I Refuse To Like You

xactly as expected-crowded, alive, buzzing with that familiar mix of excitement and dread that always comes with the first day of a new semester. Cars ease into parking spa

seme

fore high school is

o

'll never have to see

I don't b

me row and turned the pavement between us into neutral territory. Nobody else parks there anymore. No

le l

ey usually are. Lydia, my best friend, is already talking with her hands, her voice carrying halfway across the parking lot,

pi

he's presenting a case before the Supreme Court. Robert, meanwhile, somehow manages to stay calm through all of it. He's a

lica

olu

oss

ising

birthdays, holidays, and vacations always turned into mandatory group e

mbers what

don't think eit

the only rule

ne shoulder, and head toward them, lifting a ha

use

, watching the

mehow keeping his voice level despite

dia snaps. "I'm saying peop

oundary, that's

tly what a b

w feet away

they're ign

ly in th

e both

rly missing sever

as though I've just arrived t

lutely

blinks

use

nding here for, what, four seconds?

into suspiciou

, completely

don't even know what crime we're prosecuting? Yo

his mouth with his fist when Lydia shoot

with theatrical disappointment

e impo

u're dr

freshmen to glance over before turning on

to Robert, raising an eyeb

o idea. I said something, she dis

about

gri

nd, then narrow my eye

ediately. "D

rted som

even that

did yo

ng enough to confirm

e I hooked up with ove

k my t

cou

t the topic. She's m

us, so not

early changing the subjec

nswer imm

ady know where

?" he adds,

e it

will personally demonstrate what a punchin

ts out

ate

that bad,

tupidly perfect beach house because of our paren

s rela

talk

surrender, still smil

deci

the hallway already spilling out through the open

mo

reach my

hink about it.

ret every decisio

thes, my hair, my face, followed immediately by a shower of glitter th

till for one dangerous second, goo sliding down the side of my face while glitter sticks stubbornly

single concern in the world. His white self-enforced uniform is, of course, perfectly spotless. Dark hai

hind him trying-and

e he wor

ys wear

rvives an entire school day looking

ck," he say

ranks, revenge, and increasingly questionable decisions, yet somehow neither of us

i

me

arch straight past him and w

ately trying to peel me

ari

e body go

..

ye

ar

lled fri

alled a

t exact moment to

ed shirt, slime smeared across his shoulder, a

ointing at us. "T

ags dram

o, patting his shou

he

sm

re both

aring the expressio

ce re

r

ay. The smug smile hasn't left his face, but there's a sharper edge be

o

a

e-and judging by the look in