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

with. I grab a paper plate, shove a second one in Lisa’s hand, then make my way over to the salad sitting on one end of the table.

“Hey Hannah,” someone says from across the table. I look up, startled to see it’s Tyler talking to me. “Hey Lisa,” he adds, with a nod.

“Hi,” I say quietly. I fumble with the salad tongs, spilling lettuce on the table.

“So…” Tyler clears his throat. “Uh, you guys hanging out with Katy?”

I nod, my eyes wide. I can’t seem to make words leave my lips. This seems like a good test of my resolve to think of him as just any other guy. I can do this.

“Yeah,” Lisa pipes up, saving me.

“Katy invited us over after dance.” I add, growing confident as I speak.

“Cool. Yeah. Olivia said rehearsal was rough today.” Right. Olivia. Is she here? I look around and spot her sitting at the other end of the backyard with Allyson, Megan, and Madison. Tyler follows my eyeline and waves to her. She blows him a kiss, pointedly ignoring me. “You done with those?” he asks, indicating the tongs hanging uselessly from my fingers.

“Oh, uh yeah. You eat salad?” I blurt out. Stupid. I want to slap my palm over my face and die right there on the spot.

Tyler just laughs and shakes his head. “Na. It’s for Olivia.” I hand the tongs over, silently congratulating myself for speaking actual words to him without turning into a babbling fool. I turn to snag a slice of pizza, feeling a little cocky. I’m reaching for the last slice of pepperoni when a very masculine hand snakes in and snags the slice I was inches from claiming.

“Hey!” I exclaim, annoyed. “That was my slice.” I lean back to see Andrew Park mid-bite, cheese dripping from the hot slice. Water is dripping from his jet black hair and swim trunks onto the concrete patio. I watch, wide-eyed, as he runs a hand through his short wet hair, leaving it sticking up and pointing in all different directions. I avert my eyes, embarrassment flushing thorough me, my new-found confidence dripping away with the water dripping down his chest. Andrew Park plays both football and baseball, his chest and shoulders prove how much time he must dedicate to each sport.

He shrugs, unapologetic. “Nevermind.” Irritated, I pick up the now empty pizza box to take a slice from the box keeping warm underneath it. I look around, unsure of where to put the empty box so I can grab my slice, when it’s plucked from my hand.

“Here, I got it,” Andrew says, sliding in next to me and reaching to put the empty box on the ground under the table. “It’s Hannah, right?”

“Yeah. We had Algebra together last year.” I add, like a dork.

“Oh yeah, I knew you looked familiar.” Andrew says with a grin. “Here, let me,” he reaches into the pizza box I’m holding open and pulls a slice out and onto my plate. “I thought ballerinas only ate salad?” he smirks, nodding at my plate.

I look at my plate, half of it is taken up by salad. I raise an eyebrow at his stupidly pretty face. Dark brown eyes, defined cheekbones and a square jaw—yeah, I was serious when I said stupidly pretty. I stay far away from the gossip at school and even I know he has a reputation as a player, that he’s dated almost every girl on the softball team, volleyball team and half the varsity cheer squad.

There was a rumor going around school that he was an extra in Crazy Rich Asians, which he denies, but didn’t stop almost every girl in school watching it multiple times hunting for him. Almost every girl. Not me. I only watched it once, like a normal person. “I eat pizza too.” I shrug and turn to go back inside.

“Here,” Andrew’s hand is on my elbow, gently steering me towards an empty space at the edge of the pool. I look around wildy for Lisa, but she and Katy are sitting together in a pair of lounge chairs grinning at me. Katy salutes me with her slice of pizza.

Andrew drops down to swing his legs over the edge of the pool, dangling his feet in the water. He pats the patch of concrete to his left like I’m supposed to sit there.

“Uh…”

“Sit down, Hannah. I don’t bite.” Now it’s his turn to raise an eyebrow at me, a cocky smile on his face.

“Fine.” I say, handing him my plate. I peel my leggings off and toss them into a patch of dry cement near the house, glad I already had my bathing suit on. My hunter green bikini is pretty tame compared to some of the other ones on display here, it has a high waist and covers my entire butt, not just half, but I love the deep green color and the geometric design accenting the waist and edge of the matching halter top. I leave my tank top on, too self-conscious of my pale skin to expose any more of it to this crowd.

“So, how come I’ve never seen you hang out at the Quinn’s before?” Andrew says as soon as I’m sitting. I left a good foot of space between us when I sat, but he turns to face me, leaning on one arm, bringing his body closer to mine. I’m grateful for the open space at my back as I lean away from his smile. Andrew grins at me, like he knows I’m nervous.

“Well,” I swallow. “I guess we usually hang out at my house. I mean, we’re all really busy with dance, so we don’t have a lot of free time anyways,” I babble, Andrew is making me nervous, I squirm under his single-minded attention. “Um, do you hang out here a lot?” I ask out of desperation. I don’t know what to say, how do normal people have conversations with boys? If I had to rank them, I’m less nervous