While I hated that, too, my mouth was going to agree with anything she said. “Yeah.”
“Anyway, we have the two highest grades in the class, so I figured if we partner up, I won’t end up doing the report and the presentation by myself again. Oh, and I promise I’ll pull my weight.”
I’d gone to school with Erica since the fifth grade, and she’d always been one of the smartest people in the class. I wasn’t worried about her being a slacker, I was worried my brain would cease functioning if I sat close to her for too long. “I’d love to work with you, but Mr. Conyer always assigns partners. I don’t think we’ll get to pick.”
Erica chewed on her strawberry and held up a finger. “I’ve got that covered. He always pairs us based on who’s sharing a desk, so as long as you don’t mind sitting next to me...” She smiled, because even she knew that wasn’t a possibility.
“For a good grade, I think I can suffer through it.”
Erica grinned at me. “Great.”
I had to wait for Jeremy in the parking lot after school. I didn’t have a key to unlock the car, so I stood shivering outside for a good ten minutes before he strolled up. As soon as he started the car, I turned the heater on high.
“You get cold like a little girl,” Jeremy said. “It’s ’cause you’re so skinny.”
“Not everyone comes equipped with the natural insulation that you have.”
“Someone’s feeling cocky.” Jeremy’s smile was tight, but I’d been expecting a quick slam of the brakes or a sharp turn as he backed out of the parking lot. Something to bang me around or smack my head against the window in response to my insult. A smile of any kind was unnerving. “That have anything to do with your lunch date?”
OfcourseJeremy would have heard about that. Even the seniors paid attention to Erica Porter.
Every guy I knew was half in love with her, and in my case, I’d been full gone on her ever since she’d beaten me in our fifth-grade spelling bee. Not that Jeremy was ribbing me because she was smart—I was betting it had more to do with how she looked in her cheerleader uniform, a sight that had rendered me speechless on more than one occasion.
I tried to shut any conversation down as quickly as possible. “I ate with her because we’re working on an assignment together.” I left out the part where she’d called me to her table in front of the entire cafeteria and then launched herself into my arms when I agreed to be her partner.
“Not what I heard.”
I knew better than to ask, but I couldn’t help myself. “What did you hear?”
Jeremy played coy for exactly one mile. “You know she’s single now.”
I’d heard that enticing rumor only that morning.
“And she apparently broke up with her boyfriend because she’s interested in someone else.” Jeremy shook his head. “My baby brother and Erica Porter. And I thought she had taste.”
I didn’t respond. Talking with Jeremy was challenging under any circumstances. Talking with him about girls was not a thrilling prospect. My relationship with Erica was purely academic at the moment, but as strongly as I tried to point out that fact to my burning-hot face, it kept flushing as red as ever.
Was it possible that she was into me? We’d always been friendly, but today was the first time she’d hugged me, and the hug had been long enough for word to spread back to Jeremy.
“So what does Erica think about your weekend girlfriend?”
That snapped me out of my reverie real quick. Mom had been asking me about Jolene more and more lately, and since I’d made sure that I looked like myself in the subsequent photos Jolene and I had taken, she’d warmed up to seeing them and commenting on every detail quite freely, even when Jeremy was around.
“Erica doesn’t know about Jolene, who is just a friend. Both of them are friends.”
“Oh yeah? So you wouldn’t mind if I showed Erica that last picture of you with your ‘friend’?”
He was talking about the one Jolene and I had taken right before Jeremy and I left for home last weekend. We’d been walking around the front of the building while Jeremy said goodbye to Dad upstairs, and we’d stopped under one of the boarded windows when Jolene had noticed a bird’s nest peeking out from one broken top corner.
When she’d complained about not being able to see if there were any eggs, I’d bent down and offered to lift her up on my shoulders. It had felt like a harmless gesture until I stood and her chilled fingers wrapped under my chin. I don’t think she had any idea how close I came to dropping her when she made that little contented noise and pressed more of her hands against my warmth.
There hadn’t been any eggs, but Jolene’s ever-present camera had been around her neck and she’d agreed to let a passing stranger hold it long enough to snap a pic of us, which she’d then sent to me. In the photo, Jolene was grinning and pointing at the empty bird’s nest and I was grinning and looking up at her.
It was my favorite photo yet.
And it definitely wasn’t something I should show another girl I liked.
Jeremy kept trying to rile me up and get me to spill about Erica, but I kept my responses to a bare minimum until he finally gave up. It was strange how easy it was to shift my thoughts from Erica to Jolene with only a twinge of regret.
