Chapter 6
SIX
COLLETTE
Olivia knew something was up the next day at lunch.
She kept staring at me as I pushed my chicken Alfredo around on my plate.
I knew I should have picked up a salad or stuck to a Diet Coke, but I was hungry or depressed or just in need of some warm comfort, so I’d risked the judgy look from the academy’s cafeteria lady and gone with the carb load.
Of course, that had been a dead giveaway to my current state of mind, which was why I was getting sidelong glances from my best friend.
“Are you sure you’re feeling okay?” she asked. She was eating her regular bagel slathered in cream cheese. Like many of the girls at this school, she had the body of a pixie and the metabolism of a horse. Carbs weren’t her enemy. She took a bite, all the while eyeing me.
I sighed and pushed my pasta away. I wasn’t in the mood to eat. Not after my encounter with Ethan last night. It had left me feeling raw and exposed and I knew I should be used to feeling that way, but what he’d said—no other human had ever uttered to me. This was uncharted territory.
“What would you do if a guy called you…graceful, unique, and beautiful?” The last three words barely made it from my lips. It was like my body was physically stopping me from saying those things about myself.
Olivia dropped her bagel and turned her entire focus on me. “I’m sorry, what?” She closed her eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, and then leaned closer as she stared at me. “Who is the guy and does he have a best friend?”
I squirmed in my seat as I reached out to pick up my tray. “I didn’t say anyone said that to me. I’m just wondering, what would you do?”
Olivia narrowed her eyes, her tight black curls bobbing as she leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table. “So this is a ‘you’re stuck on a deserted island, what do you bring,’ type of situation? You’re honestly telling me you’re not talking from experience?”
I winced, not wanting to lie to my best friend, but I also didn’t want to tell her about Ethan quite yet.
Besides, she was always telling me to love myself and take what my mom said and shove it where the sun don’t shine.
She might have been a dancer, but she hated the body shaming that came along with being a ballerina.
She couldn’t figure out why someone would starve themselves just to get into a leotard and jump around the stage—her words, not mine.
Call me crazy, but if I had two people in the span of twenty-four hours telling me how wonderful and beautiful I was, I thought I might explode. Like, BOOM, bye-bye Collette.
And honestly, I still didn’t quite know what Ethan’s angle was. My latest guess? This was all part of some elaborate high school prank. Or maybe a hazing ritual. He could have been sent to this school to get me to have feelings for him, only to pull the rug out from under me.
Was I being paranoid? Possibly. Okay, definitely. But my gut was telling me I had to be on my guard.
“That’s what I’m telling you,” I said as I pinched my lips together and willed my cheeks to stop giving me away. Was I ready to share Ethan with her? I wasn’t sure.
And maybe there was a part of me that thought if I did say something, speak his name out loud, reality would kick in and I would wake up only to discover that I’d been living in some sort of dream.
And maybe I wasn’t ready for that dream to end.
Olivia gave me a look that rivaled my mother’s. She didn’t believe me, her narrowed eyes and pursed lips told me that, but thankfully, she wasn’t going to push it more.
“If a guy told me all of those things I think I would marry him. On the spot. No questions asked.” Olivia picked up her club soda and took a sip. “Why? What would you do?”
I blinked a few times. Her direct question startled me.
I shrugged and took a drink of my water—I needed a minute to mull my response over.
By the time it became apparent that I was going to need to answer her, I settled on, “It would never happen to me so it’s a moot point.
” I shot a smile in her direction as I slipped my backpack on my shoulder and stood.
I leaned forward to grab my food tray and turned—only to have someone barrel into me, flipping the tray upwards, and dumping my uneaten pasta all over my baggy sweatshirt.
“What the—” I glanced up to see Bianca’s irritated stare.
“What are you doing?” she snapped. “Don’t you ever look where you’re going?” She sighed as she sidestepped me, pausing for a moment to make a point to stare at my lunch choice, which was slowly sliding down my chest. “And carbs? Really, Collette? It’s like you don’t even try.”
She left before I could sputter out a reaction. The only thing I managed was an icy glare…at the back of her head.
Frustrated with my complete lack of a comeback, I set my tray down on the table, tipped myself forward, and scraped the now congealed noodles off my clothes.
“Why do you let her talk to you like that?” Olivia asked as she stood as well, handing me her remaining napkins.
I fought the tears that were threatening to spill. There was no way I was going to let anyone see just how hurt I was by what Bianca said. Worried that I would lose control over my emotions, I just shrugged. “She’s a witch,” I mumbled out as I set the soggy napkins on my tray.
This time, I made sure no frantic dancer was headed my way. Luckily, there wasn’t. I walked over to the garbage and dumped my food into it. Serves me right, ordering fettuccine Alfredo. I had a feeling an empty can of Diet Coke would have done much less damage.
Now, I was going to smell like parmesan cheese all day long.
“Bianca is a witch with a capital B. Where was she rushing off to, anyway?” Olivia asked. “It’s not like anyone is just dying to talk to her.”
I shrugged as I waited for Olivia to throw her lunch away as well.
I held onto my backpack strap as I glanced around.
It was a testament to how distracted I’d been by Ethan’s words that I only now actually noticed my surroundings.
The cafeteria was surprisingly empty. Normally, it was packed with hungry dancers during the lunch break. But today? It was like a ghost town.
“Where do you think they all went?” I asked.
Olivia turned around and shrugged.
Olivia was a talented dancer, but she was far more interested in studying choreography than becoming the dance world’s next prima ballerina.
While her parents wanted her to have classic training, she was just biding her time until she could move to New York or Los Angeles and pursue her true passion, modern dance.
This was on the downlow, of course. My mother would have lost her mind if she knew that one of her precious ballerinas wasn’t passionate about ballet.
“Wherever they’ve all gone off to, Bianca was in a hurry to join them,” Olivia said. “That alone tells me we don’t want to be there.”
Olivia hated Bianca almost as much as I did. Easy to do, really, when her general attitude made the Wicked Witch look like an angel.
I ignored the comment, because this little mystery gave me something to focus on that was not Ethan. Also, I really hated not knowing what was going on, “Come on, let’s go see where they all ran off to,” I said, not really waiting for her to respond as I took off in the direction Bianca had headed.
Olivia sighed, but she followed along behind me.
“It’ll only take a minute and then we can head to chem,” I said as I started down the hallway that led to the dance studio.
“One minute,” she said as she fell into step with me. “And I’m only going so I can give Bianca a piece of my mind. I don’t know who she thinks she is talking to my best friend like that.”
“Just ignore her,” I said. “That’s what I do.”
Olivia huffed. “Yeah, but you have to take the high road since your mom runs this place. I mean, heaven forbid you incur the wrath of the school’s biggest donor.”
“Exactly.” My mom never outright said it but it was understood that we both had a job at this school.
Hers was to run it, and mine was to keep my head down and make life easier for everyone around here.
That meant chipping in with cleanup and laundry duties, helping with some office work, and—most importantly—not making enemies out of the spoiled brats this school relied on for money.
My mom and I might have had our issues, but we were still a team. After my dad left and it was just the two of us, we became more like partners in a lot of ways. Which was why it was still nagging at me that she’d been stressing over something lately and not telling me about it.
“You know, half the time, I don’t even know what she’s doing here,” Olivia grumbled, interrupting my thoughts.
I looked over at her in surprise. “Who…Bianca? She’s the most ambitious dancer in the school.”
Olivia shrugged. “Yeah, I know. It’s just that she’s always so miserable.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “I don’t know…maybe she’s just a miserable person.”
As I said it, my mind called up an image of Ethan as he’d talked about his dad and all the pressure he was under at home. For a second there, I’d genuinely felt for the guy. No matter what his motives in calling me beautiful…I didn’t doubt that he’d been honest about everything else.
All he wanted was to play music. And if anyone could understand needing that kind of outlet, it was me. I let out a long exhale as I realized, I didn’t really have a choice. If Ethan needed a place to play, I’d help him.
Oblivious to where my thoughts had gone, Olivia launched into a tirade about how Bianca was going to get a massive wake-up call one day once karma kicked in.
I hoped she was right, but I wasn’t banking on it.
I reached out and threaded my arm through Olivia’s as we drew close to the dance studios. I was grateful for her support. She always seemed to know exactly what I needed. When I needed a wing-woman, she would always step up to the plate.