally sure if that’s a good or bad thing though.

History and Spanish go by quickly, and Clair and I walk to my locker to grab the lunch I packed this morning. She’s been gushing about Max nonstop since she walked into Spanish class, although she hasn’t seen him since homeroom. It would be sickening if I didn’t agree with almost everything she says. After all, it’s impossible to deny that he is cute.