Forever by Chanda Hahn

school
are concerned, he’s your boyfriend. Show them all that you’re not intimidated
by this. Besides, I don’t think this was his idea for the kind of booth it
would be. The rest of the team outvoted him.”
    “Okay, you’re right.” Mina
answered. “I should do this.”
    Nan and Ever took Charlie off
to the zipper, so Mina could have some privacy.
    The feeling of dread eased,
and she was able to ignore the line of girls.
    Until Mina noticed the group
in front of her. It was the cheer squad. Next in line for the kiss was a petite
girl with a white-blonde ponytail. Brody’s ex-girlfriend, Savannah White.
    Come
on, Brody. Turn her away .
Mina tried to send him her mental message, but it didn’t really work. Savannah
put her money into the donation box and pointed for Brody to step forward. She
leaned forward expectantly.
    Mina watched him sigh and
then lean in to give her a peck, except it wasn’t just a peck. Savannah’s arms snaked around his neck and held on as she deepened
the kiss.
    Pull
away. Pull away . Mina
internally screamed, but his friends started to hoot and holler and egg them
on.
    “Go. Go. Go!” The guys
chanted.
    Savannah swung her legs over the
table and got on her knees, kissing him intently. Her hands were running
through his hair, and Mina still couldn’t believe that Brody was letting it
happen.
    When he finally pulled away,
his hair was tousled, and he had a confused look in his eyes. Savannah made a
show of wiping the sides of her mouth and holding her hand up in the air. The
cheerleading squad clapped and cheered.
    “Still got it, girls,”
Savannah said as she stood up and jumped off the table. “Something for you to
remember me by, Brody,” she taunted. “Come find me later.” She waved and
sauntered off.
    Priscilla Rose bumped her hip
in congratulations.
    Brody sat on his stool, a
look of shock on his face.
    T.J. slapped his back and
said, “Man, why did you ever let her go when she could kiss like that?”
    Brody chuckled and rubbed the
back of his head as he scanned the crowd of girls next in line. He froze when
his gaze met Mina’s.
    Since the squad had come to
watch Savannah, that made Mina the next person in line. The five dollar bill in
her hand trembled with her nerves, and she looked up at Brody. His face was
flushed, and he hurriedly wiped at his mouth.
    Mina took a deep breath and
tried to calm her temper. It should have bothered her a lot more to see them
kiss, but, frankly, it didn’t. What hurt her was that he didn’t pull away.
    There was no way she would
kiss him after Savannah. She didn’t want sloppy seconds. A small part of her
wanted to go away and ignore all this, but he’d just—thirty minutes
ago—offered her his ring again. Who did that and then kissed their ex
like that ? She stepped forward,
shoved her five dollars into the acrylic donation box and looked along the
group of guys. There were quite a few she knew by name, but there were also
some she didn’t know. One was standing off to the side watching her intently.
He had sandy brown hair, green eyes, and a hard mouth—and looked slightly
out of place among the other guys. Something about the way he looked at her
made up her mind.
    Her hand pointed at him, and
his eyes went wide. He stepped forward, and she could see confusion among the
water polo team members as they all watched Brody.
    “What’s your name?” she
whispered as the green-eyed guy came over.
    He wore a gray jersey shirt
and generic blue denim jeans. He smiled at her. “Whatever you want it to be,”
he said in a low voice.
    “That’s not funny,” Mina
chastised. Her hands went sweaty.
    “It’s not meant to be.” He
leaned on his elbows across the booth and waited expectantly.
    Mina leaned forward and was
about to kiss him, when her eyes glanced over at Brody. He had stood up and was
being held back by T.J. He looked angry, his fist clenched. But he also seemed
hurt and confused by this stranger in the booth.
    As much