It made me swoon, too.
“I told you it seemed like he really liked you. And he didn’t even do what other guys do, like pretend that he wasn’t into you. He put it all out there,” she continued as she fished out a half-popped kernel and chomped down on it. “It’s like a fairy tale.”
My brows rose.
“It is!” she insisted, pausing to crack down on the kernel. “You guys grew up together, and he was like your white knight. Then you were separated and then brought back together. It doesn’t even seem real.”
“It doesn’t.” I pulled the pillow to my chest. “I almost don’t know...what to think of it.”
“Just think it’s amazing. Because it is.” She tucked her hair back behind her ear. “That’s all you have to think about.”
A little bit of reality seeped in. “But Paige...”
“They were broken up, apparently for a week, so it’s not like you broke them up.” She paused, scrunching her nose. “Actually, you kind of did break them up, but not on purpose. I doubt this Paige girl will see it that way, but whatever. Not your problem.”
I so dreaded the moment Paige realized that Rider and I were, well, a thing. “I told Rosa this morning that Rider and I...that we were seeing each other. The whole boyfriend-girlfriend thing.” I flushed. “I don’t think she was upset about it or really happy about it. Carl hasn’t said anything, but...”
“But he probably will and it will probably be super awkward. You’ve just got to give them time,” she replied rather sagely. “It’s your first real relationship.”
“I just... I don’t know. It just feels like there is more...to it,” I said.
Ainsley studied me for a moment. “Don’t stress over Carl and Rosa.”
“I’m—”
“And don’t say you aren’t going to stress over it. You stress over everything.” She smiled while I snapped my mouth shut. “Sometimes you’re so stuck in your own head that you’re not— Well, you’re not really living.”
My brows rose.
She glanced down at the bowl of popcorn. “Please don’t take that the wrong way. It’s just that I think sometimes you miss what’s going on around you, because you’re so worried about what others are thinking about you and your choices.”
I wanted to argue against that, but I couldn’t. “You’re right.” She was so right, because I constantly worried about what Carl and Rosa thought, what even Ainsley thought, and then Rider and Keira, Jo, Mr. Santos... The list went on and on.
“I know,” she chirped, and then she sobered. “It’s really sad about the stuff with Jayden.”
Typical Ainsley, moving from one conversation to the next. I fiddled with the hem of my pants. “He was so...beat up.”
“It doesn’t seem like Rider is heavily involved in whatever is going on.” She set the bowl aside, next to her book bag. She’d come over Sunday afternoon under the guise of studying alongside me. We hadn’t even opened a textbook. “Still, it was sad and scary.”
I wasn’t sure I agreed with Rider not being involved. Yes, it had nothing to do with me, but Rider had been involved and I doubted he would stay out of it if things continued to go bad for Jayden. It just wasn’t in Rider’s nature. He had a near suicidal hero complex.
My stomach tumbled.
And I also really liked Jayden. He had always been kind to me, even when he really had no idea who I was. I wasn’t sure how I could help him or if it was even in my power to help.
“So tell me about Hector. I want to know everything about him.”
I cocked my head to the side. “Thought you didn’t like him?”
“I don’t have to like him to be all up in his business from a distance.” Ainsley grinned.
I smiled. “I don’t know a lot about him. He...works at McDonald’s part-time, and he’s...nice.”
“Nice?” She laughed as she tossed her hair back. “You should’ve heard what he was saying about me, in front of me. He’s a jerk—a dirty-minded, perverted jerk-face.”
I stared at her.
“But he is hot,” she added with a sly grin. “There is that.”
I nodded in agreement. “How’s Todd?”
Her eyes rolled. “Boring. Snobby. I don’t want to talk about him, because there is something we do need to talk about.” Ainsley glanced at my closed bedroom door. Carl and Rosa were somewhere downstairs. “You’re dating Rider now, right? You’re his girlfriend and don’t you have Homecoming soon? Your first dance!”
I winced. “We...haven’t even talked about that.”
“You can talk about it now.”
“I don’t know,” I responded.
She raised a brow. “You should at least ask if he wants to go. It’s kind of like the normal thing to do,” she said, lowering her voice.
I nodded, liking the sound of that. “I want to be normal.”
Her mouth opened and then her nose scrunched. “Okay. Pause. Normal is subjective, and you are normal, Mal.”
I wrinkled my nose.
“What? You don’t talk a lot and sometimes you occasionally freak out. How does that make you abnormal? There are tons of people out there like that.” She threw her hands up. “So what? And you came from foster care—a crappy foster home, but again, unfortunately that’s also not unusual. That doesn’t make you weird.”