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“Why are they looking at him like that?” Alex is sitting on the roof of Jonas’s pickup, watching the exit of the school, where her new stepbrother is talking to some vaguely familiar senior girl. Katie or something? Whoever she is, she and her friends are all giving him doe eyes and smiles and it’s bizarre.
“There’s just something about him,” Ren shrugs. “I’d guess it’s the whole bad boy thing?” he suggests, perched on the ledge of the bed himself, kicking his feet idly. “I hear girls really go for that sort of thing.”
Alex rolls her eyes. Jonas is a bad boy about as much as she’s an honors student: in name only.
“It’s the lollipops.”
They both turn to stare at Nona, who’s sitting cross-legged by a wheel well, a textbook across her lap, barely paying any attention to them.
“The what now?”
Nona looks up, blinking, uninterested. “He has like a giant bag of lollipops. Gives ‘em out to whoever asks. He’s the go-to for a sugar fix.”
Alex takes a second to process this information.
“That’s… really?” Ren asks, skeptically glancing back to Jonas, who looks politely bored as he nods along with whatever’s being said to him.
“Oh my god,” Alex mutters.
Nona’s response is to Ren. “Yeah, cause he can’t smoke on campus.”
There’s a bit too much glee in Alex’s expression. “My stepbrother is the candy man.”
“And he just hands them out?”
“If someone asks, yeah.”
Alex snickers to herself; “What a sucker.” That finally earns her a sidelong scornful glance from Nona.
“Oh shit, wait-” Ren sits up, and they all watch as a guy - looking none too happy - approaches Jonas on his way to meet the rest of them at his truck.
“Hey, dickwad.” Yikes.
Jonas hesitates, back stiffening, and turns to face the guy with a vaguely annoyed look of disinterest. “What do you want?”
“What are you doing talking to my girlfriend?”
“Oooh, looks like a sticky situation,” Alex whispers to her friends, grinning.
Jonas’s brows furrow, looking about as irritated as he is confused. “I don’t even know who your girlfriend is, dude, I can assure you: whatever you think is happening, isn’t.”
“Kayla. Why are you making moves on my-”
“Who?”
The guy - some jock, Alex has definitely seen him in a jersey before - jerks a hand toward a girl a few yards away, who raises a hand to wave at Jonas with a smile.
His responding nod is about as politely detached as usual. “Oh. Cream soda, yeah.”
“He’s a sugar daddy.” Alex is practically gleeful, even as the jock starts rolling up his sleeves, looking pissed.
Ren shoots her a look, “He’s about to get his ass kicked and you’re making puns?”
Her eyes go wide with delight; “He’s a lolli-papa!”
“-What did you call her?”
Jonas puts his hands up placatingly. “Chill. It’s her favorite flavor, dude, I’m not— I didn’t even know her name, I’m definitely not hitting on her.”
The jock just glares. Jonas seems less than impressed. There’s a moment of tense silence, lips curling in a sneer before, finally, the girlfriend - Kayla - calls him off, and the jock shoots one last warning look at Jonas before backing down. Jonas, meanwhile, just shrugs and continues toward his truck, and the three waiting in and on it for their ride home.
Alex slips down into the bed, then hops the side to climb into the cab as Jonas gets to the driver’s door. “So. I hear you’re the man to talk to for a sugar fix.”
He rolls his eyes. “Don’t.”
“You already have one confection on your record, do you really need another? Careful, or you’ll get your just desserts.”
“Done yet?”
“Can-dies puns ever stop? Wait— gimme a second, I’m sucrose to having another one ready.”
“You are so dumb.”
“-Dum. So Dum Dum, I think, is what you meant.”
Jonas rolls his eyes, mouth a thin line. “Laugh all you want, I apparently have like twenty girls randomly defending my honor, so…” his lips hook into a smirk as he pulls a pop from the side pocket of his bag, tossing it at her; “Suck it.”