Page 25 of Clichés & Curses

‘Oh, I didn’t know you had company,’ he said as a way of greeting.

‘Yeah,’ Colton replied sheepishly. ‘Miles, I’d like you to meet Clara. She’s my partner for ASL class,’ he gestured to me, then gesturing to Miles, and said, ‘this is Miles, my roommate.’

‘And his best friend,’ Miles pointed out, a grin on his face.

‘Right, my best friend when he’s not embarrassing me.’ Colton gently shoved him.

Miles just laughed him off. ‘I’m not embarrassing you,’ he remarked. ‘Yet.’

‘Nice to meet you, Miles,’ I said, smiling at him. ‘This is Nina,myroommate, and best friend,’ emphasizing ‘my’ as I introduced her, earning a laugh from the two baseball players.

I softly nudged Nina, silently asking her to say something.

‘Yeah, I’m Nina,’ she murmured.

‘Well, it’s nice to meet you both.’ He nodded at us, though I couldn’t help but notice how his eyes were focused on Nina, who was trying her best to avoid his gaze.

Turning to me, he prompted, ‘You’re Colton’s partner for ASL class?’ Though it sounded more like a statement than a question.

‘Yeah?’ I replied hesitantly, unsure of why he was asking for a confirmation.

He quickly darted his eyes to Colton before a smug grin appeared on his face. ‘So,you’rethe one he’s been seeing every Wednesday before baseball practice.’

I didn’t even have the time to react to that when I heard Colton call out. ‘Miles.’

‘What?’

‘Shut up.’

But that only made his grin grow bigger, followed by a burst of laughter when he saw the unamused expression on Colton’s face.

‘Okay, okay. Point taken.’ He conceded once he calmed down, putting his hands up in mock surrender. Turning his attention back to me and Nina, he added, ‘So I’m guessing I’ll be seeing you two on Saturday?’

‘Saturday?’ I raised my eyebrows in question.

Instead of answering me, Miles whispered to Colton, ‘You didn’t invite them?’

‘I was about to,’ Colton whispered back to him, exasperated. Facing me once again, he said, ‘The baseball team is throwing a party this Saturday at the team’s house. You’re both invited if you want to come, and you can bring your friends too.’

A party hosted by the baseball team.

‘Oh, umm,’ I stammered, not knowing how to respond to the invitation. ‘Thanks for the invite. We’ll think about—’

‘We’ll be there.’ Nina cut me off.

‘Great,’ he said with a grin on his face. ‘Do you guys know where the house is?’

‘Yup, I got it covered,’ Nina confirmed to him.

He gave her a nod. ‘I’ll see you two on Saturday then.’ And directing his gaze at me, he added, ‘Partner.’

‘See you on Saturday,’ I replied. ‘Partner.’

Turning to Miles, he asked, ‘You ready to go?’

Miles nodded and waved us goodbye with a ‘See you on Saturday!’ before running to Colton’s car.

Colton just shook his head at his roommate’s antics, turning around to give us one more smile before he went his way.

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