Page 68 of Eye of the Beholder

I snort. “He’s on his way there already. As soon as she showed up looking like that”—I gesture vaguely out of Lydia’s door, even though Mina is probably home by now—“his head started turning. He doesn’t need encouragement. Just the opportunity.”

Lydia just nods, still watching me. “You know,” she says slowly. “We could—”

“No,” I say, cutting her off with a shake of my head. “Mina and I are not going to be one of your projects. Absolutely not.”

Lydia looks disappointed, but she just shrugs. “All right. Well, let me know if you change your mind.”

But I know perfectly well that that’s not going to happen.

***

The rest of October passes in a haze of tests, papers, and ACT prep. I’m glad when November rolls around; it signals the nearness of winter break.

Mina still tutors me, but it’s turned into more just hanging out with some tutoring sprinkled in. One Thursday evening she’s sitting on my bed, reading a book while I work through the English section of a practice ACT. I’ve taken several now, and my scores keep getting better—especially in the English and reading sections. I’m just about to start the next question when my phone rings.

Mina shoots me a glare—she doesn’t approve of phones when taking tests—but I roll my eyes at her and answer anyway.

It’s Jack. “Hey,” he says.

“Hey, Jack,” I say, adding his name so that Mina will know it’s him. I watch her look up from her book. Her hair is in some sort of braid, and she’s toying with the end of it. She does that sometimes. “What’s up, man?” I say.

Mina grins at my use of what she calls “guy speak.”

“I had a question about Mina.”

My insides sink a little, but one look at Mina’s hopeful face convinces me not to fake a call on the other line. I really don’t want to talk to Jack about Mina. But that’s the arrangement, I guess.

“You have a question about Mina?” I say, and Mina scoots forward on the bed, her eyes riveted on me.

“Yeah. Are you guys together?”

“What?” I say, blinking in surprise. I glance quickly at Mina, who’s looking at me.

“You and Mina,” Jack says, sounding impatient. “Are you guys going out?”

“No,” I say, shooting a glance at Mina. “We aren’t together.”

Mina’s face turns red, and I can’t quite interpret the expression on her face.

“Not even like…messing around or anything?”

“No,” I say, more firmly now. Like Mina would ever do that. “Not even messing around.” I look at her again and have to stifle my laugh at the look of outrage on her face.

“Oh, good,” Jack says. “I want to ask her out.”

I’m not surprised by this phone call. Because these days Mina is putting active effort into how she looks, and today she’s…well, she’s having a good day. Jack was glancing in her direction all throughout lunch time, and I wish I could say he was the only one. But it was more than that.

Today Mina flirted.

It was at lunch. I went over to Lydia’s lunch table, and Jack followed, which was new.

Really I was just using talking to Lydia as an excuse to talk to Mina, which I know is stupid. But Jack went and opened his mouth and asked Mina something about getting her to talk more.

She just stared at him for a second—a second in which Lydia gave her a subtle nudge—and then she smiled in what I can only describe as a flirtatious manner. “That depends,” she said. “Ask me some questions worth answering and we’ll see.”

Jack’s grin widened, and he stepped closer. “Oh, so that’s how it is? You’re going to make me work for it?”

“You catch on quickly,” she said, still looking at him with some sort of expression I didn’t like on her. It sort of made me want to hit something. Or someone. Like maybe Jack.

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