Crush Vision

Chapter 6

"The fall dance is coming up." Jacob elbows me in the side.

I turn and look at him. "Yeah. And?" What is he getting at?

He grins. "You should ask Em—"

"No."

"What do you mean, 'no'? I thought you liked her!" Jacob raises his eyebrow at me.

I glance around and lower my voice. "I do, but she doesn't know that."

"So ask her out."

"No, we're already friends; I don't wanna ruin it."

He shrugs. "Suit yourself, but you know Emmy's too nice for her own good. If you don't do it, someone else will."

My cheeks heat up. Jacob claps me on the back. "Hey, I'll give you twenty bucks if you ask her out."

"What?! Why do you care?"

"Because I wanna see what happens!"

I shake my head. "Yeah, that's not a valid reason."

"I don't think you're getting the message here," Jacob says. "I will pay you money to ask out the girl you like!"

"I don't need your cash, Jacob." I fold my arms.

"Bro, I was about to make you rich!" He stops short and smirks. "Hey, look who it is." He points across the room at Emmy taking a drink from the water fountain.

Oh, no.

I look at Jacob. "Don't even think about—"

"You're gonna do it." Jacob shoves me towards her. "Go get her, tiger!" He cups his hands around his mouth and yells. "HEY EMMY!" He is definitely having fun with this.

I glare at him. "Just know I'm going to kill you later."

Jacob laughs. "Worth it!"

I take a breath and walk towards Emmy, who looks up and waves. "What's up?"

"Nothing really. Just Jacob being Jacob," I look at the ground.

She tilts her head. "Why is he staring at us?"

I whip around. He gives me a thumbs-up. "I don't know. He has a death wish, apparently."

Emmy snorts and shakes her head. I roll my eyes at Jacob and turn back to her. "Um. So."

She looks up at me.

"The dance is kinda soon, yeah?"

"Aren't you excited?" Emmy bounces on the balls of her feet. "I am! Who knows, maybe they'll even turn on the air conditioner this year!"

I swallow. "Maybe."

Resisting the temptation to turn around and glare at what I can only assume is Jacob's "encouraging" brand of made-up sign language, I inhale and get it over with. "Are you going?"