in red, underlined. // Calla {clue}

He called her beautiful and she found it acceptable. He was handsome, though she couldn’t remember the last or any time that she’d called him that. He wasn’t thoughtful like her second boyfriend, and he wasn’t demanding like her first. He was just kind of there. And they both knew the only real thing between them was their shared love of attention.

That and the thinly veiled insults. Patchy? Grady baby, you can do better than that. He was an artist wasn’t he?

“Oh do you think so? Thank you!” she grinned dangerously, tossing her hair back with her hand. “It really improved once I stopped trying to match the patchiness of your facial hair. If you can call it that.” She leaned back in her chair and stared at him thoughtfully.

They’d been dating long enough that she could tell when he had something on his mind. Not that he ever told her what it was. Normally she’d have said it was his daddy issues, but this felt different. Was it that bitch Stella? It was usually Stella. Always sticking her ass where it didn’t belong.

She was a wonderful friend, but hell if Cleo trusted her as far as she could throw her. Which wasn’t far. Clearly, Stella spent too much time sampling her brother’s creations. Anyway, the fact of the matter was that Stella was a snake, at least when it came to boys. The whole thing had started because of Benji and Scarlett after all.

Ended with the scavenger hunt from hell, the way some people told it.

“Interesting mix in homeroom,” she ventured. “So nice to see people after the summer, isn’t it? Stella and Ally; eye candy like Maverick Poole and Benji.” She chuckled under her breath. “But don’t worry, you're number one in my— oh gag, she couldn’t even say it. Hear— Hea— It danced on the tip of her tongue but couldn’t get past her pearly whites.

Absolutely not.

Ugh, whom had he been looking at?

She pinched the bridge of her nose. If she found out that Grady was making eyes at Elaina—

“Look, as long as we’re together, you could stand to show a little more interest when I’m talking in front of other people. We’re not soulmates and we don’t need to pretend to be, but throw something my way more often?” Honestly, if she had to initiate things every time it was going to start to make her look desperate and that simply would not do. She gave him a look of longsuffering.

“You’ll look good in a crown. I can’t see anyone else being Prom King.” She flicked her eyes down to his chest, and licked her bottom lip tentatively. “And maybe on prom night I’ll finally get a chance to see what you’re hiding under your suits.”

So Benji and Stella were planning on running for prom court were they? Interesting. Last she’d heard, the gossip mill had said they were never ever ever, getting back together. It was worth looking into. He went on to complain about Mav and her on the bleachers like anything had actually happened. Cleo rolled her eyes.

“Well maybe if you paid me more attention I wouldn’t have to look for it elsewhere.” Besides, that double standard was hideous. Maverick had dated how many people? And he was cool, he was a stud. A stallion. Jennifer what’s her face got a little overeager with her senior celebrations and her reputation got run into the ground? It was ’85 for crying out loud. Some people were still living in the dark days.

Grady kissed her hand and she made a show of holding her other hand to her heart, blathering about what a darling he was. She rolled her eyes again when he brought up Scarlett. But at last he said something she agreed with.

Everyone was too damn sensitive.

“Flaunting things is the point,” she muttered, crossing her arms with a pout. Keeping up the charade did get taxing at times. But the new wardrobe was worth it. The designer perfumes for valentine’s day and the aquamarine necklace for her birthday that matched her eyes. His family seemed to approve of her at any rate, not that she intended on taking their relationship past graduation.

He really wanted to impress them, didn’t he? She got along well enough with his mother at any rate. Or at least she thought so. His family was hard to read, even for the upper crust of district six, and she’d only met them at whatever fancy galas Grady needed to bring a date to. And there they'd participated in the same social dancing that she did at school.

But he had less than the reaction she’d hoped for when she brought up the two of them wearing crowns. And he’d made a mistake. He’d said that it depended on whether or not it was him she was standing with. That he didn’t do sloppy seconds. But he sure was taking his sweet ass time to get there first. She didn’t expect him to be broken up about it if she was flirting with other guys, and he wasn’t. But she decided he was right; when she did so it threatened their little narrative.

But you know what? She wanted to say. You’re boring me. And when I get bored I move on to the next thing. And if people start talking? There’s really no such thing as bad publicity as long as you know how to spin it.

She blinked catlike, slow and measured, letting him know that he now had her full and undivided attention. She got up from her seat and walked over to him, draping her arms over his shoulders from behind and clasping her hands together on his chest, her lips resting by his ear. “Grady, if you want to get there first, you need to put some work in.” She whispered the words like a prayer, or maybe an incantation, the words lilting by syllable in an almost playful manner.

She unclasped her hands and dug her fingernails into his chest, just a little. Not enough to hurt, but enough that he could feel the pressure. “A girl gets lonely.” she hissed. Cleo straightened up after that, resting the palms of her hands on his shoulders. It irritated her that he didn't seem to care about Prom, which was really the biggest social event of the year. What did he have on his mind? Because it definitely wasn't her. “You seem tense,” she said rolling her eyes. “Do you want some space? Is that it?”