Four Doors Down(20)

I turn back to Sam and watch her as she adds more pieces of her hair to the braid. I start to laugh as hair starts becoming loose. “You’re really not doing that right,” I tell her, taking a swig from my water bottle. She lets out a groan of frustration and drops the hair in her hands.

A throat is cleared next to me and I turn to see Jessica has moved to stand right beside me. Jessica Murphy is pretty much the undisputed queen of our school. She’s Miss Popularity, head cheerleader, with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a Victoria’s Secret model body. She looks like she’s just stepped out of a magazine. We’ve attended the same school since we were twelve and I don’t recall us ever having a conversation before.

“Becca, right?” she asks me.

I narrow my eyes at her. We may never have spoken more than two words to each other before, but I know for a fact she knows my name. I mean, we were all just at Ryan’s house together. She’s just trying to put me in my place in the social standing of this school. How pathetic.

“Ryan and I were just talking and I think we’re gonna throw Jake a surprise birthday party,” she starts conversationally.

I nod, not really understanding why she’s telling me this. We both know I won’t be going to the party, even if she were to invite me, which I seriously doubt she will.

“Ryan asked for my help. We’re you know…” she says, leaving the end of the sentence open ended. Is she trying to tell me that her and Ryan are hooking up? God knows why she feels the need to bore me with this information. I try to stifle a yawn. To be honest, I’m amazed her and Ryan haven’t hooked up sooner. They’ve kind of danced around each other for years, moving in the same circles, dating each other’s friends but as far as I know, they’ve never gotten together. I get the impression it’s more her into him than the other way around, but I don’t doubt for a second that she’ll get him, and the truth is they’d probably make a pretty good, all-American couple. The perfect prom king and queen.

“So you’ve been around him a lot more recently,” she continues.

I nearly spit out the water I’ve just taken a swig of. “Excuse me?”

“You just seem friendlier. You were at his house the other day, you were talking to him just now in the hall and you’re always by his locker.”

I narrow my eyes again. Is she for real?

“Just now I was talking to Sam and he was there. And we’re neighbors. Our parents are friends and they made me go over to his house to pay my respects because you know, his grandma died. And my locker is next to his, so I can’t really help being there every now and again.”

She nods, glancing sideways at Bianca, who is also looking at me. I’m starting to feel slightly ambushed. “I’m just interested, Becca, no need to get defensive. I heard you guys used to be pretty friendly and I know you still speak to Jake.”

“We’re not friendly at all. And so what if I speak to Jake?”

She smiles sweetly. “Nothing’s wrong, Becca. Relax. I just thought I’d let you know that Ryan is into me, just so you know.”

My jaw falls open. Is she actually warning me off him? Have I entered a parallel universe? And it’s kind of pathetic if she has to tell people that he’s into her. If it’s true, shouldn’t it be obvious?

“I have a boyfriend!” I tell her defensively. “Not that it’s any of your business.”

She turns to the mirror and pulls some makeup out of her bag and starts putting lip gloss on. Her eyes find mine in the mirror. “I know. Charlie, right? I hear you guys make a really cute couple.” I can’t begin to imagine how she’d know what sort of a couple Charlie and I are. “You know that color really suits you, Becca,” she continues, smiling sweetly.

I glance down at my plain black t-shirt. Is she being sarcastic? I look over at Sam in bewilderment. She shrugs and starts heading toward the door and I follow her. “Bye, Becca,” Jessica calls after me. “We should talk again sometime.”

Sam and I exit the bathroom and start walking down the hallway.

“What just happened?” I ask Sam. “Did she just warn me away from Ryan Jackson?”

Sam shakes her head, equally confused. “I have no idea. That was weird.”

“What’s weird?” Jake asks, appearing next to us.

“Is Ryan hooking up with Jessica Murphy?”

“Nah, she wants to, though. Why?”

“Well, I dunno but I think she just warned me off him in the bathroom.”

Jake actually howls with laughter. It takes him a minute to pull himself together and then turns to Sam. “She did. I think. In a roundabout kinda way,” Sam confirms.

“Wait till I tell Jackson. That’s hilarious!”

“Oh God, don’t feed his ego anymore.”

“He’s not interested in her, Becca. Not at all.”

“Like I care. They deserve each other, if you ask me. Just tell him to keep her away from me.”

We turn, continue walking out the main entrance and down the steps out toward the parking lot. Jake veers off to the side, steering Sam and me toward his friends. Mason and John are talking to Ryan, who in the ten minutes since he was standing with Sam at her locker has managed to find some girl from the grade below and now has her sitting on his knee. Her friends are hovering around them, almost as if they want to talk to them but don’t know what to say. The girl on Ryan’s knee reaches up to wrap her arm around his shoulders.