Untouchable - Chapter 6 #2
“She’s from a small town in Delaware,” Kennedy said. “And she knows better than to get mixed up in whatever the hell you’re doing. So scram.”
Felix laughed. “I’m just talking to you guys. I’d never sell anything to someone like Brooklyn.” He winked at me.
Again, I didn’t know whether to be offended or not.
But his statement seemed to confirm that Kennedy was right.
Felix was a drug dealer. She was probably right about all of it.
He was trying to befriend me so I’d buy from him.
He should have been talking to the rich kids here, not me.
I didn’t have money for drugs, not that I’d ever take them. “Kennedy’s right, I don’t do drugs.”
“Great.” He glanced at her and then back at me. “Because I’m not trying to sell either of you anything. I swear.”
“I find that hard to believe,” Kennedy said.
He shrugged. “Believe me or not, I have more than enough clients. I didn’t come over here to sell you pot. I was actually inviting you to a party at my house on Friday night.”
Kennedy laughed. “No thanks.”
“Newb?” he looked at me.
“God, you already have a nickname for her and everything?” Kennedy rolled her eyes.
“What Kennedy meant to say is thank you, but we’re working,” I said. “I’m sorry.” I was apologizing more for her behavior than anything.
He smiled. “It’ll go pretty late, so swing by after. Kennedy knows where I live. Catch you girls later.” He tapped twice on the table, stood up, and walked away.
“What the heck was that?” I asked. “You didn’t have to be so mean.” I felt the hairs rise on the back of my neck, the same way they had when Matthew had walked into the bathroom Friday night. I glanced at his table out of the corner of my eye. But he still wasn’t there.
“Me? You kept looking at the Untouchables' table the whole time he was talking to you. That was just as rude.”
“You kept telling Felix to leave,” I said without acknowledging her comment. I knew I kept glancing at the Untouchables' table. I was practically addicted to looking at them. But this wasn’t about me. Something was up with her. “Why?”
Kennedy shook her head. “Stop talking.”
“Really, what did he do to you? Please don’t tell me you used to be addicted to crack or something.”
Even though I said it as a joke, Kennedy started to shake her head even more frantically.
“You weren’t, were you? A crack addict?”
“Sh! He’ll hear you.”
I glanced over at Felix. He was across the cafeteria now. “You can tell me. You know that, Kennedy. What did he do to you?”
“Stop talking,” she mouthed silently at me this time.
“Sometimes one taste is all it takes,” Matthew said and sat down next to me. “Your friend is just looking out for you.”
It felt like all the air left my lungs. Oh my God, that’s why she was shaking her head.
I silently cursed myself for not realizing she was trying to tell me Matthew was behind me.
And I had no idea what I had just been saying.
Hopefully it wasn’t something embarrassing.
But I was pretty sure I had been talking about crack.
“Hi, Matthew,” I said. My voice came out all weird and high.
He smiled. “You can call me Matt.”
“Matt.” I was pretty sure I was melting under his gaze.
I’d been waiting to talk to him all day, and that was all I could muster to say?
I’d watched him a lot at lunch, but I never realized how comically big he was for the little seats attached to the table.
He barely fit, which made so many parts of him a fraction of an inch away from touching me.
Or was he just leaning in closer to me? My heart started beating fast. We’d been this close once before, but not in public.
Not when we were surrounded by other students that I was pretty sure he knew didn’t want me around.
“I’d recommend staying away from Felix too,” he said. "You don’t want to get mixed up in that.”
I nodded. “Nunca.”
He laughed. “Never. That’s good to know.”
I hadn’t even realized I’d said it out loud. Kennedy laughed too.
Matt looked over at her. “Mr. Lewis is kind of an ass huh?” he said.
Her face flushed. “Definitely. You were only a few minutes late. It wasn’t a big deal.”
He smiled at her and then looked back down at me. Or rather…my hand. “How’s the cut?” He’d lowered his voice, but I knew Kennedy could hear. Still, it felt intimate, even though we were in the crowded cafeteria.
“Better. Thanks to you.”
He reached out and ran his index finger along my Band-Aid. As if only seeing it for himself would reassure him.
Yup, I was definitely melting. I’d thought about this moment a lot. But it was never like this. He’d invited me into his world in my dreams. There was something nice about the fact that he’d come over and sat in mine. We both knew I didn’t belong in his.
And he didn’t seem as untouchable over here. Or maybe it was because he was touching me.
“And your shoe?” he asked.
“All better too.”
“Close call.”
If only he knew.
He leaned a little closer to me, his thigh brushing against mine. I thought his hands were warm. The rest of him was scorching. It felt like I could barely breathe.
“About what you overheard this morning…” he said.
I shook my head. “I really didn’t hear anything. I was on my way to class. I just saw you guys and it looked like you were fighting. It’s none of my business anyway.”
He licked his bottom lip as he listened to me. If that was the way he concentrated, I wanted to be his new study partner. Maybe he’d let me lick his lips for him. His smile grew, like he knew I was staring.
I forced my eyes back up to his. For a moment everything disappeared. It was just us alone in that bathroom again. My heart started beating even faster as he stared at me intently.
“Just don’t tell anyone, okay?” he said. “We’re taking care of it.”
I nodded even though I didn’t know what exactly I was agreeing to. But I trusted him. It was hard not to believe everything that fell out of such a perfect mouth.
He cleared his throat. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have even mentioned it. That’s not why I came over. I was thinking,” he said and leaned in even closer. “Maybe we could go…”
“Matthew,” Isabella said, cutting him off. She put her hand on his arm. I watched as her fingernails dug into the fabric of his blazer. “We need to have a word.”
“I’m in the middle of something, Wizzy.” He shrugged her off.
The expression on her face made it look like she was going to slap him. I wasn’t sure if it was because he’d called her Wizzy or that he had shrugged her off. Probably both. But I was way more curious about why that was her nickname.
She didn’t slap him, but she didn’t back down either.
“Now. It’s about that extracurricular we talked about the other day.
You know the one. I wanted to see if we should tell our friends all about it.
” I was pretty sure she tried to smile sweetly at him, but it looked like she was about to bite his neck and suck his blood.
Matt lowered his eyebrows. “Yeah. No.” He shook his head and turned back to me. “I’ll see you in class, okay, Brooklyn?”
Isabella pulled him away before I had a chance to respond.
The ticking I always heard in my head stopped. Boom. No wonder Isabella hated me. Extracurriculars my ass. I swallowed hard. Were they dating?
“You got asked out twice in one day,” Kennedy said without looking up at me. “I think that’s a new record.” She pushed around her sweet potato fries with a fork.
What was up with her? “Felix asked us both to come. And Matt didn’t get to finish his sentence. But I don’t think he was asking me out.” He ran off with Isabella the second he got a chance.
“Of course he was. Stupid Isabella just cut him off.”
“Maybe.” But I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. “I guess I’ll find out in class.”
Kennedy continued to absentmindedly push her food around her plate.
“Do you want to talk about what happened with Felix?” I asked.
The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch.
“Saved by the bell,” she mumbled and got up so fast I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye. But she hadn’t said goodbye either.
I sat there for a moment longer. My new friend Felix was a drug dealer. Kennedy was mad at me. And Matt was probably dating Isabella. Could this day get any worse?