Chapter 3 #2
Ella and I haven’t spoken all week, other than in Chem lab when we’re forced to, but even then, we try to do the work without talking.
When we pass each other in the hall, we look the other way.
I hate all this tension between us. It’s different than the tension we had before, back when I bullied her but didn’t actually know her.
Now I know her in a way I never thought I would, and bullying her into doing what I want doesn’t feel like it used to.
I don’t feel powerful. I feel like a coward who can’t bring myself to tell her the truth.
And I don’t feel like I’m winning. I feel like I’m losing.
I’m losing the one person who actually gave a shit about me, despite all I’ve done to her.
“What do you want?” I ask Oliver as I grab a cold sandwich from the line. I’m not really hungry, but I need to eat. I have practice later, and I need to fuel up. I grab another sandwich and a banana.
“I think I’ll just go,” Oliver says, his voice cracking. He clears his throat. “I’ll see ya later.”
He starts to leave.
“Oliver!” I say, loud enough that people stop and look.
Oliver freezes, his eyes bouncing around the cafeteria.
“You like turkey?” I ask.
He nods.
“I’ll get you a sandwich.” I take another one, along with a couple of bottles of water, and bring my tray to the register, handing the lady my card.
“Over here,” I say to Oliver as I head to an open table.
I decide not to go to my usual table, knowing that it’ll create the shock I’m trying to avoid.
It might be too late. People are staring as Oliver follows me to the table and sits down across from me.
“Here.” I offer him the sandwich.
He takes it and slowly unwraps it, staring at it like it’s poison. Seriously, the dude needs to stop being so paranoid. He saw me take the sandwich from the line. I didn’t do anything to it.
“Everyone’s staring,” he whispers.
“Just ignore them.” I take a bite of my sandwich, then another, finishing half of it in two bites. I don’t want to drag this out. I just want to eat and get out of here.
“So what did you want to know?” Oliver asks, tearing off a piece of the sandwich and inspecting it before finally eating it.
“About what?” I finish the first sandwich and start on the next, ignoring all the people staring at us and the hushed whispers that began as soon as I sat down at a table that wasn’t mine with a guy I’d normally yell at just for looking at me the wrong way.
“You said you wanted to talk about what I’m working on,” Oliver says.
“Yeah, we don’t have to. Talk about whatever you want.” I open the bottle of water and take a drink.
Oliver glances at the people around us.
“Stop looking at them,” I say, harsher than I intended.
He immediately looks back at me. “Sorry.”
“So where are you going to college?”
“MIT.”
“Good school.”
“My dad went there. What about you? Where are you going?”
“Haven’t decided. I like to keep my options open.
” It’s true, but my father doesn’t believe in options, at least not for me.
He didn’t want me applying to any school but Stanford.
I’ve already been accepted, so he assumes that’s where I’m going, but it’s not if I get my freedom.
I don’t know where I’ll end up, but it’s going to be as far away from here as possible.
Finn and Parker walk in, and I catch Parker’s eye.
He stops and says something to Finn. Finn looks over at me, then at Oliver, and says something back to Parker.
They start to walk over here, then Finn stops suddenly and heads towards our usual table.
Parker doesn’t notice. He keeps coming this way, thinking Finn is still behind him.
“What are you doing?” Scarlett steps in front of Parker. “Our table’s over there.”
“Yeah,” he nods. “Guess I got turned around.”
“Are you drunk?” she asks, scrunching up her nose.
He ignores her question and follows her back to our usual table.
He’s dating Scarlett again, but now they have an open relationship, meaning they can sleep with whoever they want.
Scarlett was already sleeping around, but at least now she’s not lying about it.
Parker’s getting some side action too, so maybe it’ll work out for them.
I wouldn’t do it. I don’t want my girl with some other guy, especially a girl I have feelings for, like Ella.
I need to stop thinking of her that way. She’s not my girl. And I don’t have feelings for her. If I keep telling myself that, maybe I’ll eventually believe it.
Just as I think that, she walks by, wearing the denim skirt she had on the day we had sex behind the bleachers.
Fuck, did she do this on purpose? Now all I’ll be able to think about is her being on top of me, her skirt hiked up, riding my cock as I played with her tits.
Goddamn, she looks hot. She’s wearing a t-shirt that actually fits her, clinging to her tits and making my cock so fucking hard it’s about to burst through my jeans.
“What’s going on?” Oliver says, turning to see what I’m looking at.
“Nothing.” I pick up my second sandwich. “Just forget it.”
He turns back. “Can I ask you something?”
“Go ahead.”
He leans toward me across the table. “Is it true? You and her?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Ella. I heard you and her . . . you know.”
I laugh. “Hell no. Where’d you hear that from?”
“I heard someone talking about it in the hall.”
“Who?”
“Some girls. I don’t know their names.”
“What were they saying?”
“They said they saw your car at Ella’s house, like late at night.”
“That’s not why I was there. She’s my lab partner. We have to do these stupid assignments outside of class. I went to her house to drop something off for the assignment.”
“Ms. Higgins’ class?” he says, smiling for the first time since I approached him.
“Yeah. You have her too?”
“For AP Chem. You must be in the morning class. I don’t really like chemistry, but I like Ms. Higgins.”
“What do you like about her?”
He shrugs. “She’s nice. She doesn’t act like we’re different.”
“What do you mean?”
“Me, Calvin, and the other tech guys. Teachers always ignore us. They don’t call on us in class. It’s like we’re not even there. But Ms. Higgins isn’t like that. She acts like we’re just any other student.”
As he says it, Ms. Higgins comes into the cafeteria. She heads straight to the food line, then stops and looks back, noticing me sitting with Oliver. She gives me a big smile before continuing to the cafeteria line.
“She’s really pretty,” Oliver says in a dreamy voice, staring at Ms. Higgins.
“She’s a little old for you, isn’t she?”
“I guess.” He looks back at me. “Do you know if Ella’s going out with anyone?”
“I don’t know. Why?” I feel anger rising inside me, or maybe it’s jealousy. Whatever it is, I shouldn’t be feeling it, not for Ella, and definitely not because some geek is showing interest in her.
“Someone wants to ask her to prom,” he says.
“Who?”
“I can’t say.”
“Is it you?”
“No,” he says with a laugh. “I could never get a girl like Ella. She’s smart, funny, and her body . . .” He grins. “She’s hot. Way too hot to date a guy like me. I could see her with a guy like you, if you didn’t . . . you know . . .”
“Hate each other?”
“Yeah.”
“Who wants to ask her out? Just tell me.”
“I can’t. He’d kill me.”
“Why? Why would he care if I know?”
“He just would. He doesn’t want anyone knowing. He might not even ask her.” Oliver checks his phone. “I should go. I only have twenty minutes to work in the lab before class.”
“I think your friend’s looking for you.” I nod toward the door where Calvin just walked in, his eyes searching the cafeteria.
Oliver sighs. “He’s gonna give me shit about this. I have to go.”
“Me too.” I get up before him and take off, not wanting it to look like he’s the one in control by leaving before I do.
He’s already gone by the time I dump my trash. Everyone watches as I walk over to my regular table, sitting across from Parker and Finn.
“Was anyone watching?” I quietly ask.
“Everyone was watching,” Parker says, like I’m stupid for asking.
“That’s not what I meant,” I say in a hushed tone.
“I didn’t see anything,” Finn says as he messes with his phone.
“I saw Aubrey looking at you,” Parker says, “like you’re fucking insane. I told Scarlett it was a bet. She thinks you just made fifty bucks off Finn and me.”
That was a good idea. It’s a story that makes sense.
Finn, Parker, and I using one of the geeks for our own amusement?
No one would even question it. Scarlett will have that story spread around school by the end of the day, and by tomorrow, people will have forgotten all about me sitting with Oliver.
I just hope whoever sent us that text saw it and will give us more time before turning us in.
As I’m thinking that, a text pops up on my phone that reads, You bought yourself some time, but not much. Finn and Parker didn’t play along. Another count against you. Three strikes, you’re out. You get one more chance to keep this going. You don’t play, the game ends. I send the video.
I slam my phone down on the table. “Fuck!”
Finn and Parker are swiping through their phones, not looking at me.
“He’s not going to do anything,” Parker says. “He’s just making threats so we keep doing this stupid shit.”
“The threat is real!” I say, keeping my voice down. “He has proof!”
Parker sighs. “Yeah, whatever, so maybe I’ll do the next one.”
“I’m not doing it,” Finn says, getting up.
He takes off. Parker gets up and follows him out.
This is as good as over. If I don’t find out who’s sending those texts and stop them from going to the police, we’ll be in jail in a few weeks, maybe sooner.
I wish I could talk to Ella about this, but I can’t. I need to figure this out on my own.