Rule 14: Make him notice you! Get his attention! Draw him into you!
Rule 26: Do not feel you have to tell your friends who you are crushing on!
Rule 30: Do not tell anyone that you have a crush on someone unless you know you can trust them not to tell your crush!
Excitement floated on the air like the fire sparks, but Sydney just couldn’t catch it. Rule 14 of the Crush Code said, Make him notice you! Get his attention! But Sydney didn’t feel like being here, let alone smiling and flirting and pretending everything was okay. She just wanted to be home right now, curled in bed, reading a book with a bowl of popcorn by her side.
And more importantly, she wanted to be alone. It wasn’t anything against Drew or her friends. She just needed some Sydney time while she tried to sort some things out. Maybe she’d get that time tomorrow, go out somewhere with her camera.
“Need anything?” Drew said, holding her hand tightly as if he were afraid that he’d lose her if he let go.
“Actually,”—she plopped down on one of the swings, abandoned by the little kids now that darkness had settled in—“could you see if you could find an elephant ear? I smell them, but I don’t see them.”
Drew nodded, raked his fingers over her back. “I thought I saw someone selling them by the back entrance. I’ll head over there.”
“Thanks.”
He disappeared into the crowd and Sydney clutched the swing, resting her head against one of the chains and closing her eyes. The noise of the park was nearly deafening. Conversation mixed with the sound of fireworks screeching and popping. Kids screamed, parents hollered. A headache blossomed at the base of her skull. She groaned.
Within minutes, Drew returned, a large elephant ear in his hand. “Found one,” he said, handing it over.
“Thanks.” She took a bite. It was warm and soft and sweet. Her bad mood almost lessened. At least food would never let her down.
“Is there anything else?” Drew asked, sitting in the swing next to her.
She wanted her camera, but she wouldn’t ask Drew to run home and get that. She should have thought to bring it herself.
“Can we just sit and watch?”
More children screeched as a fountain sprung a cascade of golden sparks into the semidarkness. A few dogs barked at the sound and light.
“Sure,” Drew answered, toeing at the wood chips spread out in the sand.
And that’s how they spent the rest of the night, sitting there in silence until the fireworks ended.
Kelly leaned back on her elbows on the blanket Adam had spread out for them. It was fleece, blue, at least a queen-size. He’d also packed a cooler of Pepsi and water with some brownies on the side. He was so darn perfect that Kelly could have married him that very second if it hadn’t been for the whole lack-of-chemistry thing.
“You good?” Adam asked, leaning back on his side.
Kelly nodded. “You did great.”
“Really? Because you seem…I don’t know…somewhere else.”
Kelly finally looked at him. The cotton material of his T-shirt strained against his biceps, hugged his toned chest. His shirt crept up just a little bit so that Kelly could see a sliver of his extremely hard stomach and the waistband of his Calvin Klein boxers.
She really was somewhere else mentally, but she could have kicked herself for it.
She wanted to be there, focused on nothing but Adam.
But all she could think about was Drew.
Why had he made that face when Adam said she looked good tonight? Drew had commented earlier that he thought Adam seemed like a good guy, yet that expression had said something else.
Did he think Adam was playing Kelly? Was Adam playing Kelly?
Kelly scoffed at herself. Technically, one might say Kelly was playing Adam. She had admitted to herself and to Drew that she wasn’t feeling Adam. Now she was just leading him on.
Someone tall and dark-haired swung slowly on a swing just twenty feet from where Kelly sat. A red burst of fireworks lit his face, and Kelly’s stomach tingled.
Drew.
Next to Kelly, Adam sighed. She tore her eyes away from Drew.
“What?” she said.
Adam sat up. “You are somewhere else, aren’t you?” He nodded in Drew’s direction.
“Oh…” It was a good thing darkness had begun to set in. Kelly’s face felt hot as embers. “Drew…he’s just a friend.”
“Kelly.” Adam turned to her. “I like to pretend I’m a writer, remember?” He grinned. “If I didn’t know people or the way they look when they’re angry, annoyed…in love…then I shouldn’t be a writer.” He gave her a playful nudge. “I know that look.”
She started to shake her head but instead looked at the blanket, ran her fingers over the soft material. It would be so easy to stay here, to stay with Adam and force herself to like him.
That would be the easy route.
But she didn’t want to.
What she wanted to do was get up and run over to Drew and then…
Well, she didn’t really know what she’d do after that. And what about Sydney? And Adam?
It was all wrong.
“I came here with you,” she said to Adam. “And I like hanging out with you.”
As a friend, she thought.
More fireworks boomed in the sky, lighting Adam’s face now that the darkness was thicker. He grabbed her, pulling her closer. Her heart panicked in her chest. Was he trying to kiss her now?
He whispered in her ear.
“There’s this poem,” he said, “that my grandmother used to quote all the time. ‘Love is the wild that runs through the forests.’ She used to say, ‘You see the wild, Adam, you run after it. Don’t let it get away.’” He pulled back, looking Kelly straight on.
A purple firework blossomed in the darkness. Kelly looked up, seeing Drew off in the distance. He leaned against the swing chain, watching the fireworks half-heartedly.
“He’s my best friend’s boyfriend,” Kelly heard herself say. “I just can’t.”
Drew caught her staring then. He straightened, lifted a few fingers in an almost imperceptible wave.
It was wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
She couldn’t. Ever.
She looked away. “I’ll stay here with you,” she said to Adam, deciding that the safest route was here with him.