NowI’m nervous, because I have no idea what she’s gonna say.Did she hook up with Hunter before the spaghetti dinner or something?Did she see him kick Trout?
He didn’t do something with her after the night with the telescopes, did he?He seemed upset that I was gone and didn’t even text...
We walk down a hallway and Mandy pulls open a door, looks around again, and steps inside, turning on the light.
I stop short.
“That’s the supply closet,” I say, assuming she opened the wrong door.
“Comeon,” she says, so I shrug and step inside.She pulls the door shut.
“Why are we in a closet?”I say, keeping my voice low in case someone walks by.
“I need to talk to youprivately,” she says.She’s a little shorter than me, and the closet’s not very big, so I feel like her wide brown eyes are filling my entire field of vision.
“About Hunter?”
“What’s up with you guys?”she asks, blinking.
“We’re...dating,” I say, and take a deep breath, getting ready to tell the whole long story.
“Since when?”Mandy asks.“When did youstartdating?”
I almost laugh at the question, because it seems so strange, but Mandy looks so serious that I don’t.
“Two nights ago, I guess,” I say, slowly.“But we were...”
Mandy heaves a huge sigh of relief, cutting me off again.She’s not usually this weird and impatient, but I think between whatever she’s going to tell me about Hunter and the Saturn Fire, she’s kind of stressed right now.
“So you weren’t dating yet the day there was that big thunderstorm?”she asks.
I cross my arms in front of myself.
“Youhaveto get to the point,” I say.
“I wouldneverflirt with someone else’s boyfriend,” she says, her eyes still wide and completely serious.“I just don’t want you to think that I’m someone who woulddothat.”
Oh my God, just tell me whatever you’re going to tell me, I think.Now I’m seriously annoyed, because I have a million things to do and dragging something out of Mandy isn’t on that list.
“Did you and Hunter do something or not?”I say, irritated.
She gasps.
“No!”she breathes.
My stomach unclenches.
“I didn’t realize that you were interested in him, because I wouldn’t have started flirting with him,” she says.“Clementine,pleasedon’t think that I was trying to steal your boyfriend, or that I’m some kind of floozy, because it would break my heart if you thought I was that kind of person.”
There it is.She just wants to stop feeling guilty, and she wants to make sure everyone knows she didn’t do anything wrong.It’s notquitethe same as a heartfelt apology, but she didn’t know about Hunter and I, so it’s not like she owes me one.
“Of course not,” I say.“I didn’t tell you.”
“You just seemed so upset,” she goes on.
“It’s a long story,” I say, because now that this is over, I just want to get out of that closet.
“You weren’t mad with me?”
