A few minutes later, when I’ve dumped my garbage and stored my lunch tray on the tall kitchen cart, I make my way down the somewhat empty hallway toward my locker. Since mostly everyone is either in class or in the cafeteria, it’s quiet and I don’t have to think about anything but my locker combination as I stand there dialing it.
I stand at my locker, trying to clear all the bullshit from my mind, when that stream of peaceful nothingness is interrupted by a loud, insistent clearing of a delicate throat. Expecting to see Molly when I lift my head, a smile spreads to my face.
And then quickly disappears.
“Hey, Weston. So, you haven’t called me lately.”
Shit.
Stacy Bingham stands next to my locker, brown eyes fluttering, lips glossed to a sticky shine.
I suddenly wonder if I could escape by squeezing inside my locker. Once, when I was in third grade, we had this complete asshole of a teacher who would make us all climb inside our cubbies when we misbehaved, and this one fat kid, Jameson, got stuck because he never fit inside to begin with.
“Weston, did you hear what I just said?”
I sigh loudly. “Why do you suppose it is that I haven’t called, Stacy? How long ago was it that we went out? Five, six months?”
Stacy chews on her thumbnail and appears to be thinking of an answer. She counts out the months on her fingers—no lie. “Um, maybe five?”
“Right…so don’t you think I would have called if I was interested?”
“Um, I just assumed you were busy and that you didn’t have time?”
Okay, this is just downright pathetic. “Stacy, have you ever heard of the book, He’s Just Not That Into You? Maybe you should download it onto your eReader.” I collect the books I need for my next class and stand with my back to the metal door.
“I haven’t read the book, but I’ve seen the movie,” she says hopefully, shifting the books in her arms, as if having seen the damn movie was scoring her brownie points or something. I seriously wonder if she’s as ignorant as she’s making herself look. “The ending is the best, where Gigi and Alex finally get together.”
What the fuck is she talking about? “Sorry, haven’t seen the movie.”
“Oh em gee, it’s so good. There are these four friends who—”
I cut her off. “And I don’t ever want to. So besides coming over here to irritate me, was there anything else? We hooked up at one party in a coatroom, which doesn’t exactly classify us as anything.”
Stacy’s face falls, and she bites her lower lip, which immediately makes me think of Molly, because she does the same thing—only when she does it, it’s endearing and irresistible.
“Well, yeah, but I was kind of hoping….” Her voice trails off, just as something occurs to me.
“Stacy, aren’t you and Molly Wakefield friends?”
She hesitates. “Um. Kind of, but not really.”
“Kind of, but not really?” I mock her in my best nasally girl voice. “What the hell does that even mean? Oh wait, is that code for I’m a two-faced bitch who sneaks around behind my friends’ backs? Because you probably already know Molly and I have been going out lately.”
No longer being able to remain stoic, Stacy snorts. “Yeah, but everyone knows you’re not even taking her to Fall Formal.”
Now I’m confused. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Do I have to spell it out for you? Fine. If you liked her, you would be taking her to the dance, not ditching her during the biggest social event of the year.”
I’m still confused. “So? It’s just a damn dance. I have shit to do that night.”
“More important shit, apparently,” Stacy says smugly, a satisfied mask of expression covering her features. “Are you her boyfriend or not?”
“What? No. How many bloody times do I have to tell you people? Molly Wakefield is not, nor will she ever be, my damn girlfriend.”
It’s at that same moment that Mr. Pembroke, one of the science teachers, sticks his head out of his classroom and squints down the hallway at us. Clearly, he’s not wearing his contacts today. “Oh, Mr. McGrath, it’s you.” He looks me up and down. “Please keep the cursing and the noise level to a min-eh-mum.”
It’s also the moment Stacy’s eyes get wide, and she looks over my shoulder, her cool mask transforming into one of pure glee.
Don’t turn around, don’t turn around, don’t turn around, I chant to myself, because I know exactly who I’m going to see standing there when I do.
CHAPTER 27
MOLLY
“Sometimes your knight in shining armor is really just a douchebag in tin foil.”
– Jenna, who saw it on Pinterest
Oh my god, how utterly cliché and predictable could this scene be? No better than an afters school special or a Lifetime movie, I stand there in the hall, crushed by the misfortune of having to overhear such spiteful and insensitive words coming out of Weston’s mouth.