Free Chaos (Kardia Chronicles) (Entangled Teen) by Christine O'Neil

glancing downward.
    “Oh, this? I was going for a Diane Keaton meets Cyrano de Bergerac.”
    I didn’t know who either of those people was, so I just nodded and smiled. She was such a goofball sometimes.
    Another knock sounded, but this time it was muffled. I swung the door open to find both Bink and my mom laden with plastic grocery store bags.
    “Look who I ran into outside,” Mom said, a cheerful smile pinned in place. “And good thing, too. He got all the heavy stuff.”
    “No problem, Mrs. R.” Bink carted the lion’s share of the stuff into the kitchen and put it on the counter. “Are there cookies in one of these bags?” he asked, poking through them with a finger.
    She set her bags down and slapped his hand playfully. “You’re going to get movie candy and popcorn, I’m sure, so you don’t need anything in these bags.”
    He grinned, flashing his dimples, and managed to get a genuine smile in return.
    “Gram ate most of her soup and is waiting on strudel. Maybe warm it up because she’s feeling chilly,” I said, suddenly anxious to get out of there while Mom was still smiling.
    “Okay. Don’t be too late.”
    The three of us filed out, and I stopped off at the coat closet to grab another layer. By the time we all piled into Bink’s car, we had only ten minutes to get to the theater before the movie started, and we ended up making it by the skin of our teeth. Bink and I stood at the concession stand while Libby went into the theater and saved some seats. She’d brought her own snack anyway. A paper sack full of what may or may not have been birdseed.
    “Chia seeds. Mixed with raisins,” she’d told me when we first got there.
    I’d grimaced and she’d grinned.
    “Raisins are nature’s candy. Don’t hate.” She turned and took off with a dramatic swirl of her cape.
    I snorted. As if . Everyone knew that nature’s candy was Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Nuts. Sugar cane. Cocoa beans. What could be more natural?
    I was next in the snack bar line, looking forward to an icy, high calorie, fizzy beverage, something chocolatey, and a hundred and thirty minutes of blissful, mindless entertainment, when a voice had me flinching in shock.
    “Hey there, Magpie. Fancy running into you.”
    Only one person in all of New Hampshire called me Magpie. FML.
    I raised my brows and shot for super casual as I turned around. “Hi, Mac.”
    Now that he had something on me—hell, more than one thing—I couldn’t outright ignore him. Until our dreaded talk, I had to play nice. And then it hit me again…
    Want.
    My hands itched to touch him, and I dug my fingernails into my palms. He was wearing his standard tan jacket that clearly wasn’t meant for this weather, his hair perfect as usual, and I had to fight the urge to lean in and smell him. Weirdo alert. Ugh. Why did I want to sniff and grope the enemy? Was I some kind of masochist?
    “I don’t believe we’ve met,” Bink said, moving closer and standing a little straighter, puffing up his chest. Even fully puffed, he was no match for Mac.
    “Oh.” I jabbed a thumb over my shoulder, mumbling, “Uh, Bink, Mac, Mac, Bink.”
    “Hey, Mmmac.” He said it like it was the dumbest name he’d ever heard, but Mac’s grin only grew wider as he tipped his head.
    “Dink, is it?”
    Bink had the good grace to flush a little. “Uh, Bink, actually. With a B. Real name’s Aaron. Bink’s just a nickname.”
    He’d gotten it when he was four because his mom still hadn’t managed to pry the pacifier out of his mouth. Once he’d tried to sneak it into kindergarten, though, the teacher called shenanigans on that and did something his mom had never had the heart to do. I remembered it like it was yesterday. She just plucked it from his mouth and tossed it into the garbage can.
    Oddly enough, Bink was totally fine with it. He stared at her hard for a long second, shrugged, and went on his merry way. He’d moved on to eating paste, and when they stopped him from