"She knows that we can see her, right?"
Luke sighed. "At this point, why are we still asking? Anna knew that Sage likes her, right? Nope, that's why we had to set them up. She knew that she wouldn't get rejected, right? Obviously not, that's why it took her so long to ask her crush out. So does she know that we can see her standing awkwardly by the entrance?"
"You could've just said no," I told him.
Luke sighed again and squeezed my hand under the table. "I'm sorry, I'm just nervous."
"Okay, what?" I stared at him in disbelief. "This whole time, you were the one who came up with all the ideas of how to make this work, and you were telling us that we had no reason to be nervous, and now you are?"
"I just remembered that Anna Lee still has no idea that we're dating, and she's about to find out."
"Oh." I frowned. "That's a bit of a problem. Who's gonna put up with me enough to date me when you're dead by her hands?"
Luke buried his face in his hands. "Don't joke about my death. She's actually gonna kill me, and you probably won't care enough to throw me a nice funeral because you'll be too busy laughing at my suffering."
"Yeah, that sounds pretty accurate," I said.
"You're not helping," he mumbled.
"You got yourself into this," I pointed out. "You didn't tell her that you were dating me, and I had no idea that you were friends with her until a week ago. I'm sorry, you're taking all the blame for this one."
"You're not helping," Luke repeated. He lifted his head. "I'd threaten to dump you, but the last time that you thought we were breaking up, it... wasn't good."
I grimaced. "Let's not talk about that right now. Or ever."
"Okay." Luke tugged on my sleeve. "Look, she's actually coming in now."
We watched as Anna Lee pushed the door open and stepped through the doorway. She scanned the cafe, and her eyes widened when she saw us.
"This is how I die," Luke whispered, horrified.
"Oh, would you look at that. Time to ignore your cries for help and put on my innocent guy act."
Anna Lee stared for a second, and then she started storming toward our table. Luke tensed up.
"She's not actually gonna kill you," I whispered to him.
"I wouldn't be so sure," he muttered.
Anna Lee stood in front of us with narrowed eyes and her hands on her hips. I had to admit, she did look kind of terrifying.
"Luke Mitchell, explain yourself."
I put on a surprised face, as if I was just finding out for the first time that they knew each other. "Well, I was gonna introduce you guys, but I guess I don't need to."
Luke aimed for a sheepish smile. "Hey, Anna Lee. How are you?"
She ignored him and turned to me. "Cameron, your boyfriend's an asshole."
"Already knew that," I said pleasantly.
"Hey!" Luke elbowed me.
"I'm kidding! Well, not really." I slung an arm around Luke's shoulders. He gave me a warning look, but it was fine. Platonic friends could put their arms around each other.
I lowered my voice in case there were waiters listening. "Don't worry, you're still cute."
As Anna Lee watched our interaction, the shock and irritation started to fade from her face.
"I guess I'll be annoyed at you later," she huffed. I felt Luke relax a little. I dropped my arm and reached for his hand under the table.
"You guys are adorable," Anna Lee told us as she slid onto our table's other bench. "But I've never thought of you two together. Okay, I need details. When and how did this happen?"
"Well, do you wanna hear about a month ago or four years ago?" Luke asked. "You know what, never mind, that's too confusing. So, Cameron and I officially met a month ago when my sister's friend's dad snuck us into his birthday party—"
"So that's how you guys got in," I said.
"Don't tell your manager. Anyway, we didn't see each other again until we found out that his friend is my pizza guy—"
"Do you still get pizza from him?" I asked. "Wait, do you guys ever gossip about me?"
"Sometimes and definitely. So basically, Cameron got all desperate, and—"
"Stop telling it from my point of view!" I paused. "Sorry, I keep cutting you off."
Luke shrugged. "You're fine. So then—"
This time, I wasn't the one to interrupt him.
We turned towards the laughter, and Sage was standing in front of us with her arms clutching her sides.
"Seriously?! You two?!" She threw her arms up in the air. "You know what, I'm not even surprised." She turned to me. "When Anna Lee told me about the double date idea, I was so nervous. I thought I was going to be the fourth wheel, but it looks like that's you."
Sage took a seat next to Anna Lee, and for the first time, I saw the group all together. Sage was right; I was the fourth wheel on this tricycle and an obvious misfit. They all went to school together, and they were closer in age. They were a tight group of friends, and I was the awkward older sibling who got stuck babysitting them.
I put on my surprised face again to humor the girls. "Wait. So you three all know each other?"
"I hide in the school library with these idiots during lunch every day," Anna Lee explained to me. "Well, only Luke is an idiot. We let him stay because we feel sorry for him."
Oh, so Sage wasn't an idiot? Interesting. Also, very adorable.
"Hey, that's not true!" Luke protested.
Anna Lee crossed her arms. "Do I care?"
To make Sage feel more included, I asked her, "Do they argue all the time?" They probably did, but I wanted Sage to feel like she wasn't the only one who didn't know what was going on.
Sage rolled her eyes and sighed. "You've got to be kidding. This is every single day of my life."
"I'm so sorry."
"Okay, which one of us here has dated all the other people here?" Luke was saying.
I looked to Anna Lee. "Are you serious?" I vaguely remembered Luke telling me that he and Anna Lee had pretended to date to get their friends off their backs.
"I guess that's... technically not false," Anna Lee decided.
"So... My fake girlfriend is friends with my real boyfriend?" I knew exactly what was going on, but I was committed to my act.
Luke sighed dramatically. "Yeah. Try to keep up, babe."
I had pretty much given up on telling him to stop.
"And my fake ex-boyfriend is dating my fake current boyfriend," Anna Lee said.
Luke grinned at us. "Surprise, I knew all of that."
Sage looks at us one by one. "Where do I fit in? Why am I here?"
"Because Anna Lee finally got the nerve to ask you out, stupid," Luke told her.
I raised my hand to claim my credit. "Actually, I forced her to."
It was Luke's turn to do some more acting. "Really? Wow, I can't believe it actually worked."
He winked at me as we high-fived. I had to hold myself back from rolling my eyes.
"Hey, I was nervous," Anna Lee defended.
I scoffed. "Nervous? Honey, do you know what an understatement is? You were frickin' terrified that she was gonna turn you down."
Luke nodded in agreement.
Sage frowned.
"What? Why would I do that?" she asked Anna Lee. "I like you. I thought it was painfully obvious."
"It was," Luke affirmed, which earned him a glare from both of the girls.
"You guys are ridiculous," I told all of them. "Look at you little sophomores, figuring out who has a crush on who. I, on the other hand, am a mature adult who'd like a box of apple juice. Can we get a waiter over here?"
I wasn't as much of a misfit as I had originally thought I was because they were all misfits who had banded together. I got along really well with Sage, and we'd roll our eyes together whenever Luke and Anna Lee started arguing. I teased Anna Lee a lot, and she'd always insult me back while hiding a smile. The entire time, Luke and I kept out hands linked under the table.
Of course I had known what happiness felt like, but this was a whole different kind. For the first time in my life, I had a group of friends that I didn't have to act around, even though I still did it. It was just nice to know that I could act however I wanted to.
As I looked around the table, I could tell that these kids were getting a rare taste of happiness too. It had definitely been worth all the fighting to stay together with Luke, to get Anna Lee and Sage to go on a date, and to meticulously plan so that we could all be sitting around a table in a small local coffee shop at this exact moment.
Luke smiled at me and squeezed my hand. He probably had similar thoughts. I wanted to kiss him right there, but I couldn't. It was okay, though. I could do that when we got home.
Maybe I couldn't have a boyfriend in public, but I could have this group of friends, and that was just as precious.