When we arrived at building the auditions were being held Bee was the most anxious I'd ever seen her. It had me thrown. She usually walked into any situation with and air of confidence.
I wanted to hug her and tell her it'll be fine, but when I tried that earlier she yelled at me for wrinkling her dress.
It was the nerves that made her snap like that. Whenever she got anxious she also got angry. I kept reminding myself that because I was close to leaving her stranded if she snapped at me again.
Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to go past the reception area of the building. Bee pouted and tried to reason with the lady at the front desk. She wasn't having any of it. It was barely one in the afternoon and the woman looked like she over the day entirely.
Nolan was still sitting in the car when I got back. He was scrolling through his phone, helping himself to a pack of starburst I left in the center console.
"Why are you going through my things and eating my candy?" I asked as I got into the car.
He smoothed out the red candy wrapper and laid it on top of three others. That's when I noticed had eaten all the red ones in the pack.
"I didn't get to eat before you kidnapped me."
Now that I thought about it, I also hadn't eaten since last night. "Food sounds good right now. What should we get?"
He thought about it for a moment. "I know a place." He got out of the car and I followed, texting Bee just in case we didn't make it back when her audition was over.
"What place?" I asked as we left the parking lot and started down the sidewalk.
The sun was relentless, but at least there was a lot of shade from trees and shop awnings. I couldn't wait for fall to officially start.
"Food truck," he looked over at me, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "Mexican street tacos."
"Are those different from, say, Taco Bell tacos?"
"You never had one?" I shook my head. "They're amazing. Better than Taco Bell. Trust me."
I peered up at him, taking in the way his face lit up about the tacos. "Well, they got you to smile. They must be good."
He dropped the expression from his face just to spite me. I didn't understand why he tried so hard to come across as jerk. It wasn't him. Not the real him. These random little glimpses I got of him showing any emotion other than hatred was the real him.
We came up to a park. A bright red truck with Mike's spray painted on the side was parked out front. A line of people waited to make their orders. Apparently these street tacos were a big deal.
Nolan and I joined the end of the line. After a few seconds of silence I remembered the reason I'd asked him to come with us.
"We should come up with a plan that'll give us a shot at winning king and queen."
He nodded. "What'd you have in mind.
"Well, first we have get everyone to stop hating us."
"Us?"
I crossed my arms, shifting my weight to my left leg. "I'm sure you've glared at someone enough to make them hate you."
He gave me a bored look as we moved up in the line. "Alright, it shouldn't be too hard. Most of the kids at school are sheep."
"Sheep?" I echoed, slightly amused. "What decade are you from?"
"You know what I mean," he deadpanned. "Your ex was a jock, jocks tend to be well liked. He doesn't like you, so of course his friends don't like you either. And they get their friends to join in and suddenly—"
"I'm dodging raw eggs."
He gave nod. "Exactly. We get one of them on our side and the rest will follow."
It sounded easy enough. I wasn't a fool, though. It would take some work to convince someone to risk their reputation for us.
The line moved rather quickly. Soon we were next in line. The Hispanic man running the window gave us two options: carne asada or chicken.
Nolan ordered four tacos, two of each, despite me saying I only wanted one, and two lemonades. When we got our order I could see why he insisted on ordering two for each of us. They were tiny. Individually wrapped in foil. Two of them would equal one regular sized taco. Okay, maybe one and a half, but still.
We took our food and tried to find a place to sit. The park was busy, full of joggers, power walking grannies and families enjoying the last of the summer weather. The only available sitting places were in the grass.
Nolan had no problem plopping down in the bright green grass underneath a tree. Since I was in white I had some hesitations.
He peered up at me, his eyes squinting. "You're not going to sit?"
"Um..." I motioned to my pants.
I could tell he was holding back saying something rude and possibly vulgar. Instead he leaned back against the tree, stretching his legs out in front of him.
"You can sit on my lap."
I choked on the air I was breathing. "Excuse me?"
"It's weird, you being up there. I can't talk to you like that."
"I'm not using you as a chair," I protested. "That's weird."
"Not for two people who are supposed to be dating."
He had a point. We were supposed to be a couple and sitting in laps was something couples did. Hell, it was something friends did. Bee and I always sat in each other's laps. This would be no different.
I slowly lowered myself onto his lap, sitting sideways compared to him, my shoulder bumping into his chest. This was awkward. Possibly the most awkward I'd ever felt in my life. Nolan was definitely rethinking this idea, I could tell by the way he avoided eye contact.
"Is this uncomfortable?" I asked cautiously, staring down at the foil wrapped tacos in my hand.
"I was uncomfortable before you sat on me." There was a teasing smirk on his face. I relaxed a bit.
We both ate in silence. Nolan was absolutely right about the tacos. They were good. Evident by the overly satisfied sound that I made. I clamped a hand over my mouth to keep any other noises from escaping.
Nolan chuckled, rumbling beneath me. "I told you they were good."
After I finished my first taco, washing it down with the ice cold lemonade, I decided to ask him the question that had been burning at the back of my mind for the longest. "Why'd you ask me?"
"Ask you what?" He questioned, balling up his discarded foil.
"To do...this. The whole prom king and queen thing." I looked over at him, watching him as he chewed on his straw.
"I told you, I could tell how much you wanted the scholarship money," he stated.
"I'm sure there are others who want that money. I mean, it's ten grand."
"I guess. But I needed someone desperate enough to endure all of this with me."
I hummed a response. "So, just to be clear, you know you're being an ass most of the time?"
He nodded proudly. "Yeah."
A light laugh bubbled out of me. "How do you have friends?"
"I don't."
"Bullshit. You've been in Bellcreek your whole life. You have to have at least one friend," I argued. "What about those guys at the park?"
"I can't, with a hundred percent certainty, even tell you their names," he said, looking out at the park before us. "I try really hard to limit my connections."
It all started to make sense now. Why he was so desperate to win prom king after being the school loner for so many years.
"If you win the trip to London you don't plan on coming back here, do you?"
"Nope." A satisfied smile spread across his face, probably envisioning himself somewhere in Europe. Far, far away from Bellcreek.
I'd spent years not paying attention to him, yet an unexpected wave of sadness hit me. These past couple of weeks I've gotten to know him a little and he seemed cool. Well, when he wasn't purposefully trying to be a jerk.
Those feelings didn't make sense to me. I shouldn't care that he was leaving. All of this was about the scholarship. Nothing more.
But his sarcastic remarks and annoyed expression had grown on me.
"We need to take a selfie." The need to preserve the memory was out of the blue, but I suddenly needed to document it.
Nolan looked thrown, his golden eyes widening a bit. "I don't take selfies."
"Come on," I pled. Teasingly I added, "Maybe we'll make it to the Bellcreek Baes Instagram."
I didn't even know it was a thing until Bee told me about it. Deshaun and I made it on. I made the mistake of reading the comments, though. Never again.
Shaking that from my mind, I focused on getting a picture with Nolan. I repositioned myself so my back was pressed against his chest.
"I'm gonna need you to do something for me," I said as I pulled up the camera on my phone. "You might think it's impossible, but I know you can do it."
He looked down at me as I rested my head on his shoulder. "Can we get this over already."
"Okay, but only if you smile."
"I have reputation to protect," he said, his tone serious. "If people catch me smiling in pictures they might think I've gone soft."
"Well, Nolan, your reputation won't get you to Europe."
That made him change up his attitude real quick. Just like at Tiny Sprouts and the cafeteria and when we were standing outside the woodshop building, he slipped into the role of the loving boyfriend.
He wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me closer to his chest. I placed one hand on his cheek and pressed my lips against his other one. I snapped the photo, happy with how it came out. Even though Nolan didn't smile he still managed to not look like he was being tortured.
I showed the picture to him, still learning against his chest. "I think it's cute."
"It'd look cuter in the trash," he said dryly.
I elbowed him in the stomach, just hard enough to get my point across. As I edited the picture and drafted a caption I got a new message.
Another from my dad asking me to respond so he knew I was getting his messages. I opened the chat thread, ready to tell him off. I couldn't bring myself to do it. The silent treatment was so much easier than confront him.
Shutting the phone off I turned my gaze to Nolan. His brow was furrowed as he looked down at me. I realized he was probably able to read my texts from that angle. If he had, he didn't say anything about them.
"Don't you two look cozy."
Bee snuck up behind us, startling me as she rounded the tree. I immediately stood from Nolan's lap, feeling heat rush to my cheeks.
"You're smiling," I pointed out, just to draw attention away from myself. In fact, she was practically glowing. "How'd it go?"
She flicked her hair over her shoulder. "You're looking at Pizza Party Girl #2."
I wasn't a hundred percent sure what that meant, but that didn't stop the excited squealing noise I made as I wrapped my best friend up in a hug. "Oh my god, Bee!"
She giggled hugging me back. "We film next week," she said as we pulled a part. "Also, I might've lied about still being in high school and filming starts at nine in the morning."
"So, what? You're skipping classes for week straight?"
She nodded sheepishly. "Think my mom would notice?"
"I thought it was just pizza commercial," Nolan pipped up as he stood.
He said exactly what I was thinking. I though the commercial would be a one day thing.
"No, it's three commercials plus a photoshoot," she explained. "So, I really need your help to pull this off, Jade"
"Of course!" My answer was easy. I'd do anything for Bee.
She hugged me again, squeezing me tight. "Thank you!" She said, giddy laughter escaping her. "I promise not to forget you when I'm a big famous movie star."
Nolan loudly cleared his throat. "If you're done, I'd like to go back home now. My bed is waiting for me."
"Don't be rude, Lanny."
He looked physically pained by the nickname. "I asked you not to call me that."
"Lanny?" I repeated, questioningly.
"Seriously. Stop." He warned.
"It's cute, right?" Bee grinned as Nolan glared.
"Yeah, I like it." I beamed, smugly. Bee's giddy mood rubbed off on me. "Let's get you home, Lanny."
The three of us started down the sidewalk back to the car, Nolan and I tossed our trash when we passed a bin.
"Call me that again and I will run into traffic."
Bee rolled her eyes with exaggeration. "Don't be so dramatic, Lanny."
Nolan took a step towards the street. I gripped his arm, pulling him into me. I draped his arm over my shoulder, smiling up at him.
"Pet names come with the territory when dating," I said, innocently peering up at him through my lashes.
"If you get to call me...that, then I'm calling you cilantro."
I frowned, confused. "Why cilantro?"
"Because you have a big chunk of it stuck in your teeth."
I covered my mouth with my hand, panicking as I ran my tongue along my teeth. He wasn't lying.
Nolan laughed, like actually laughed. It was a foreign sound I wanted to memorize. Deep and full of life. Joy.
"I hate you." I tried to sound angry, but his laugh was infectious and I broke.
He simply smiled, stuffing his hands into his pocket. "I hate you too, cilantro."