“See you!” I call to Kaito and Declan over my shoulder, before marching Noah to the checkout.
We wait until we’ve stepped out of the supermarket to talk about what happened. “I can’t tell if running into them was good or bad luck,” Noah says.
“On the upside, I got invited to a party,” I say.
My first proper high school party. There’s a little skip in my step as I walk to Ben’s car.
16
Noah: Shout
The weather is perfect today. The sun is out, but not too hot to burn our skin. Students lounge on the emerald lawn and kick footballs on the oval.
The boys and I sit at our usual table nearby the oval. We’ve finished our egg and bacon rolls and thrown away the wrappers, and Declan tells a funny story about the limes he needed to buy to make the perfect gin and tonic.
Everyone laughs, myself included, and Declan’s eyes catch mine. I see the sly smile come over his face and know what he’s going to say before he says it.
“Guess who Kaito and I saw Noah with on the weekend?” he asks Henry.
Henry doesn’t bat an eye. “Was it that Knightly chick?”
Declan’s jaw drops. “How d'you guess?”
Henry shrugs and pulls out his phone, which annoys me. I want him to pay attention.
“Something is going on between you two,” Kaito says. To Henry, he says, “we asked them what they were doing, and they said they were watching a movie, and then we asked what movie—”
“And they said two different movies,” Declan finishes. “Couldn’t decide on your alibi, could you, Noah?”
“Maybe they watched both.” Henry’s eyes remain on his phone screen.
“Nah,” Declan says. “They’re lying.”
“AndNoah said that Eve wasn’t his girlfriend,” Kaito says.
“She isn’t,” I say.
Henry’s eyes flick up.
“Which is total bullshit,” Declan says with a grin. “You should have seen their faces, Henry. Eve looked like she was wearing pyjamas like she rolled out of bed.”
“The whole interaction was odd,” Kaito says.
“You’re right,” I blurt out. “We didn’t watch a movie. Eve was helping me study for the English essay.”
I wrote the essay yesterday afternoon. I miss the days of Year 7 where we got to write our essays at home, but the assessment wasn’t awful. The prompt our teacher gave us was broad and simple. Eve reassured me that English teachers give fair prompts, and she was right. I don’t want to get my hopes up, but I think my essay was alright. I used a lot of quotes and fancy-sounding words.
The boys stare at me.
“I know. It’s embarrassing,” I say.
“It’s not embarrassing,” Henry says.
“Better to study than fail, right?” Declan says.
Kaito shakes his head. “Damn it. You’re going to get a better grade than all of us.”
“How did you get her to help you, anyway?” Henry asks.
