Toe to Toe (On Pointe Book 1) by Penelope Freed (comprehension books txt) 📗

to concentrate on reading it, but the swirling thoughts in my brain make it impossible. Why is Tyler staring at me? I can’t have anything on my face, we haven’t even gotten chips and salsa yet. I glance up again and he’s busy doing something on his phone. It was just a momentary lapse on his part. I mean, I still have my stage makeup on, I probably look pretty crazy right now, that must be all it was.

Wait, did I take off both false eyelashes? Maybe that’s why he’s staring. I quickly blink my eyes a few times to see if I can feel the false lashes or not. Nope, I took them both off. I glance up again just in time to see the back of Tyler’s phone as he takes a picture of me.

“What are you doing?” Olivia snaps before I can gather my thoughts to ask the same question myself.

“Nothing, don’t worry about it babe,” Tyler says smoothly. Then he winks. I’m not sure who he’s winking at, it could have been Katy for all I know. It was just a general “I’m a hot dude and even though I just got caught doing something kinda creepy, you’re not gonna get mad” sort of wink.

“You just took a picture of Hannah. What for?” Olivia won’t let it go. “What the hell Tyler?” She looks genuinely upset. I’m too shocked to say anything, I just sit there like a dummy staring at him. Why did Tyler take a picture of me? There’s no way he wants it for himself, I mean, it’s not like we’re friends or anything.

“Babe, it’s nothing. I promise.” Tyler tries to smooth talk his way out of it, but now he has four sets of female eyes staring him down.

“Tyler…” Katy pipes up. I always forget she must actually know him, since he’s on the football team with her brothers. “Dude, don’t B-C,” she says in a fake deep voice with a funny little two-fingered salute. I glance over at Olivia who’s sitting with her back turned to the rest of the table, pouting.

Tyler bursts out laughing, breaking some of the tension at the table, “Hunter teach you that?” I can’t help staring at the way his arm is draped casually over the back of Olivia’s seat, his fingers tracing circles on her shoulder. She shrugs him off, but he goes right back to it as soon as she’s still again. God, now I’m being the creepy one. I force myself to look away and pretend to read the menu again.

“Cole started it, we’ve just continued it,” Katy explains. Tyler leans down and whispers in Olivia’s ear. Out of the corner of my eye, I see her shoulders hunch up towards her ears, like she’s fending him off, then relax as she straightens and turns to face him.

“Cole started what? What does “don’t bee see” mean?” Lisa asks, as Tyler shows Olivia something on his phone screen. What is he showing her? I must look awful in the picture, that’s why she’s not mad anymore. I’m desperate to know what it is and why he took it, but I can’t bring myself to speak up. Even with Lisa nudging me in the ribs. I silently shake my head.

“It means ‘Don’t Be Creepy’” Katy explains. “It’s the rule when everyone is at our house, especially in the summer.”

“Hang on. Are you showing Olivia?” Lisa interrupts. “If Olivia gets to see, why can’t we? At least show Hannah, it’s her picture.” Tyler doesn’t say anything for a second. “Seriously Tyler, that’s a dick move,” Lisa whispers across the table, not wanting the adults to hear her.

“Oh my god, it’s not that big a deal.” Olivia yanks Tyler’s phone out of his hand to show us. It’s a picture of me peering over the edge of the menu, my blue eyes wide and exaggerated from my stage makeup. It’s actually kind of a cute picture of me. The menu is covering most of my face so all you really see is my eyes. It’s in a text conversation, which is weird—I don’t want to read Tyler’s private conversations.

Hang on. Who is he texting my picture to?

I look up at the top of the screen and see that he sent it to Trevor.

Who hasn’t responded.

Wait. What?

Olivia starts to pull the phone back when I see the three little gray dots pop up. My hand shoots out to grab her wrist before I think about what I’m doing.

Trev: Dude, quit creepin on my girl.

His girl?

Chapter 17 Olivia

“Hannah, earth to Hannah.” Hannah blinks her big blue eyes and glances down at the death grip she has on my wrist. She quickly lets go and I dump Tyler’s phone back in his hand before rubbing my wrist.

“Why did you send my picture to Trevor?” she asks quietly.

“Because he’s had a crush on you since January,” I blurt out before Tyler can say anything. It’s the truth anyway. Tyler keeps complaining that his cousin has been bugging him about Hannah ever since Winter Break. In fact, that’s why I made sure to tag her in that photo from the sleepover at her house. I figured Trevor would see it and could go stalk her Instagram and leave Tyler alone.

Just then, the waitress comes to take our order, by the time she leaves the conversation has turned to tomorrow and the ensemble competition. Ms. Parker pulls out her program and gets deep into conversation with Lisa and Hannah about who competed today, what ensemble pieces they’ll be in tomorrow and who might be the competition. YIGP awards only the top twelve dancers in classical and contemporary in each age division, everyone except Hannah is certain she’ll place in the top twelve for the senior division.

Tyler is busy shoveling food into his mouth which leaves me stuck at the end of the table with only Katy to talk to. She makes a point of ignoring me and methodically eats her plate of