I tried to clear my head as I crossed the quad. My first class of the day was a marketing class, and it was mercifully a lecture. I could just sit there and not have to participate. Someone fell into step beside me and I looked up, inwardly groaning. The last person I needed to deal with right now was Samantha. I felt instantly drabber when I saw her red lips and pink cheeks ruddy from the cold. She looked vivacious and I'm sure I looked like a limp mop in comparison.
"Hi Samantha," I said, as she continued to walk next to me not saying a word. I wondered what she wanted.
"What's going on with Simon?" she asked with no preamble. I would have taken offense but she said it with no malice. She sounded more glum than anything else.
"Well, it's good to see you too," I joked but Samantha just frowned. I sighed. "Nothing, Samantha. Nothing is going on between me and Simon. We're just friends." The words barely friends echoed in my head but I pushed them away.
"Well, I know that," she replied, as if she was talking to a person who wasn't very bright. "I heard that he and Claudia are dating now."
My stomach dropped at her words. It was bad enough that apparently Simon had shifted his attentions to someone else so quickly. But for that someone else to be Claudia...the girl from my visions. The girl that had looked at me with such hatred. The girl that I wasn't sure was still the same girl but a...vardoger. How the hell was I supposed to handle all that on a Monday morning?
I tried to keep my face blank as I shrugged. "What makes you think that?" I tried to hide my desperate curiosity.
"Apparently he spent all day yesterday with her," Samantha replied, sounding even more glum if that was possible. "He took her to the Cove where they were looking pretty cozy and then they spent the rest of the day at his place." She turned to me, her eyes assessing me. "I was sure you were interested in him."
I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly, a direct contrast to my heart that was clenching painfully. I guess the Cove was becoming Simon's MO for trying to get into a girl's pants. I shook my head at the uncharitable thought. Simon had never tried to push me in that direction. And I had no right to think badly of him since I was the one that had rejected him. It still didn't make me feel better. In fact, it made me feel worse.
"Like I said Samantha, we're just friends. Good for Simon."
Oh, my lying heart.
Samantha huffed. "I guess he goes for the goody-two-shoes type." She looked me up and down as she said this. I had the feeling that I should be insulted but I couldn't muster enough energy for it. Without the rivalry of a boy, Samantha was less grating. But not by much.
She kept walking beside me. As far as I knew, Samantha didn't have any classes in the business school, where I was headed. I wondered at Marcus' statement that she didn't have many friends as I gave her a sidelong glance. I wondered if she was a different girl behind all the defenses of her sexuality she put up. Like me. I just had different defenses.
I sucked in my breath as I suddenly caught sight of Simon. But he wasn't alone. He was with Claudia. They were walking a path that would directly intersect ours, probably heading towards the student center. Samantha turned in the direction I was looking at and made a sound of disgust.
"There's the happy couple now," she said with contempt. I wondered if she felt a certain camaraderie with me because she thought we had both been rejected by Simon, assuming that he had rebuffed my advances. I didn't think it was possible for Samantha to believe it was the other way around - that someone would reject a guy like Simon. I had to admit, I couldn't imagine any normal sane girl rejecting Simon. Now, an abnormal crazy girl was a different story...
Samantha lifted her hand in a wave as they drew closer.
"What are you doing?" I hissed. The last thing I wanted to do was talk to Simon and Claudia.
Samantha turned to wink at me. "The battle might be over but the war's not done." I rolled my eyes at her lame statement. At least she didn't seem threatened by me anymore.
I needed to escape before they got any closer, before eye contact was made and I was forced to greet them.
"I, uh-have to make a stop somewhere before my class," I explained quickly to Samantha. She was barely paying attention to me as she watched Simon and Claudia draw closer, a predatory smile on her face.
"Whatever."
That was enough of a reply for me and I started veering towards the right to avoid them. I had only taken a few steps when I heard his voice call out.
"Caitlin!"
Shit shit shit. I turned around with a fake smile as they drew closer.
"Oh, hi Simon." I tried to sound casual as I looked into his blue eyes. Blue eyes that seemed to be dissecting me. He halted before me and I momentarily forgot about Claudia standing next to him. It said a lot about his effect on me if it could cause me to forget her.
"Running away?" he asked with a smirk. I didn't know which was worse. An overly interested Simon or a smirking Simon.
"Ah...no," I said, knowing that it looked exactly like that. "I just forgot that I had to do something. I didn't see you guys."
Simon narrowed his eyes and then nodded towards Claudia. "This is Claudia. I don't think you guys met on Saturday since we left so...abruptly."
I gave her a tight smile. "Hi Claudia, nice to meet you." I couldn't help searching her eyes, trying to catch a glimpse of what I had seen on Saturday. Searching for a sign of the vardoger. But she looked at me with a warm friendly expression and clear grey eyes. Simon couldn't have known she was who I had reacted so strongly to, but his introduction still felt cruel. Like he was punishing me for rejecting him with his new interest. Simon was yet again showing me a new side to him. Maybe this side would help me get over my fixation with him.
"Hi Caitlin," she responded enthusiastically. "I've heard so much about you! I was so disappointed I couldn't make your party on Saturday. Jenny invited me but I had already promised my roommate to go to another Halloween party with her."