Page 75 of Inception

He thought about it for a moment and then stepped out in front of me so that we were standing face to face. Everyone around us faded into the background as he leaned his body into mine and rested his forearm against the locker beside my ear, like he was going to lean in and whisper something, only his lips never made it to my ear.

“You want a play-by-play?” he asked, his molten eyes never leaving mine.

Whoa, gummy legs. I grabbed the locker behind me to brace myself. “I-I want to know what you are.”

“What I am is late for class.”

“That’s not what I…” I trailed off when his eyes dropped down to my mouth, sending whatever was left of my concentration to hell. I finished off the sentence with an inaudible squeak.

Afreakingsqueak.

“Sorry, I didn’t catch that,” he said as he pushed off the locker and started down the hall.

I let the air expunge from my lungs as I tried to bury the electric charge racing through my body just then. Fortunately for me, it simmered right down the second I noticed Taylor and the others were still standing by my locker, gawking at us with various degrees of astonishment on their faces.

Well, that’s just perfect, and I forgot the dang book too. I darted off to catch up with him before he reached them.

“I need your chemistry book,” I whispered, anxious and still visibly flustered by our exchange. “I told them you borrowed it. They’ll know I was lying if I show up empty handed.”

“That’s too bad,” he whispered back, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “Because I don’t take chemistry.”

Taylor was already waiting for me at my locker when I got there at lunch. I still hadn’t been able to figure out how she consistently managed to get out of class ahead of everyone else and was just about to ask her to spill her trade secrets when I noticed my locker behind her.

“How did you do it?” I asked excitedly, giddy at the sight of my slander-free locker.

“Wasn’t me, babe,” she said, glancing back at the empty canvas. “It must have been Caleb.”

It looked great, good as new. You couldn’t even tell anything had been written there before. I wondered when he had the time to do it. He must have come between classes.

“I bet Nikki was all torn up to see it gone.”

I laughed. “You still think she did it?”

“Well, let’s see,” she said, pressing her pink fingernail to her lips. “Was it mean, vindictive and catty? Check, check, check. Sounds like Nikki to me.”

I shook my head knowing she was probably right.

“Anyway, enough about Nikki. We can plot her takedown later,” she said, re-applying her lip-gloss sans mirror. “We have more important matters to discuss right now.”

“Such as?” I stuffed my books back into my locker.

“Such as you and Trace—” She held up her hand to silence me when I began to protest. “And don’t even try to deny it, I haveeyes. I could practically see the fireworks shooting out of your head this morning. I want to know what’s going on with you two and don’t spare any of the dirty details!” Her eyes were twinkling like two brilliant slate-blue stars.

“There’s nothing going on. We’re barely even friends.”

“Come on, I’ve seen the way you guys look at each other. You don’t look at someone that way and feel nothing.”

My cheeks flushed. “I don’t look at him in any kind of way.”

“Um, yeah you do,” she said emphatically. “And he looks at you the same way. At first I thought it was just some kind of forbidden fruit thing, but I’m starting to think there’s more to it. It’s like there’s this pull between the two of you, but you’re both too stubborn to admit that you’re into each other. It’s kind of delicious to watch.”

“I’m not into him,” I lied, knowing the truth was slightly more complicated than that. “I mean, obviously, I find him good looking, he’s a good looking guy—”

“He’s an Adonis.”

“—But there’s more to liking someone than just being attracted to them, isn’t there? And none of that even matters if the feelings aren’t mutual, and I happen to know for a fact that he doesn’t like me, nor does he want anything to do with me. He said so himself.”

“You’re probably right,” she said, though I knew it was a loaded statement. “I’m sure that’s the reason he got into it with those two guys from Easton that night at the game...you know, because he doesn’t like you.” She tweaked her eyebrows the way she does when she’s spilling a secret. “I know when I don’t like someone, I definitely make it a point to defend their honor whenever I can,” she added, every word rich with sarcasm.

---