You Don't Live Here by Robyn Schneider

Author:Robyn Schneider
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2020-04-23T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

I WAS WALKING TO SCHOOL ON Monday morning when I heard a horn blast behind me. I turned around, afraid that it was Cole.

It was Lily.

“Hey,” she said, rolling down her window. “Climb in.”

Adam waved merrily from the passenger seat, apologizing for his backpack as I climbed in. Everything felt different as I buckled my seat belt, like we were actually friends, instead of people who sat at the same lunch table, just pretending.

Lily barely even knew me, and still, she hadn’t hesitated before rolling up her sleeves and trying to fix what was wrong. That was more than I could say about anyone else.

I’d thoroughly stalked her on Instagram, going back far enough that I could see the break when she’d stopped hanging around with Cole’s crowd. When the pictures changed from group selfies with Whitney and Friya to beautifully photographed food and art museums and a Stranger Things Halloween costume with Adam and Ryland that was absurdly spot on.

But none of that prepared me for climbing into the safe, small world of her car without warning. She’d seemed impossibly distant for so long, someone I could only admire from afar, but now, she was within reach.

She had on her cat’s-eye sunglasses again, and a soft teddy bear jacket, the same kind I kept seeing on influencers.

“Cute jacket,” I said.

“I just got it,” Lily said.

“It’s horrible,” Adam said. “You look like my grandma’s toilet rug.”

“Your face looks like my grandma’s toilet rug,” Lily shot back.

“Subject-noun agreement,” Adam said gravely.

I shook my head, amused. They had grammatical rules about insults. It was too much.

Adam took a huge bite of a sugary pastry he was holding, and my stomach gurgled appreciatively. The car smelled amazing.

“Wow,” I said, taking a deep breath. “What is that?”

“Pineapple bun,” Lily said. “Want one?”

“Yes, please,” I said.

Adam passed me a little oval-shaped pastry in a cellophane bag. It was fluffy and sweet and buttery, with a sugary crumble on top.

I took a bite and almost moaned.

“So good,” I said. “Except I’m confused about the pineapple part.”

“They only look like pineapples,” Adam explained. “They taste like plain Danish.”

“Plainish,” Lily and I both said at the exact same time.

“Wow, you guys portmantied!” Adam grinned, delighted.

I ate another bite of the pastry. I’d never had anything like it.

“Where did you get these?” I asked.

“85 Degrees,” Lily and Adam said.

“It’s a Taiwanese bakery,” Lily explained. “They have sea salt iced coffee too. It’s amazing. We should go sometime.”

“Sure,” I said, trying to downplay how excited I was at the idea of Lily taking me to a Taiwanese bakery that put sea salt in their iced coffee.

Lily’s locker and homeroom were on the other side of campus, which explained why I never saw her. Adam and I started to walk toward our lockers, and Lily went the other way.

“Wait,” I called, and she turned around. “Can I have lunch with you today?”

Lily’s grin was a beautiful thing.

I glanced over at Friya’s empty seat in English, confused. Her Spanish class was next door, so she was always early.

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