I HAD HOPED TO EASE Olivia into the whole Tyler-isn’t-into-you conversation, which means I was kind of chicken and hoped she’d forgotten about it. But the second she saw me in the hall the next morning, she used her superlong legs to glide up to me immediately.
“So? How did it go?” she asked. Her eyes were wide and hopeful, which just made me feel worse.
I stepped around her so I could get to my locker. “How did what go?” I asked as if I had no clue what she was talking about.
She didn’t buy it and rolled her eyes. “With Tyler. About him asking me to the dance.”
I didn’t remember promising that he would actually ask her to the dance, but I knew bringing that up wasn’t going to do any good. So I busied myself with opening my locker, trying to figure out how to tell her it wasn’t going to work between her and Tyler.
“Kat?” she barked loudly, startling me enough that I almost banged my head into the locker.
I swiveled toward her. “What?”
She looked at me like I’d lost my marbles. “Hello? Tyler? Dance?”
Fighting the urge to sigh, I turned back to the locker so I wouldn’t have to look into her eyes. I really didn’t want to hurt her feelings but . . . “I just . . . I don’t think he’s the right guy for you.”
“Why not?”
Not wanting to give away what he’d said, because I knew it would hurt her, I figured I’d focus on their differences. “Like I said, he’s really into games and comics and stuff. He’s kind of a nerd like that. He doesn’t know all the words to every 5Style song or have their posters plastered all over his bedroom walls.”
She was silent for so long that I had to turn and look at her, scared I’d totally offended her. She was staring at me with a look on her face I couldn’t figure out. I brought my thumb to my mouth and nibbled on my fingernail, waiting.
She blinked five times (yes, I counted) before she said, “He’s a really cute nerd. And I don’t care what music he listens to.”
Ugh. So that hadn’t worked. “He reads a lot and plays Xbox all the time he’s not reading. I don’t even know if he has time for, like, a girlfriend.”
“I won’t hold the reading and the gaming things against him,” she assured me. Then she cocked her head to the side and narrowed her eyes. “Wait. Do you not want me to go to the dance with him?”
My mouth went dry as I thought about my answer. I shoved my hands in my pockets and had to clear my throat before I could speak. “It’s not that, Livvy. I just . . . you two don’t have anything in common.”
“My parents have nothing in common, and they’ve been married almost twenty years.”
Yes, but Tyler thinks you’re only about makeup and boy bands.
I had nothing I could actually say to her, so I turned back to my locker, unloaded my lunch, and took out my books for first period.
She sighed. “What do I have to do to make him notice me? I did my best flirting yesterday at lunch, but he seemed more interested in your hard-boiled egg.”
That should have been your first clue, I thought. “Are you sure you want him, Livvy?”
Honestly, with the way she looked and her being on the dance team, she could have any guy. Maybe even eighth-graders. “What about TJ Stevens or—”
“I don’t care about TJ Stevens. I like Tyler,” she said, cutting me off midsentence. I could tell by that determined look in her eye and the way her arms were crossed and her back was super straight that she wasn’t going to let up. “He’s cute and everyone likes him.”
As I stood there and thought about how she was my cousin and friend and how much I really did love her, I realized maybe I sort of owed it to her to make it happen for her and Tyler. I mean, Tyler would never in a million years go for me, so why wouldn’t I want him with my best cousin? Once he got to really know her, of course he’d change his mind about her. Right?
I closed my locker door and turned back toward her. “Fine. I am going to shelve books in the library at lunch today, but why don’t you come over after school and we’ll figure it out.”
Before the words were even out of my mouth, Olivia was bouncing on her toes and clapping her hands. “Thank you so much, Kat!” she squealed.
“Okay, so this right here?” I said, gesturing toward her bouncing body. “It’s going to have to go. You can’t be all squealy and fangirly around him.”
She stopped the bouncing, and her smile dissolved. “Oh. Right.” But then she grinned at me and resumed the bouncing, although not quite as high. “But I can do it around you, can’t I? Because I’m so excited I can’t help it!”
I smiled at her. I kind of loved how enthusiastic she was sometimes, though I’d never admit that to her. “Yeah, sure, Livvy. You can bounce around me all you like.”
But I couldn’t help thinking that, boy, did I have a job ahead of me.