Chapter 6 #4
His open appraisal and direct manner were confusing.
I didn’t know if he was being sardonic or sincere.
I never could tell with him, so I always erred on the side of caution.
I decided to rebuff his maybe praise with sarcasm.
“You’re just saying that because moments ago I was the Kevin Costner to your Whitney Houston. ”
“And I will always love you,” Nico said.
The sound I made was part snort, part laugh as I faced him. “Yeah right, you’re hilarious….” but the words caught in my throat as I met his gaze.
He was staring at me solemnly with no hint of sarcasm and no twinkle of mischief. In fact, his eyes were devoid of twinkle. The twinkle had been replaced by a cool heat that felt like a bucket of ice over my head.
“I, uh….” I took an automatic and unsteady step backward, and my heart felt as if it would escape my chest.
“Elizabeth.” He shifted on his feet then braced them apart; his eyes moved to my mouth. Nico energy filled the expansive cavern of bleachers. I heard buzzing in my ears.
“I need to tell you….”
ALERT ALERT ALERT!
“Can it wait? Because—because I basically left Sandra in a room full of crazy strangers.” I gained a step backward, then another.
I was out of practice. Avoidance, like any skill, required practice. My excuse for avoiding him and the next words out of my mouth sounded lame even to me. Nico opened his mouth to respond, but I’d already turned and was walking quickly toward the opening.
“We’ve seen what they’re capable of—I should go get her,” I called over my shoulder.
After a short delay on his part, which afforded me a head start, I heard Nico’s footfalls follow. I quickened my pace until I was nearly running and didn’t stop until I reached the front of the main building.
Nico’s steps were just behind me; an anxiety riddled, warning, electric shiver raced up my spine as I grabbed the door handle to the main entrance and yanked it open.
“Elizabeth, wait!” Nico called from just behind me.
“Elizabeth, hey,” Sandra called from just in front of me.
“Sandra!” I bounded into the safety of her sphere, relieved, anxious, and wanting to leave this epic confusion of a high school reunion as soon as humanly possible.
Nico caught my arm and spun me to face him. “Will you just wait a minute?” His expression, if I were reading it correctly, was a mixture of hope and hurt. It knocked the wind from my lungs.
“There you are.” Sandra’s voice, then hand on my arm, pulled me away from Nico’s soulful expression. The rescue was not a moment too soon. His eyes were a black hole, and I felt myself being stretched until I thought I would break.
I blinked at her, at the room, at life in general. I blinked against the tight feeling in my middle. I blinked against the burning sensation of Nico’s stare; I could still feel it moving over my face.
I gripped her hand like a lifeline. “Here I am.” I hoped she read the SOS clearly on my features.
“I was looking for you,” she said. “I wondered if….” She glanced between Nico and me, her pleasant expression becoming somewhat perplexed, but no less pleasant. “I wondered if you would….”
“Yes. We should go.” I nodded.
She released a breathy laugh. “No, I meant, Micah and I—”
“I shouldn’t have left.” I interrupted her and pulled my arm from Nico’s grip. “Let me just get my purse.”
Before I could make my escape, Nico stepped into my path.
“Wait—”
My heart thumped, picking up pace with his words. I fought against the urge to close my eyes, cover my ears, and say, “La la la, I can’t hear you!” in a singsong voice.
I settled for not meeting his gaze as he sighed, then continued. “Before you leave, I promised my mom that I would invite you to breakfast at the restaurant tomorrow. Obviously, you’re both invited.”
Again, Sandra and I spoke at the same time.
Me: “Oh, no, we need to get an early start back….”
Her: “Oh, yes, we’d love to. We don’t have to be back ’til late. What time should we be there?”
I cringed. I noted that she was smiling.
Again, as though I hadn’t spoken at all, Nico addressed Sandra. “That’s great. I’ll tell her to expect you both around, say, ten?”
I didn’t even attempt to contradict but instead allowed Sandra to nod vigorously. “Yeah—yes, we’ll be there at ten.”
“Good.” He said. I felt him hesitate for a moment before taking a step back and out of my path. “See you then.”
Sandra beamed at him. He lingered. I knew he was looking at me, but coward that I was, I just couldn’t meet his gaze.
One more painfully long second passed then he walked around us and back toward the gym.
I waited until I was sure he was gone, and then I led Sandra by the hand in the direction of Micah.
He was waiting for her at the edge of the hall.
“You can loosen your grip on my hand now before you break something.”
“Oh.” I immediately released Sandra’s hand and rubbed my suddenly sweaty palm against my skirt.
“What did I interrupt between you two?” Sandra handed me my purse.
“What? Nothing. Nothing is going on.” The words were a little too loud, a little too fast, a little too false. I was out of breath and recognized that it had very little to do with my spurt of exercise.
“Ri-i-i-ight…anyway….” Sandra leaned closer to my ear. “Micah wanted to get out of here and get a drink. I was thinking of going with him, but after that outburst of yours, and now that I know you were trying to escape naughty Nico, I’ll just blow off Micah.”
I shook my head. “No, you should go. I’m good. I’ll just head back to the house and take advantage of this very rare sleep opportunity.”
Sandra wrinkled her nose and brought us to a halt. “I’m staying with you.”
“You came with me to see the world’s largest truck stop, and I couldn’t even make that happen. Go with Micah. I’m just going to go to sleep when I get home.”
She wasn’t convinced. “Are you sure?”
I could tell she didn’t believe me, so I decided to yawn for good measure. “Yeah.” Big yawn. “Yes. Now go and have a good time.”
Sandra reached for and squeezed my hand. She gave me one last scrutinizing gaze before she left to join Micah.
As soon as she turned, I bolted for the door, not wanting to give her an opportunity to change her mind, not wanting to interact with any more of my high school acquaintances, and not wanting to chance another interaction with Nico.