Airel - Aaron Patterson [8]
“Uh…” Nice start, stupid! “Yeah, much better. Must have been a… a twenty-four hour… sort of… thing. And yes, I am Airel, like she mentioned—this is Kim.” I deflected to her and hoped Michael would just go away and not notice that all the introductions had already been made. No wait—I wanted him to stay.
He had this way about him. Something magnetic; I couldn’t place what it was. All I could think about was the way he looked at me. His eyes were like a deep pool of the bluest water I’d ever seen and there was something in them that moved me deeply, shook me. I liked it as much as I feared it.
“Kim, nice to meet you... again.” The smirk once more, directed at me, God help me. “I guess I’ll see you around, yeah?” He smiled, looked at me, then Kim. He lifted his hand with a half wave, then turned and walked toward the cafeteria. His jock friend followed, and I could hear them laughing. I saw Michael hit the other guy in the arm.
I didn’t realize until then that the hallway looked like a scene from a side show. Everyone had stopped to watch this new very gorgeous boy talk to the resident sicko. Then, as he walked away, giggles from the girls filled the stifling air and a few football players rolled their eyes.
“Hi? Way to go Airel!” Kim was a little beside herself. “Good thing I was here! You might have stood there just gawking at him.” Kim shoved her backpack into her locker and stood now, grinning from ear to ear, looking like a stupid cartoon character. What is it with her lately? It seemed she was full of dumb looks.
“Whatever, Kim! I wasn’t ready for that. Thanks for totally setting me up! You could have warned me!” I stuffed my backpack into my locker glared at her. Great—now everyone will be talking. This was a bad start to a bad week. All I wanted to do was go home, curl up under the covers, and sleep the rain away.
Chapter V
So I made it to the weekend without embarrassing myself any further, thank God. The school was buzzing about the new guy on set, and it made me—well, I guess I’m not sure what it made me.
I caught myself trying to be jealous, but I wasn’t! Then again, I had this thing: if I had a friend, felt like I had a small claim on someone, then they were mine—dibs.
From what I hear, guys have this so-called "code" where they can’t date a girl if their buddy dated her. Well, we had our code as girls, too. If you put a claim on a guy, he was yours until you released him. Whether or not he liked you back had nothing to do with it.
I went over to Kim’s house pretty early to pick her up. We were both up for a day of retail therapy, and since I had the money I decided that I needed a new pair of jeans. Okay, maybe "need" was too strong a word, but I wanted to go shopping.
As I drove the Honda into town, Kim chatted up a storm. We were both so over all the lame and weird events of the past week and I had to admit that I was looking forward to a day of nothing but girl time.
It was nice out, unlike the day before, and the sun shone in full force. Kim was going on about her latest crush, James Carver. He was the new star quarterback, a transfer from another school, and way out of her league. But who was I to burst her bubble?
I pulled in to the Sunrise Café and parked. I needed breakfast and a cup of coffee with lots of cream. I guess Mom was starting to get to me. The unrelenting rants on breakfast were beginning to sink in. Maybe she was right anyway, and I should take more time in the mornings to eat. Then again, maybe she was just being a mom.
“Did you see him at practice yesterday? Like, he had his shirt off, and man-oh-man was he buff! I wonder if he saw me? I think he was waving at me.” Kim smiled and tugged on her purse strap as we went into the little mom-n-pop café.
“Kim, you do realize that he’s the quarterback? He’s the one that all the cheerleaders and every other bimbo are after. Believe me, you don’t want that guy anyway, he has a big enough head as it is.” I grabbed a booth and looked at the menu, hoping she would wise up. Knowing