“You don’t need to keep thanking me or apologizing about Claire. She’s happy now, and that’s all that matters.”
A muscle in his cheek flexes. Maybe I should feel bad for pointing this out to him, but it’s not exactly a secret.
I wonder if he still misses her, but I don’t ask. Of course he does. Claire is the best. Though, when I try to picture them together, I can’t anymore. She and Austin are so cute and perfect for each other that it makes even her much longer relationship with Vaughn feel less important somehow. But I doubt he feels that way. He might have, as he put it, fucked that up, but even I could tell he was upset when she first started seeing Austin.
Vaughn watches me as I trace his name and number with glue and then sprinkle the glitter. I shake off the excess onto another paper and hold it out in front of us.
A hint of a smile tugs at one corner of his mouth but then drops.
“Here.” I hand it to him. “You can decide whether you put it up, but regardless of where you’re standing tomorrow night, you’re still a huge part of the team.”
Our fingers brush as he takes it from me and a little spark shoots up my arm. I stare at my fingers strangely.
“Sorry,” I say, as he seems to be having the same reaction. Did I just shock him?
“It’s, uh, fine.” He puts the locker sign down next to him.
“Okay,” I say, shaking myself out of whatever weird moment we seem to be having. “Ready?”
He nods.
“First we’ll tackle algebra, and then you’ll see it’s so easy, a girlfriend can’t be much of a stretch.”
“Let’s just stick with math.”
* * *
Friday at school the halls are buzzing with excitement for tonight’s soccer game. I was at the school late hanging the signs, but it’s worth it. They look great, and I spot some of the sophomore guys snapping selfies in front of them before school.
When I get to my locker, Claire and Austin are standing next to it as usual, but Vaughn is with them. He leans against the metal, looking more relaxed than he had last night. He’s actually not a bad student. He’s hard on himself and quick to get frustrated, but we’ve made some good progress in just a few nights working together. We had to go back to the beginning of the semester and work forward, but he’s getting there.
“Hi,” I say as I open my locker.
“The halls look especially sparkly this morning.” Claire giggles knowingly.
“Do they?” I feign ignorance. “I hadn’t noticed.”
She reaches out and takes my hand. The tips of my fingers glitter. Oops. Guess I didn’t manage to wash away all the evidence. Laughing, she drops my hand.
“Bad news though, someone vandalized the locker signs.”
“What?” I shove my bag into my locker and let my gaze move to the lockers in question.
“They turned mine into a disco ball.” Austin moves to show me where someone added a lot more glitter than I had originally and crossed out Austin to write Disco. I bust out laughing.
“That is so perfect, I wish I had thought of it myself.”
Vaughn’s mouth pulls up at one corner.
“What did they do to yours?” Claire asks Vaughn.
I brace myself for disappointment. His is the only one that wasn’t up last night, since I gave it to him directly. It felt wrong, but I know tonight is going to be hard for him.
“They didn’t touch mine,” he says, and when my gaze finally snags on his, I feel a strange sense of pride and excitement. He hung it up.
I meet his stare and the other side of his mouth lifts, his chin dimple also making an appearance.
“Totally not fair,” Austin says. He and Claire move to check out all the other signs. Someone added nicknames and little drawings to every other one. I should probably be offended but the guys seem to love it.
