Page 41 of Something Rad
I flick my gaze over Robbie’s shoulder, seeing Ms. Cage standing in the doorway. I don’t wait another second, stepping around Robbie and walking past Ms. Cage into the classroom and she calls after me. “Language, young lady!”
I don’t look at anyone, keeping my eyes on the floor as I barrel to my seat. I start to open my textbook, but immediately swap it for my journal instead, frantically scrawling down all the things I’m already wishing I would have said.
I can sense a presence looming right in front of me, and look up to see Robbie standing to the side of his seat with an expression I can’t read on his face. My instinct tells me to look away, but I refuse, holding his eye contact as I slam my journal closed. His gaze flicks down to it once before returning to my face, where it stays for several seconds. Eventually, he opens his mouth like he’s going to say something, but then Ms. Cage’s voice cuts through the classroom.
“Alright, everybody, who can tell me about the Boston Tea Party?”
Robbie’s mouth closes again, and he slowly sinks into his seat, turning to face the front of the room as Jesse Lamonte tells Ms. Cage and the rest of the class all about the Boston Tea Party.
ten
ROBBIE
“Shit!” I curse, yanking my freshly paper-cut finger away from the book and shaking it out. After a few seconds, I raise my finger to my lips, sucking the blood away.
I register a snicker to my side and quickly turn my head, but I just see Cooper, turning away to add another stack of books to her shelving cart. I realize when she joins it with the other two that she has managed to check back in three stacks of books in the time I’ve barely managed to do half of one.
I shake my head, returning to my pile of books. I move to the next book, flipping it open and taking out the used check-out card to replace it with a fresh one. I try to pick up my pace, attempting to flip open the next book at the same time I’m adding the current one to thedonepile, but immediately let out a hiss as my pointer finger is sliced open with another paper cut.
“Goddammit!” I grit, smacking my other hand down on the counter as I suck my pointer finger into my mouth again.
And, this time, IknowI hear a laugh.
“Something funny, Cooper?” I ask.
Cooper’s body freezes, and she slowly turns to look at me. Her face is completely void of emotion. “Nope,” she replies. She keeps her eyes on me as she starts to push her cart– that now somehow hasfivestacks of books on it– out from behind the counter and towards the bookshelves.
I shake my head at her, and start to return to my pathetic stack of books when I hear the word “amateur” garbled within a cough.
I drop the book in my hands and hop over the top of the counter in one swift motion, ignoring the pain in my double paper-cut finger as I march up to Cooper. If she’s surprised by my action, she doesn’t show it, just glancing at me lazily over her shoulder as she continues to shelve books.
“Alright, enough of this, Cooper.”
She says nothing, but returns to the shelving cart between us, picking up another book and examining it.
“Cooper, I’m serious.”
She replaces the book on the cart, reaching for another one.
I let out a frustrated sigh, walking forward and bracing my hands on the cart directly across from her.
“Cooper,please.”
She slowly raises her gaze from the book in her hands to my face. She doesn’t respond, but she does raise an eyebrow at me, which is more than I’ve managed to get out of her in the last hour that we’ve been here in the library together.
“Look,” I say, “I’m clearly not having the best day. And– And I think I may have taken it out on you…somewhat. But, for the record, I’m pretty sure you didn’t wake up on the right side of the bed today either.”
Her other brow joins the one she currently has raised, her deep gray eyes narrowing on me. I still can’t place what her eyes remind me of, and it’s starting to drive me crazy. Along with just about everything else about this girl.
“Regardless, I didn’t mean to…hurt your feelings…or whatever. I–I didn’t mean to.”
She just continues to stare at me, saying nothing.
“Cooper, can you just tell me what you need me to do? Because this silent treatment is gonna drive me insane real fast.”
Cooper’s hand holding the book falls to her side. My gaze flicks down to follow the movement and, when my eyes return to her face, I see a smile slowly spreading across her lips. I open my mouth to say something, but she surprises me, walking around the side of the cart to stand right next to me. I spin to face her as she comes closer, and the speed that she walks at makes her scent wash over me in a gust of wind.
She doesn’t smell like anything I’ve ever smelled before.
