Page 37 of Between the Lines

“Claire.” She stops and turns, her smile like a beacon. “Don’t paint yourself into a corner.”

Awareness paints her features, and I see something like determination settle over her.

“I won’t if you won’t.”

It’s a challenge that I would have never taken, until it fell from her lips. Something turns in my chest, and for the first time in a long time, I’m not intimidated.

seventeen

nathan

“Canyou remind me one more time that this is a good idea?” Lucy says from her post beside me.

I tug at my collar, still unconvinced myself. But I nod, affirming that this Halloween dance was a good call by our PTA.

“It will keep kids off the streets, give them somewhere fun but controlled for Halloween, and give their parents peace of mind.”

“It might also drive my anxiety through the roof if they keep inhaling candy and climbing the walls right after.”

“Back atcha,” I mutter, watching as a sixth grader does almost exactly that.

The PTA suggested a Halloween Bash the moment we knew Halloween was on a Friday this year. With the amount of troubles that students are presented with as early as middle school, we saw this as a great opportunity to do all the things Lucy and I discussed. Don and I were on the same page about everything except the chaperones. Apparently, I am the sole administrative representation.

“Well, I think I’d better go help Aaron in the gym,” Lucy says, patting my shoulder. “I’ll send over your replacement.”

I nod, straighten my Halloween-themed tie, and get back to my post at the front entrance where students trade their ID to get in andout of the event. I head up the seventh-grade table in the middle, while one of our sixth grade social studies teachers, Drake Lawson, heads up the table for his grade. That leaves just eighth grade left to be represented.

“You didn’t dress up for the bash?” Drake asks. He’s wearing a sheriff’s costume. I indicate to my orange and black striped tie, laid against a black button-up shirt.

We’re interrupted from behind.

“Lawson! I love it! To keep the middle school inmates in line?”

“Exactly! What are you supposed to be?”

“A faerie from the book series I’ve been reading…”

My blood heats at the sound of her voice, tuning out the rest of their conversation. I clench my eyes shut, willing myself not to look at her. I don’t know if I’ll be able to handle Claire in costume. Not around staff and students. Not alone with my own thoughts.

“What about you…Oh.”

Her breath catches, and something in my pulse both settles and then kickstarts at the fact that the little stutter was all for me. My chest expands. I flick my eyes open, and though I thought I had the upper hand a moment ago, it vanishes with one look at her. She’d already alluded to the fact that she dressed as a faerie from a book, but where I was expecting frills and pink and a mildly inappropriate hemline, the sight of her washes that away, the new tide somehow even worse.

She looks ethereal.

A modest, satin gown, forest green that heightens the gold of her hair to a shimmering status, the blues in her eyes as if she has become the earth itself. Her makeup is minimal, save for the glitter highlighting her cheekbones. The last pieces I notice are the caps on her ears to make them pointed, and the shimmer of gold in her nails.

She may be dressed as a character from a book, but for a second, my heart stutters at the thought that she could be my fantasy come to life.

“Mr. Harding?”

My name sounds like it’s underwater as I focus on the way her lips curve around my name. It’s then that I realize I am staring at her with my own lips parted. In the entryway to my place of work. In front of one of my employees. My jaw snaps shut like a trap, until I remember that she asked me a question.

“I wore a Halloween tie,” I say, cursing the sawdust in my throat.

“That’s no fun,” she giggles.

“You’ve gotta dress up,” Drake agrees, taking several ID cards from newly arrived sixth graders.

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