Odette leans in. “Then why have you been ignoring her existence the past few weeks?”
“And why didn’t you ask her to prom?” Ophelia jumps in. “Now she’s totally dateless on extremely short notice!”
My brows furrow in confusion. Jo doesn’t care about school dances. She once told me she’d rather gouge her own eyes out than attend one. Last month, she said the very sight of ticket stands popping up around the halls gave her — and I quote —worse nausea than a drunken cheerleader swaying to tacky slow songs on a party cruise around the Atlantic.
Needless to say, the news that she wants me to ask her — badly enough to mention it to the Wadell twins, of all people — is making my mind spin.
“But…” I shake my head to clear it. “Jo doesn’t care about prom.”
“You idiot!” Odette smacks my arm. “Of course she does! Every girl cares about her senior prom. She’s just playing it cool. Probably because the person she wants to go with hasn’t asked her yet.”
Ophelia shoots me a pointed look. “That would beyou, dumbass.”
I rub the back of my neck and exhale sharply. “I didn’t realize.”
“That you’re a dumbass?”
“That she wanted to go,” I grunt.
Odette giggles. “So… does that mean you’re going to ask her?”
“Not sure how that decision concerns anyone except Jo.”
“Um, because if youaren’tasking her, we’re going to find her a different date,” Ophelia informs me, waving her phone in my face. “A hot one. We’ve already texted her picture to, like, ten potential guys from Pingree and St. John’s Prep.”
I glance up at the ceiling, wishing like hell I’d never started this conversation. I speak through clenched teeth. “I can’t ask her anything if you don’t tell me where she went.”
The twins look at each other. Finally, Ophelia rolls her eyes and mutters, “We don’t know where she went. She left with some guy.”
“Sheleft?”
“Mhm. She said he was giving her a ride home.”
My pulse kicks into higher gear. “When?”
“Like… thirty minutes ago, maybe?”
“What guy? Snyder?”
Odette shakes her head. “No, Ryan got wasted within, like, five minutes of getting here. Bad batch of mushrooms, I guess. He’s passed out on a patio lounger.”
The relief I feel is short-lived. “If she’s not with Snyder, who the fuck is she with?”
“We already told you, we don’t know! We’ve never seen this guy before.” Ophelia puffs on her vape. Her eyes are bloodshot. “He was pretty sexy, though.”
Christ.
“You two claim you’re friends with Jo now,” I snap. “If that was actually the case, you’d be looking out for her. Not letting her leave with some random guy.”
“We’re her friends, not her mother.” Odette rolls her eyes. “Loosen up, Archie.”
“Fuck you, Odette.”
“Rude!” Tossing her hair dramatically, she turns her back on me and stomps over to the pool table.
Ophelia lingers a moment longer, staring at me. Her head tilts in contemplation. “The guy she left with… he looked a lot like you, now that I think about it.” She pauses to take another hit of her JUUL. “Do you happen to have a brother?”
The air vacates my lungs in a panicked gust.