Bookishly Ever After (Ever After #1)(12)
“Okay, so if you knew, why didn’t you tell him to go online instead of telling him to ask me?” I bounced on my heels and resisted the urge to head to class instead of dealing with Em’s conspiratorial matchmaking weirdness.
Em poked me in the arm like she was trying to drill her point into me. “Because I wanted to prove how right I am about him liking you.”
“It’s just a book.” The late bell rang and I started moving down the hallway, Em and her shadow trailing behind me.
“Really,” she said, “aren’t you the one who always says, ‘It’s never just a book?’” Her last few words were said in a perfect imitation of me.
She was crazy. Absolutely crazy.
“And using that logic, if he asked you first, doesn’t it mean he’s really crushing on you?” I asked.
She waved her hand dismissively. “We were just talking after drama club on Friday. He mentioned he was looking for a copy and maybe I casually mentioned you. He was the one who decided to ask you. Which, of course, means he wants you for more than your personal library.”
“Em-logic makes my head hurt.”
“Em-logic,” she said, hanging on the door of her Geometry classroom, “is the best kind of logic.” She blew Wilhelm a kiss and gave me a little shove towards my class. “I want you to practice safe book lending, you know.”
“Eww.”
She snorted, imitating my expression, and said, “See you at lunch.”
Wilhelm and I shared a look.
“Does half of what she says even make sense to you?” I asked.
He shook his head, but the look on his face was pure amusement. “I find it easier to believe it makes sense to her and just think my English is still bad.”
“No, your English is fine. Being around Em is like getting stuck in a whirlwind, It’s hard not to feel a little dizzy when you get out.” I made my way down the hallway towards class, Wilhelm right beside me.
“Dizzy is a very good word for it.” He stopped in front of one of the classroom doors. “But it’s a good kind of dizzy, yes?” Wilhelm nodded, like he was answering his own question.
I grinned back at him. “Yes.”
“You didn’t come to watch,” Alec said as he slipped into the seat next to me at lunch.
I finished biting the crust off of my sandwich and shrugged. “Cassandra needed me at the shop.”
“Right, because yarn stores must have crazy lines on Sundays.” I glared at him but he just grinned and reached across the table to steal a few fries off of Grace’s tray. “Your loss. I could have taught you how to tackle.”
“You mean you could have demonstrated how to get your ass handed to you by a real rugby player, right, Kohen?” Dev dropped his tray next to my lunch bag and grinned down at us. “Alec spent the most time sitting on the field.”
“Who knew Anderson would get so huge after only one year? It was like playing rugby with a Klingon. Damien could have warned us,” Alec grumbled. He stole another fry and asked jokingly, “What are you doing coming over here and making me look bad in front of the girls?”
“I asked Dev to sit with us so we can talk about the spring musical prep.” Em gave me a significant look, one eyebrow raised, while Dev settled into the space next to me.
His leg bumped mine and I threw Em a dirty glare before smiling awkwardly at Dev and wiggling over slightly to avoid more leg bumping. “Don’t you guys usually do this kind of thing after school? Like, in the theatre with your whole crew?”
Dev shrugged. “Em thought it would be a good idea to lay out a battle plan now. We have a pretty epic idea.”
“But we’re not sure if Mr. Landry will bite,” Em finished with a flourish of her carrot stick. It was show season again, and she was back to her yearly weird preperformance diet. “Besides, I told Dev you’d probably be a huge help since we’re thinking of doing a rock version of Phantom and that’s your favorite musical.” Em tried to catch my eyes again.
I poked a hole in the center of the sandwich with my finger. A second hole joined it and now my peanut butter sandwich had eyes. “To watch,” I said with a shake of my head. “Or read. I don’t do musical theater, Em. Band is where I draw the line when it comes to musical anything.” I didn’t look at Dev. It was all so awkward.
Grace watched the entire interaction with more interest than I expected out of her, then, looked at me, her slow smile hitting its peak. “This should be good.”
“We were thinking of making the Phantom a zombie guitar player…” Dev started when my attention was completely diverted by a silhouette entering my line of sight.
Kris passed, his hair catching the light streaming in from the cafeteria skylights. I forgot about all kinds of zombies and just stared. The world went into slow motion and I couldn’t help but watch as he maneuvered himself and his tray around the tables and out the side door. What I wouldn’t give to be one of the lucky few allowed at the student council tables, even if it did mean freezing outside. Almost like he lived in one world and I lived in another. Which was kind of true. Except what divided us were lunch tables. There weren’t any fae gates keeping me from the Otherland and he wasn’t a warrior sworn to defend it. But it was still a great analogy. Or was that a simile?