Heartthrobs Don’t Date Wallflowers (Texting the Boyband)

Chapter 22

twenty-two

Our gazes locked, and Jude smirked. I didn’t move, just stared at him like a deer caught in headlights, waiting for him to scream or something. But then he just said, “Hi.”

“Hi,” I squeaked back.

Jude raised an eyebrow, clearly amused. “Comfortable?”

“Not really,” I admitted, feeling my face heat up. I could barely move in the cramped space, my clothes were covered in dust, and I was still barely holding back my sneeze. He grinned and moved his sit up on his knees, probably looking at Zach.

“So, when George told us that we should have the decency to not make our girlfriends climb our our bandmate’s window,” he said, “you took that as instead, we should force them to hide under our beds?”

“He wasn’t talking to me when he said that,” Zach replied. “And she got under there entirely of her own choice.”

Jude ducked down again. “That true, Ivy?”

I was so panicked that I both forgot how to speak and how this whole thing had come about, and I just went, “Well…”

Jude laughed so hard that I was actually worried he might pull a muscle. I decided I probably wasn’t helping by remaining under here so I awkwardly army crawled back out. Jude didn’t stop laughing the whole time, even once Zach helped me up.

“Is he always like this?” I asked.

Zach stared at him, looking both exasperated and entertained. “Pretty much.”

It took a full minute for Jude’s laughter to die down and another two minutes for him to stand back up and now laugh every time he looked at me.

“Jude! Zach!” Finn’s voice carried up from downstairs. “Hurry up!”

Zach groaned. “What is with him today?”

Jude sobered up a little, but he wiped at his eyes like he’d been crying.

“Honestly?” He said. “We have a surprise for you. Didn’t realize you’d have a reason not to come down. But you’re going to be busy for the rest of the day.”

“But if everyone’s downstairs, how am I going to get back out?” I asked. Sure, I’d come in through the window, but I hadn’t really planned beyond that.

Jude’s eyes brightened in a way that I knew meant something bad. I could see that look on his face—that he was the one who always got people in trouble, the class clown who didn’t know when to stop. And that look on his face looked very, very dangerous.

“Back out the window,” he said.

“What?” I squeaked. That was all I hadn’t wanted to do. But Jude didn’t seem worried as he grabbed Zach, opened the door, and pushed him out.

“What happened to not pushing girls out the window?” Zach asked as Jude shoved him out. I didn’t hear Jude’s response as they both took off down the hall.

I grumbled as I walked over to the window and tried to force the pane up. This was so stupid. Why had I come over in the first place? Sure, it was nice to see Zach, but holding signs at each other through the window was fun too, right? Just as fun as coming in here and kissing him.

Okay, no. I could admit that was where I drew the line. It was fun to come over here, but I didn’t exactly love this climbing in and out.

I sat down on the windowsill with one foot over the ledge and one foot still in the room. I cocked an ear, trying to listen to what was going on downstairs, curious about what the surprise they had for Zach was. But I was so focused on wondering about that, that I didn’t even realize the footsteps coming toward the room.

I didn’t notice, not until the door swung open suddenly. My head whipped around, hoping to see Zach, or even Jude, standing in the doorway. But instead, there was a girl. One I hadn’t met before, but she looked about my age and was practically a clone of Zach, with the same dark hair and dark eyes. I barely had time to register that this was probably his sister, before she opened her mouth.

She screamed.

I screamed.

Then I fell out the window.