Untouchable - Chapter 6
Monday
After my second mile I collapsed on the bleachers to catch my breath. There was no better feeling in the world than a great workout. I leaned back and closed my eyes, relishing the heat of the sun on my skin.
We were allowed to choose between basketball and prepping for our mile run today. It was an easy choice. No one would have picked me to be on their basketball team anyway. I was the awkward new girl that no one wanted around. But running was for a team of one. That’s where I excelled.
“You’re getting faster.”
I opened my eyes and looked behind me to see if whoever had spoken was talking to me.
Even if it was doubtful. But there was a boy sitting on the bleachers a few rows above me staring directly at me.
I’d noticed him before. He usually elected to run too, but I’d never actually seen him do anything but sit on the bleachers.
The PE teacher never came out here to check on us because he was refereeing whatever was going on in the gym.
So I didn’t really blame him for not trying.
I shrugged my shoulders. “A little. If you’re keeping time for me then I guess I can stop trying to figure out how to use this thing.” I lifted up the stopwatch Coach Carter had given me.
Bleacher Boy laughed and slid down the few rows to join me. “Not much else to do out here.”
“Hmm. Well, you could run. Like you’re supposed to.”
“Supposed to.” He shook his head. “Supposed to isn’t very fun. Besides, this class is an easy A. I can sit here for the whole semester and I’d still get an A. I did it last year.”
He looked too fit to just sit around lazily all the time. Not as fit as the football players, but still in good shape. “You sat right here on the bleachers all semester?”
“Whenever running was an option. And the other option wasn’t tennis or something else outside where Coach Carter could see me sitting here.” He propped his feet up on the seats below us.
“You don’t look like you just sit around all day.”
“Are you checking me out, newb?”
I laughed. “No.” It came out more defensive than I meant it to. Which made me sound guilty. He was good looking. But I hadn’t been checking him out. I was already obsessed with one student that was out of my league. Two seemed like overkill.
“It’s okay if you were. I can’t help it that I was blessed with such great genes.” He flashed me a cocky smile.
“You’re incorrigible.”
“No, my name’s Felix.” He held out his hand.
I laughed. “Brooklyn.”
“Brooklyn Sanders. Yeah, I know. Coach Carter calls attendance every day.”
Right. But I hadn’t known his name. I was always distracted worrying that I would miss the teacher calling my name and totally embarrass myself. I hated saying “here.” It was the worst part of this class. Why didn’t Coach Carter just learn our names?
“Also, you’re on everyone’s radar. Scholarship students always get a lot of flak. But you’re also on the top of Isabella’s shit list. Double red flag.”
“How do you know I’m on Isabella’s shit list?”
He shrugged. “Heard about the party on Friday night.”
Oh God. Hearing about it was probably worse than witnessing it. Maybe. They were probably just equally bad. “Then why are you talking to me?”
“Because I don’t care about Isabella. Or how much money you have. I’m deeper than that, newb.” He lightly nudged me with his elbow.
I smiled. Felix was only the third person to be nice to me at this school. The fact that he was doing it even though he knew Isabella would give him hell? Even nicer. And I wasn’t at all opposed to having another friend here. Besides, I found it incredibly easy to talk to him. “Deeper, huh?”
“Yeah. The deepest. I’ll show you with a question. Wait for it…What’s your favorite color?”
I laughed. “That’s not deep. And I need to get back to running.” I stood up.
“Fine. If you insist.” He stood up too.
“Are you actually getting off your butt to run a mile?”
“Well, apparently I have to in order to learn your favorite color.” He followed me onto the track.
Instead of sprinting ahead like a show-off, he set his pace with me. I was right. He definitely didn’t just sit around all the time, because he wasn’t out of breath at all.
“Do you play sports?” I asked.
“You can’t ask me a question before you answer the one I asked first.”
I thought about my home back in Delaware. When my mother was healthy she was always in the kitchen singing while she cooked. Some of my favorite memories were in that kitchen. The walls were bright yellow like the sun. “Yellow.”
“Good to know. And no, I don’t play organized sports. I’m not an asshole.”
I laughed. “What does being an ass have to do with organized sports?”
“Favoritism. Elitists. Literally slapping other guys on the ass. Not my thing.”
I’d never thought about it that way.
“Don’t tell me you’re on the volleyball team or something. I didn’t mean to insult you.”
“No. Organized sports aren’t my thing either.” Maybe they would have been in a different life. But I didn’t have enough time.
“Well, we’re on a running team of two now. So if you ever feel like you’re missing out on the ass slapping of organized sports, you’re welcome to slap mine anytime.” He winked at me.
I started laughing so hard I had to stop running. “No,” I said through another fit of laughter.
He ran backward so he could still look at me. “Had to ask. See you at lunch, newb.” He waved and ran toward the gym where Coach Carter was calling us back inside.
***
Kennedy plopped her tray down next to mine and took a bite of her apple.
My eyes were glued to the Untouchables’ empty table. They had been late to school. And now late to lunch too. I bit the inside of my lip. What the hell was going on?
“What’s up with you?” Kennedy asked. “I thought you’d be all excited for lunch so you could stalk Matthew.”
“I’m not stalking him.” Part of me wanted to tell her about what I’d seen this morning. But it wasn’t my business.
“So you aren’t going to march up to their table and sit with them? It’s the perfect time. You can just sit there and they’ll have to join you when they come.”
I laughed. “No.” Definitely not.
“Suit yourself,” she said with a shrug. “I’m actually a little relieved. I thought you were going to ditch me.”
“Nunca.”
Kennedy laughed and took another bite of her apple. “Nunca.”
I tried to focus on Kennedy instead of the empty table. “How was photography?”
“Great, I got to develop some prints.” She pulled out a picture from her backpack and handed it to me. It was one she took of us Friday night, smiling in my room. It was strange seeing myself so happy when I felt so completely not. I tried to hand it back to her.
“It’s yours,” she said.
“I can keep it?”
“Yeah. I thought you needed some pictures of me in your room.”
I laughed. “Thanks, Kennedy.” I was determined to be that happy girl in the picture. Having evidence that I could be was going to be a great reminder.
“Did you break your mile time yet?” she asked.
“No, not yet.” I glanced at the Untouchables empty table again. No sign of any of them. “Do you know Felix?”
Kennedy dropped her apple on her plate. “Yes. Why? Do you know him?”
“He’s in my gym class. He talked to me today.”
She raised both her eyebrows. “To like…sell you something?”
“Um…no? He was just being nice.”
Kennedy leaned forward. “He’s a drug dealer, Brooklyn. Drug dealers aren’t just nice for the sake of being nice. He’s trying to get you to buy from him.”
A drug dealer? I laughed. No way. “I think you have the wrong Felix. I didn’t get his last name, but it’s not the guy you’re thinking of. He didn’t try to sell me anything.”
“That’s the whole point. He befriends you and makes you think he’s all sweet and then asks you to buy stuff. It’s his play.” She lifted her apple back up and took a bite that I could only describe as violent. “Trust me. Felix is bad news.”
“Bad news?” Felix asked as he sat down next to Kennedy. “I’m hurt. I thought we were friends.”
“In your dreams,” Kennedy said.
He flashed her that same cocky smile he’d flashed me earlier.
“Brooklyn is not a customer, so take your antics somewhere else.”
“Ouch.” Felix touched his chest. “That hurts. I’m just being cordial. Can’t a guy come say hello?”
“Not when he’s you.”
“Psh, you love me.” He picked up one of her sweet potato fries and ate it.
“You have it backward. I hate you.”
I didn’t know Kennedy that well, but by the expression on her face, it didn’t look like she actually hated him. She looked more annoyed than anything. Or maybe flustered?
“Great picture of you guys,” Felix said and nodded toward the one Kennedy had just given to me.
“Thanks,” I said.
“Weren’t you just leaving?” Kennedy said at the same time.
Why was she being so mean? I glanced over at the Untouchables’ table. Still no sign of them.
Felix laughed. “So tell me,” he said and leaned forward, trying to get my attention. “How did a girl like you end up in a shitty place like this?”
I laughed, trying to ignore the table that was calling to me.
“You mean the nicest school in the city?” Because my mom died.
Because my uncle works here. But I didn’t want to talk to him about my mom.
And my uncle didn’t want anyone to know he worked here.
“Like you said during gym. I have a scholarship.”
“Obviously, but I meant the fact that you’re not a local. You’re clearly not from New York.”
I wasn’t sure whether to be offended or take it as a compliment.
I wasn’t a New Yorker. And I was glad I wasn’t.
Before I could think of what to say, I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye.
Mason, James, and Rob were all seated there now, but Matt was still missing.
James didn’t look anything like he had this morning.
I was pretty sure he was even wearing a freshly pressed uniform, because the one he had on earlier had looked disheveled.
“I’m sorry, what was your question?” I asked.
“Where are you from?”