Through Glass(5)

“Bad idea, Sarah.” She sighed in her overdramatic way and I looked at her, getting the full brunt of her diva face.

If I was Anne of Green Gables, she was a Barbie doll. Blonde hair, blue eyes—she had it all—even the light dusting of freckles over her button nose.

No wonder the eyes of the male population followed her wherever she went. I was simply happy she didn’t try to date them all. Not that we each hadn’t had our fair share of boyfriends, but I didn’t want that kind of reputation.

“I don’t see why it would be, he practically stalks you through that window of his.” She smiled and her blue eyes sparkled. I wasn’t sure if I could disagree with that, but then again, I essentially did the same thing.

I shook my head in an attempt to get the knot out of my stomach that just talking about him had given me.

Get over it, Lex, I told myself for the millionth time in an attempt to actually do it. It wasn’t working very well.

“Do I need to remind you of Sadie’s 2011?” I said as melodramatically as I could.

“You were a freshman and he was legally obligated to say no.”

Well that stung.

“He was only a sophomore,” I said silently, instantly regretting the moment I let the words out of my mouth.

“Yes, but you weren’t even technically going to this school yet,” she pointed out as she poorly disguised her laugh. She was really pushing this and it really wasn’t good for my temper. I could already feel it prickling under the surface of my skin, hot and angry.

I rolled my eyes and began to weave my way through the tidal wave of students that were headed in our direction in an attempt to make it to homeroom on time.

“I think the phrase he used was ‘I have no desire to sacrifice the friendship of someone so close to me,’” I said in my best Cohen imitation.

Sarah only rolled her eyes at me as we broke free from the busy hallway intersection and into the sparkling halls of the lesser crowded English hallway.

And yes, I did have it memorized. Not that I had tried, but when you get stung in such a public way, you don’t forget what was said. Most people would have stopped talking to him, too, but he’s stubborn and I’m forgiving. It’s a bad combination. Well, that and he fell out of his window while trying to plead forgiveness. The guilt from that helped, too.

“He was younger then.” Sarah’s voice echoed strangely in the emptier hallway.

“Exactly my point. I can’t date a college boy.” I turned toward her, walking backward for a moment in an attempt to drive my point home, however she only rolled her eyes at me.

“Says the eighteen-year-old high school senior who is graduating in less than a month.”

“I can’t Sarah,” I reiterated as I fell into step beside her again, not even attempting to restrain the dejected moan from my voice.

“Can’t or won’t?” she asked me. I felt my nerves jump a bit.

I looked at her out of the corner of my eye. She was obviously going to wait for me to answer. If I didn’t, she would just ask the question with varying levels of decibels and embarrassment.

“Both,” I admitted, my tone snippy as my temper leaked out.

“Well, neither of those count.” She smiled.

We walked into first period English and right to the row of desks at the back. Sarah sat in the desk across from me, her body already moving to lean over the bar as close to me as possible. Her eyes were calculating what to say next.

I felt my stomach muscles flop around like a dying fish. I knew that smile and I knew what was behind it.

“You already asked him, didn’t you?” The dance of the dying fish in my stomach increased and I fought the need to run into the hall and shove myself into any available locker. Instead, I decided to sink lower into my desk.

“Yes,” she grinned, “and he said yes, so you can’t get out of it even if you tried.”

“I don’t know why I would want to.” I couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of my voice if I tried. It was probably a good thing Sarah was perpetually immune to all sarcasm or she might have taken offense to that.

“Exactly. So don’t worry. Just have fun. I will take care of everything and we will have to see if we can get the memory of Andrew Flowers wiped away by the end of the week.” She had to give me a flippant reminder of my slob of an ex-boyfriend in the sound of a battle cry. “Your lips need to experience someone new.”

“Uh no, Sarah! I said nothing about kissing him.”

“I know, but you thought it. You thought it the second you saw that five o’clock shadow he’s trying to pull off, didn’t you?”

Of course I did, but was I going to give Sarah this little win? No, no I wasn’t. I was too stubborn to let that get the best of me.

“I can see it in your eyes, Lex,” she whispered in my ear from across the aisle as Mrs. Grant waddled into class. “Don’t try to get out of it.”

I tried to pull out my best glare for her. Tried, but it just didn’t take. She smiled at me knowingly and I looked away from her, knowing full well that my embarrassment was threatening to turn me into a human-sized tomato.

If it hadn’t already.

That was probably the worst thing about being a red head. People always thought you were ready to yell or blush at any moment. Unfortunately, I did blush all the time. The only thing that was good about the blush was that it took my temper away.