Page 31 of Dating and Dragons
“Do you have people over a lot?”
“Never. I mean, when I was younger I did sometimes, but I hardly talk to those girls anymore. And Sloane’s not exactly a sleepover type of person. So it’s fun to have someone over again. It feels like middle school!”
“In a good way, I hope,” I reply as I wander around her room. “Middle school was rough.”
“True, but we can make it the best part of middle school. Movies, popcorn—I even pulled out all my nail polish. I’m pretty good.” She grins and points to her desk where a half dozen bottles sit in a row.
My stomach clenches. Paige’s big dream after school was to become a nail tech and open her own salon. She was obsessed with nails—we used to watch hours of reels to learn techniques and then Paige would use me to experiment on. She was very artistic and could pull off the coolest designs. My favorite were probably the 3D gold suns and moons she created to match one of my favorite shirts. If I scroll back far enough, half of my pictures are of my nails. Now I never paint them.
I glance past the polish on her desk to a stack of papers from Kashvi’s AP classes and a framed picture of the D&D group. I point to it. “Oh, you all look so cute.”
She comes up beside me. “That’s from a couple yearsago.”
Sloane’s hair was longer and Mark’s cheeks still had akiddy roundish quality to them. Kashvi’s hair was straight, and Logan also looked younger, but just as attractive as always. My stomach wobbles as memories of the attic rise to the surface of my mind.
“So, I’ve been wondering what led to you all deciding to make the no-dating rule for the group? Was there fighting or weirdness between you all? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“It’s because of me,” she says, and makes a face. “I liked this guy—Wyatt—and we started dating, so I invited him to be a part of our D&D group. I figured it would be another way to spend time together, and everyone else really liked him. But then we got more serious and he freaked out about it.” She rolls her eyes. “Hetextedme to break up! It was impossible to play across from him every week after that. And don’t get me started on Sanjiv—he wanted to destroy Wyatt. It got ugly when we had to kick him out, and after that we decided we couldn’t have any more dating in the group.”
“That makes sense,” I say, careful to keep my eyes off her photos in the hopes she won’t read too much from my expression. I have to admit I’m relieved that it didn’t have anything to do with Logan, but her experience sounds enough like mine that I can absolutely empathize. “I’m really sorry that happened.” I turn to her. “Guys can be the worst.”
“Seriously, the worst. But not these guys.” She points at the photo. “I really lucked out with this group.”
At Kashvi’s words, any thoughts about sharing what’s been going on with Logan fade away. I don’t want my inclusion in the group to bring any drama or problems. And it’s not even clear what Logan wants from me. He said he came to Grandma’s because he wanted to see me alone, butwhat now? He hasn’t texted, and he said it was a bad idea for him to come there. Maybe he doesn’t want anything else. It’s not like he said we should start dating in secret. If experience has taught me anything, it’s that boys are fickle.
What Ishouldbe thinking about are my friendships. Seeing them all together with their old hairstyles and goofy grins and arms slung over each other’s shoulders reminds me of how new I am. I want to be that comfortable with them—I want to think of them as friends without wondering if I actually fit in. I want us all to be close enough that I never have to think about my old friend group again.
We leave the photos behind and go downstairs to say hi to Kashvi’s parents and Sanjiv, who are all in the kitchen. Her mom points to pizza boxes on the counter.
“For tonight. I don’t have the energy to cook, and we don’t have enough leftovers for all of us.”
Sanjiv hands us both plates before taking a slice for himself. “What are you two doing tonight? We could watchBattleBotstogether.”
“What’s that?”
“Sanjiv and I have watched it together since we were young,” Kashvi says with a shrug. “Basically, teams build robots and then fight them.”
“It’s very violent and very fun,” Sanjiv explains. “It’s the reason I got into robotics.”
“Although I’m still hoping you’ll do more with your skills than build fighting robots,” their dad says with an eye roll. This is my first time meeting him. He’s quiet and adorable with his ’80s-style colorful sweater stretched over his potbelly.
“There’s no greater achievement than getting your roboton a reality show,” Sanjiv argues. “What do you think? Do you want to check out an episode, Quinn?”
It’s sweet that he’d be open to letting me join in on something that’s clearly special between him and Kashvi, but she’s quick to shake her head.
“I kinda wanted to just do stuff with Quinn tonight, if you don’t mind?”
“Yeah, fine, I figured. I’ll be playingBaldur’s Gatewith Logan, then.”
“He’s coming here?” I blurt out.
I’m not ready to see him tonight, even if he’s already on my mind.
Sanjiv tilts his head in confusion. “No…we play online.”
“Oh right. Duh.”
We both fill our plates and grab drinks. “Tell Logan we said hi,” Kashvi says in a cheery voice before heading upstairs. She leans her back against her door after shutting it.