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CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE " COME ON, BABY. COVER ME. "
"I HEARD THE MALL OPENS IN A COUPLE WEEKS." Dylan said absently, flicking through the newspaper. She'd come across an ad for the Starcourt Mall a few pages back.
Steve's eyes went wide more a moment. "Uh, really? Are you excited?"
"I guess?" Dylan peered over the paper. "It's not groundbreaking to me. I'll probably still shop mostly downtown. Malls make everyone dress the same."
Visibly, he relaxed. "I agree. Mall equals not that great."
"You are so weird," she said, finally flinging the paper down for good. She crawled to the floor where he sat, angrily pressing buttons on a controller, aiming at innocent animated ducks. Dylan tried to watch but she grew bored quick.
"What would you like to do today?"
Steve turned off the console. "Hmmm," he said, laying down the controller and laying in the pit of her lap. "I can think of a few things."
She snickered and pushed him off. "Hmm. Maybe if you hadn't ignored me for two hours to play Duck Hunt that'd be a possibility."
"C'mon, don't be mean," he whined.
"You know, you're the nerdiest cool guy I've ever met," she shoved him teasingly. He frowned, messing up in the game. "It's a wonder you've gone this long without being found out."
"It's pretty easy when you're the only one I let see me like this."
"Hmmm. You're cute."
"Cute enough to—"
"Nope!" Dylan stood up. "Let's go get something to eat. Your treat."
Steve didn't even hide his deep eye roll. "Fine. But we're not going to Midway, I don't know how you eat there so often—Enzo's?"
She shook her head. "Too fancy. How about we go downtown, grab some of Larson's Take-Out and come back here?"
Steve ran in to get the food and Dylan watched him walk back, hands full of brown paper bags, a dumb smile on his face. It was infectious, his dumb smile, because each time he did it—even for a millisecond—Dylan felt her own lips twitch, and sometimes, like now, a huge smile of her own would form in response. He juggled all the bags in one hand to give her a thumbs up and then struggled to open the car door, almost dropping one of them.
He slid into the car, placing the hot food on her lap, transferring the responsibility of holding all of it to her. She cradled it, still watching him. He adjusted himself in the seat and gave her a weird look for staring.
"What?"
"You're my favourite person." She didn't think about it, she just said it. She heard herself the same time as Steve.
