Extract: Dating the It Guy by Krysten Lindsay Hager

Dating the It Guy is a hilarious and relatable read from Krysten Lindsay Hager. Krysten writes about friendship, self-esteem, fitting in, frenemies, crushes, fame, first loves, and values. She is the author of the young adult Cecily Taylor Series, the young adult Star Series, Dating the It Guy, and the preteen Landry’s True Colors Series.

Her debut novel, True Colors, won the Readers Favorite award for best preteen book and the Dayton Book Expo Bestseller Award for children/teens. Competing with the Star is a Readers’ Favorite Book Award Finalist. Best Friends…Forever? is a 2019 Readers’ Favorite Silver Medal Winner in the Children – Preteen genre. Landry in Like is a Literary Classics Gold Medal recipient and a 2020 Readers’ Favorite Bronze Medal Winner. She received her BA in English and master’s degree in liberal studies from the University of Michigan-Flint.

Krysten’s work has been featured in USA Today, The Flint Journal, the Grand Haven Tribune, the Beavercreek Current, the Bellbrook Times, Springfield News-Sun, Grand Blanc View, Dayton Daily News and on Living Dayton.

Emme starts dating a popular high school student who happens to be from a famous political family. It seems like everyone at school either wants to be Brendon Agretti or date him. Emme feels out of her comfort zone in Brendon’s world and it doesn’t help that his picture-perfect ex seems determined to get back into his life, along with every other girl who wants to be the future Mrs. Agretti. Emme is already conflicted due to the fact her last boyfriend dumped her and her whole world is off kilter with her grandparents’ health issues. Life suddenly seems easier pushing Brendon away and relying on her crystals and horoscopes to guide her. Emme soon starts to realize she needs to focus less on the stars and more on her senses. Can Emme get over her insecurities and make her relationship work? Life sure is complicated when you’re dating the it guy.

To celebrate Dating the It Guys book birthday we’ve teamed up with Krysten and Rachel’s Random Resources to host an exclusive extract from the book.

Of the scene Krysten says: This scene is a favorite because Emme has to reach out to Brendon for help with her computer and she’s can’t stop acting awkward around him when he comes over.

The next day, I woke with this weird feeling my laptop was going to act up. In fact, when I checked my e-mail in the morning, I was kind of surprised it switched on at all. I figured I was just being paranoid about not getting my rough draft done, or maybe it was because the planet Mercury was in retrograde, but I tried to ignore my feelings.

We had the day off from class, so I didn’t start working on my paper until later in the evening. I had just started typing when my screen froze. Feeling panicked, I hit Control-Alt-Delete and restarted the laptop, but the screen went blue and started flickering. What was it doing, and why was there a little gray box on my computer telling me I had sixty seconds until it shut down? Fifty-nine…fifty-eight…fifty-seven… This was just like the episode of As My Children Wept where Samson had to stop the bomb hidden in Sierra and Aristotle’s wedding cake. Did it mean the laptop was going to blow? On the show, the cake blew up, and everybody thought Aristotle was dead…well, until he showed up at Sierra’s next wedding, and was Sierra’s new husband mad…probably just as mad as Mrs. Rae would be when I didn’tturn in my assignment.

“Mo-om! My laptop’s possessed. Fix it!”

“Why don’t you just ask me to get out my fairy princess wand and throw pixie dust on it,” she shot back. “I’d have better luck with that.”

Sarcasm was not cute when you were having a crisis. I tried calling Zach, but his mom said he was working late. I was desperate, so I asked his mom if she knew anything about computers.

“There’s a someone at Mary’s Little RAMs who works on mine. I could give you his number, but they closed at five tonight.”

I hung up defeated. I didn’t know anybody who knew a thing about computers. Oh crap. I did know somebody who knew about computers. Brendon. He had mentioned he took a computer class last semester, but could I call him? Usually, I’d have no problem calling a guy for something, but this wasn’t a normal guy. He was what Margaux would call a “Hottie McHotHot.” Okay, what was wrong with me? He was just a regular person like everybody else. He put his pants on one leg at a time and went to the toilet like everybody else…but I bet his bathroom was super clean and everything in it matched. I pictured the whole room done in some manly, rich-person color like “hunter green” or “maroon.” And there would be lots of dark mahogany—

“Emme? Do you want to use my laptop to work on your paper?” Mom yelled up the stairs.

“It won’t help,” I replied. “I saved it on the hard drive without backing it up because I’m an idiot.”

Stupid Mercury retrograde. I should have known better than to expect a computer to work right. I should have backed up my work or e-mailed it to myself, but no, I was too worried about ordering new lip gloss from lickitylips.com. Now I had no paper, no gloss, and probably after I called Brendon begging him for help, no pride. I called and left a message on Brendon’s phone. He was probably out with some amazing prelaw, premed student who donated blood to anaemic puppies and did puppet shows for the elderly while knitting booties for—

My phone rang, and Brendon’s name popped up on the screen.

I answered and explained about my computer. He started giving me suggestions, which would have been helpful if I had known what he was talking about. It was like he was speaking in Aramaic. He offered to come over, and the second I hung up the phone I went to fix my hair. I was digging through my hamper for my cutest top when the doorbell rang.

“Hey, thanks for coming over,” I said as I answered the door. I told him my laptop was upstairs, and I felt weird like I was trying to lure him into my room or something. He followed me, and I realized I should have made sure my dirty underpants weren’t half hanging out of my hamper when I shut it. Of course, it wasn’t a cute pair, but the big momma pants. Why didn’t I just wear Little Bo Peep pantaloons?

“See, it does this weird countdown thing when I turn it on,” I said. He sat at my desk and started messing with my laptop while I sat on the bed. I wondered if he washed his hands or used some hand sanitiser because I had this strict “clean hands” policy about my keyboard. I mean, I heard on the news those keyboards were playgrounds for bacteria.

“It’s probably because Mercury is in retrograde,” I said. He stared at me as if I had said, “I was sacrificing a goat in here before you came in, please excuse the stains on my ceremonial robe.” I tried to explain. “It’s the planet that rules communication—never mind. Do you think you can fix it?”

“Not sure yet,” he said.

I could either go downstairs and use my mother’s boring laptop leaving Mr. Hotness alone in my bedroom, or I could stay here and work on it while we were in my room. Together. Alone. In my room. I loved the planet, Mercury.

Purchase Links

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XBFRX47

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dating-Guy-Krysten-Lindsay-Hager-ebook/dp/B06XBFRX47

Book depository: https://www.bookdepository.com/Dating-It-Guy-Krysten-Lindsay-Hager/9781621356370

Audible: https://www.amazon.com/Dating-the-It-Guy/dp/B073HJXYKM

Apple Books (audio): https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/dating-the-it-guy-unabridged/id1255271674

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