Awkwardly Ever After by Marni Bates Read Free Book Online Page B

and settled in to enjoy the movie.
    Right.
    Because Dylan enjoyed nothing so much as watching a Disney movie with his older sister, his older sister’s boyfriend, the girl he wanted to be dating, the best friend of the girl he wanted to be dating and . . . Spencer.
    â€œWhat were you saying, Melanie?” Mackenzie asked distractedly.
    I lunged for Izzie’s popcorn, shoved a handful of it in my mouth, and sat back down on the floor. “Mmmphing.”
    Spencer didn’t even try to contain his laugh of disbelief at that one. My cheeks heated and I decided right then and there that Izzie had the right plan all along: Just keep eating popcorn and wait for the awkwardness to pass.
    The movie could last for only so long. And then I could flee without having to answer any of Mackenzie’s questions.
    I just had to sit it out until then.
    No big deal . . . until I literally hit rock bottom. Bowl bottom.
    Whatever.
    â€œUm . . . will you look at that! We’re out,” I said, yanking the bowl out of Izzie’s grasp, probably earning myself another black mark in the column with the title, Number of times Melanie Morris has thrown me to the wolves.
    I owed her some serious groveling.
    But unlike Izzie, I usually don’t have a problem taking the easy way out. Not when the hard way involved obsessing over whether my best friend’s little brother was intentionally trying to make me admit we were “soul mates” or something equally insane. So much for simply enjoying the movie in peace. To be fair, it wasn’t like anyone else was really paying much attention to it either. Izzie’s sole focus had been on the popcorn, Logan and Mackenzie had been playfully stealing kisses when they thought nobody else was looking, and Spencer was doing his whole I’m the coolest person in the room and I could be partying it up right now routine by glancing repeatedly at his watch.
    â€œI’ll, uh, get us a popcorn refill,” I said lamely, hoping that nobody would remark about the way two freshman girls had been able to kill a snack faster than two of the star players on the Smith High School hockey team.
    â€œI’ll help you with that.” Dylan stood easily and I instantly wished that I’d been smart enough to mention the idea of a refill when there was still enough popcorn at the bottom to make it semi-plausible that I had just changed my mind.
    â€œIt’s popcorn. I think I can handle it.”
    Dylan just shot me an amused look. “Do you have any idea where we even keep it?”
    â€œI’m guessing in the kitchen.”
    Okay, I admit it, maybe that was a bit snarkier than necessary, but the prospect of once again being alone with him already had me so jumpy, I felt like I had downed three energy drinks in a row. I couldn’t handle it.
    Not when his hair was still damp from the shower. Not when his sister would be only one room away.
    â€œWhat kind of a host would I be if I let the guests fend for themselves?”
    â€œThe kind of host who isn’t so much a host as an accidental party crasher?” I pointed out. I sort of thought that would put an end to it—all of it—the flirting, the glances, the incredibly unsubtle attempts to spend time with me alone.
    I thought that all it would take was a little confirmation that, yes, I could be that bitchy and rude. Usually, I tried to keep that side of me from showing, but when provoked . . . well, let’s just say I have a tendency to be a little on the defensive side. Maybe some of that comes from years spent bracing myself for a comment about my dad. There were only a few times a year that the amount of liquor he bought at the supermarket didn’t raise eyebrows: Saint Patrick’s Day, Super Bowl Sunday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
    Every other day it was painfully obvious that he wasn’t celebrating anything with a large circle of family and friends. He was just trying to numb