CHAPTER 17

By lunchtime, Fay was practically bouncing beside me as we walked toward the cafeteria. "Sooo, about our celebration at the café today..." she started, drawing out her words.

I sighed. "What about it?"

"I was thinking...maybe we should invite a few more people?"

I narrowed my eyes at her. "Fay, what are you up to?"

She grinned. "Nothing! I just think it would be fun if Cole and Zayn joined us. Since, you know, Cole won second place, and Zayn was there to witness all of your award-winning hugs."

I stopped walking. "Absolutely not."

"Oh, come on!" Fay whined. "It's just a casual thing. Plus, I'm pretty sure Cole wouldn't mind—"

"I don't care about Cole."

"So you do care about Zayn?"

I groaned. "That's not what I said."

Fay wiggled her eyebrows. "But that's what you meant."

"I swear to—"

"Cole!" Fay suddenly called out, spotting him across the cafeteria. I immediately grabbed her wrist, trying to stop her, but it was too late.

Cole glanced over, smiling as he made his way toward us. "What's up?"

"We're going to the café after school to celebrate," Fay said way too quickly. "You in?"

Cole's eyes flickered to me briefly before he nodded. "Sounds good."

I relaxed slightly. Fine. One extra person wasn't a big deal.

"Great!" Fay clapped her hands. "Now we just need to invite Zayn!"

Never mind. It was a big deal.

"Fay," I said through gritted teeth.

"Zayn!" she completely ignored me, calling out to him just as he passed by.

I silently started calculating how much jail time I'd get for strangling her.

Zayn stopped, raising a brow. "Yeah?"

"We're going to the café after school. You coming?" Fay asked way too casually.

Zayn's gaze flicked to me for one brief second before he shrugged. "Sure."

I stared at him. "You don't even know which café."

"Don't need to," he said. "I'll just follow."

Great.

Cole smirked. "Didn't know you were the café-hanging-out type, Carter."

"I'm not," Zayn said lazily. "But this should be entertaining."

Fay beamed. "Perfect! See you guys after school!"

I sighed. "I hate you."

Fay grinned. "No, you don't."