My eyes snap open. Oliver is standing there, smirking and holding a bag of Takis Blue.
Blood rushes to my face. I feel this inexplicable need to touch him, so I shove him with both hands. It’s like trying to move a boulder that’s settled in a valley millions of years ago. He doesn’t move an inch. “Takis Blue? Are you a freaking lunatic? Really? The worst Takis flavor?”
The corners of his mouth turn downward. “I love this flavor.”
“What are you doing eating Takis, anyway? You strike me as more of a cut fruit guy. Pond scum protein shake or something.”
“I’m not a psychopath, Georgia,” he says, shaking his head, eyes alight.
“Hmm…” I cross my arms, and his eyes flick down. Preening, I say, “So, what’s your sandwich?”
He scratches his head, getting stiff. “Salad,” he mumbles.
I cup my hand behind my ear. “What was that?”
“I get a salad,” he half-yells, overcompensating. “Rajesh makes a fantastic salad. He gets his produce directly from his cousin’s farm in New Jersey. He charges a quarter of the price of those fancy salad places, too.”
“Knew it.”
We’re standing there, looking at one another in comfortable silence, inches apart, when Rajesh yells, “Baconeggandcheeseonaroll!”
“That’s me,” I tell him.
“I’ll see you after school today?”
“Probably,” I saw, waving.
I meet Mia at the counter. She eyes me as we pay. I hum.
As soon as we step out the door, Mia explodes. “What the hell was that?!”
“What was what?” I answered, trying like hell to keep nonchalance in my voice.
“Thatmoment? With ourboss?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I mumble, panicking.
“Well, let me tell you what it looked like to me. To me, it looked like you gazing into each other’s eyes for, like, a full thirty seconds. While standing two inches apart. To me, it looked like about a hundred HR violations against the DOE code of conduct. For both of you. Especially him. Georgia, he’s ourboss!”
“Nothing was happening. Nothing is going on,” I assure her.
We walk into the building, and she keeps pestering, but I plead with her to keep her voice down. She manages to keep it together as walk up the stairs, but loses it once we reach the third grade section of the hallway. Thankfully, all the students are down at lunch. “Georgia, are yousleeping with him?” she whispers quietly.
I clap my hand over her mouth.
Emmanuel’s head pops out of his classroom. “I KNEW IT!” he screeches. “TAMIKA. TAMIKA, GET OUT HERE. YOU OWE ME TWENTY DOLLARS AND ONE OF YOUR PREPS!”
Tamika pops her head out and eyes me disappointedly. “Girl.”
“Everyone, get back in your classrooms,” I whisper hysterically. “I am ABSOLUTELY NOT sleeping with?—”
“Sleeping with who?” Lina’s voice says behind me.
I whirl around as the doors to three different classrooms slam shut. It’s suddenly just me and Lina in the hallway.
“Huh,” is what comes out of my mouth.
Lina looks around, confused. “Where did everyone go?”
