“I believe it.” Michael winked at her.
My friend blossomed under the attention, taking turns flirting with all three plus Andy. Tobias joined in on the banter with the boys while I tried to overcome my boy shyness by joking back and forth with Steph. But my ears were also on Vicki and Luke’s conversation. As soon as we’d approached the table, Luke had touched Vicki’s wrist and gestured for her to take a seat next to him.
“Fashion design?” I heard him ask her. His eyes never left her face as she answered.
“Yeah.”
“So ye could make a pair of trousers, shirt, dress, anything?”
She nodded, smiling at his seeming awe. “I made a lot of the costumes for the school show at Christmas. Chicago.”
His eyes widened. “No way. I saw it. My wee sister was in the chorus. Ye made all those costumes, really?”
Vicki grinned harder. “Really.”
“That’s amazing. I couldnae even work the sewing machine in home ecies in first year. Baked an epic Victoria Sponge, but dinnae ask me to thread a sewing machine.”
My friend chuckled. “Well, I can’t tackle a six-foot-two guy and live to tell the tale so I guess we all have our talents.”
Luke smiled, his gaze moving over her face and then her hair. He stared at it. “You have really cool hair.”
“I know,” she said with attitude as if to say, I don’t need you to tell me I have cool hair.
Instead of being offended he laughed. Hard. Drawing his teammates’ attention from conversation with each other.
Luke’s answer to their questioning stares? “She’s funny.”
They nodded, throwing Vicki curious looks, and just like that she and Luke were pulled into talking with the rest of the table. It surprised me how easy it was. How comfortable. The boys were laid-back and funny without being mean-funny like so many teenage boys I’d encountered. I could see why Tobias liked them all. And it seemed they liked us, too. We laughed a lot that lunchtime, and I wondered how it was possible that the new school term could be starting out so different from the term before.
I’d been alone and mostly content with my isolation.
Now the thought of sitting in this cafeteria by myself reading a book made me feel anxious.
“Don’t you have a free period next, Comet?” Steph asked, jolting me from my musings.
“Hmm?”
“Free period, next?”
“Uh yeah. I have two actually.”
“Andy and I do, too. We were going to study together in the library. You’ll join us, right?”
“I.e. help us?” Andy joked. And then he explained to the rest of the table, “Comet is wicked smart. She’s on the road to being Dux of our year.”
I blushed at the acknowledgment. Dux was Latin for leader and the title given to the student who held the highest academic ranking. To be honest there were a few of us in our year good enough to be Dux. “Maybe. Maybe not.”
Michael nudged David. “Okonkwo is most definitely going to be the Dux this year.”
David nodded confidently. “Probably.” He smiled at me appreciatively. “No need to be embarrassed, Comet. Smart girls are hot.”
While everyone chuckled, I glanced at Tobias, who turned to David and just stared at him, a detectable warning in his expression that made the guys hoot with laughter. David held up his hands in surrender. “I didn’t mean anything by it, King. Cool your jets.”
Tobias threw his arm around my shoulders and grinned wolfishly at David. “All good.”
I rolled my eyes, blushing harder at his public claiming.
After lunch Tobias kissed me goodbye and me, Steph, Vicki and Andy walked toward the library. Vicki’s home economics class was in the same direction.
Steph groaned as we walked. “Com, you are so lucky to have Tobias be so into you.”
“Lucky?” Vicki huffed. “She’s not a dog. He doesn’t have ownership papers for her.”
“Oh don’t make this about feminism.” Steph pulled a face. “Next you’ll stop shaving under your arms and claiming equal rights for women when what you actually mean is better rights for women than what men have.”
Vicki looked murderous. “It’s misconceptions like that about feminism that give feminists a bad name. It’s bad enough guys are making those kind of comments, Steph, we don’t need girls saying them, too.”
“Oh really. Well...the glass ceiling is made up.” She stuck out her tongue, obviously purposely riling Vicki.
My best friend shot me a pleading look. “I’m going to kill her.”
Steph and Andy laughed, and I grabbed Steph’s arm, pulling her away. “Stop teasing her.”
“Why, when it’s so much fun?”
“You suck,” Vicki threw over her shoulder as she marched away.
“Go find Luke. He’ll make it better!” Andy shouted after her.
She flipped him the bird without looking back, making us laugh harder.
“So you saw that, too?” Steph asked Andy. “He seemed into her, right?”
“Oh he fancies her all right.” Andy grinned.
The two of them had their heads together as we walked into the library, and I just knew I was going to have a hard time getting them to study. It turned out they were both the worst gossips ever. Of course, that meant they loved each other. In Steph’s case, I could see as the afternoon wore on, that it was a platonic kind of love. As for Andy, if that glowing look in his eyes when he looked at her meant anything, I sensed unrequited love on the horizon.
* * *
As useless as my study buddies that afternoon proved to be, they were a good distraction. English was the last class of the day and it was the first time I’d see Mr. Stone since the break. I hadn’t been able to drum up anyone to join the lit magazine among my friends, so I was eager to hear if he’d had more luck finding us a team. I hadn’t had much time to ponder the magazine over the break, between studying and the mess that was my family. Christmas Day had been the beginning of a strange shift in the Caldwell household. My parents had clearly decided to pretend that none of the conversations/discussions/accusations/heartwrenching revelations had occurred. They treated me as they normally would.
However, the change was between them. They barely touched each other, or even looked at one another. They shared a polite friendliness that was completely off. I’d stewed over it during the rest of break, wondering if Kyle and Carrie had argued over our situation. Had it brought up truths neither of them had wanted to face?
It was odd to see them act so distant with one another but I had decided as soon as I realized something had changed between them that I wouldn’t feel guilty about it. I wouldn’t put that on myself.
That didn’t mean I didn’t think about it, however, and that mixed with studying and falling deeper and deeper in love with my boyfriend meant I’d been distracted from the lit magazine project. That had to change. This term that magazine was going to be a priority.
Now, walking to class, my determination to put my attention and focus into the magazine was put on hold when I looked outside the first-floor window I was passing and caught sight of something that distracted me again.
It was Stevie.
He was in the schoolyard walking away from the building. A pang echoed in my chest at the sight of him in a thin sweater, tracksuit bottoms and the scarf and hat I’d bought him. He was wearing it again.
A car pulled up outside the school gate as Stevie approached and Dean Angus got out of it. He and Stevie did some kind of street handshake, and my eyes narrowed on the flash of something that passed between their hands. Had Stevie just given him money?
My stomach flip-flopped again but this time for an entirely different reason. And the feeling only worsened when Stevie got into the car with Dean and it sped off, wheels squealing on the tarmac.
Stevie had made it quite clear again and again that he was in that life now. It didn’t make it any easier to see it or take away my concern for him.
Feeling grim, I continued to English.
“You look a little pale,” Tobias said as I slid into the seat beside him. His brows were creased as he brushed his thumb tenderly over my cheek.