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Jack texts me a few minutes after I reach my apartment complex. He's not there yet, thankfully, so he can't ambush me like he did yesterday. That was so not cool. And so very un-enjoyable.

Maybe the more you tell a lie, it will become reality.

I push the thought of Jack and his stupid kisses out of my head as I walk through the complex doors. Amara is somewhere upstairs in the living room where her mother must have dropped her off, toying around with the monopoly pieces and coming up with more ridiculous names.

I smile at the thought and quickly ascend the stairs, taking them two at a time until I reach my door where I swipe my key-card and give myself entry.

As I suspected, Amara is bent over on the couch with the shoe piece held above her head, mumbling under her breath. I drop my bag next to the door and pull out a textbook.

"What'cha got there?"

Amara turns half-way around and smiles at me. "I'm having trouble naming this piece. The first shoe is the shiny slickerdoodle sneaker, but how about this one? I can't think of anything good enough!"

She flops her head on the couch's arm and pouts. I take a seat across from her and slowly open my textbook on my lap.

"Well...Try out names you think are crazy enough for your taste. How about the converted converse or something like that?"

Amara sucks in a breath. "What's converted mean? And what's a converse?"

I stare at her for a minute without blinking before returning my eyes to the book on my lap.

"Um...Never mind. Keep coming up with names."

Amara shakes her head. "No. I think I'll just call it the no-named nomad wanderer. I learned about nomads in school. I'm in first grade now!"

Amara proudly straightens up and sets down the monopoly shoe on the coffee desk. I laugh a little and lean across the table to ruffle her hair.

"Wow, look at you. What a big girl."

She smiles and then leans back on the couch.

I flip a page in my book, but before I can train my eyes on the heading, the doorbell rings. I jump up (maybe a little too excitedly) and go answer it. The buzzer turns red underneath my finger as I give Jack access to the stairs, and he comes up the hallway.

I open the door and he shuffles in, closing it himself with a thud.

In his hands is a box of pizza with steam still rising, hot out of the oven. I look at it and back at him.

"What's this for?"

He shrugs. "We usually go over for pizza after our court talks. We don't need to stop doing that, I'll just bring the pizza over here."

Amara leaps out of her position on the couch and clings on to Jack's arm.

"You bought pizza? I have dibs on the first slice!"

I laugh and move into the kitchen to get a stack of paper plates and fruit punch.

...

Jack rips into his crust and downs the glass of juice. He stares at the bit of punch left at the bottom of the cup before looking up at me.

"This reminds me of the juice I 'accidentally' spilled on you that time."

I roll my eyes. "Accidentally? Sure."

He gapes at me. "Hey, I apologized."

"You didn't mean it."

"Yeah, I totally didn't. After all, it gave me an excuse to talk to you."

I bite my lip and stare at him before roughly setting my glass down on the counter.

"Why are you doing this?"

Jack looks back at me in surprise, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

"What do you mean?"

I take a second to compose my response. "Why are you...Helping me? I mean this is an awful lot of work to get back at your father, though I know you really don't like him."

Jack laughs harshly. "That's a slight understatement. Still, you know more than anyone would. Being responsible for keeping my dear old dad's step-sister in jail would pierce him through the heart. Nothing compared to what he's done to me though..."

I purse my lips and shrug, snapping my hairband against my wrist.

"I still don't entirely get it, you know..."

Jack smiles and leans against the counter, his chin resting on a fist.

"Fine. I've been inclined to help you along the way because I like you."

And just like that, he has declared himself. I abashedly lower my eyes and stare at the rim of my cup, moving it back and forth while I think about what he just said.

When I lift my eyes up to look at his expression, I see his eyes sparkle with amusement and then they fix onto my mouth. I bite my lower lip in nervous anticipation as his finger twitches and then moves forward to inch up my arm.

He leans across the table and pulls me toward him. I don't resist, I wait in incredulous wonder as he lowers himself down to my ear and whispers the words again.

"I like you."