Page 24 of Something Rad
“Lo siento. Es la verdad, Summers.”
I raise a brow at her. Her face falls flat.
“I’m sorry. It’s the truth,” she translates.
Clearly I didn’t retain much in that class. Including the fact that Sara Beth Cooper was a part of it, apparently.
SaraCooper. Just Sara. My bad.
I shake my head. “Okay, fine. We had classes together the last few years maybe. But not this year–”
“History. Ms. Cage. Second period.”
Her back is to me as she is putting another book away, but she turns around to look at me when I don’t respond right away, seeing my pinched eyebrows.
She turns to face me fully, leaning against the book shelf and crossing her arms. “I sit directly behind you.”
I let out a chuckle of disbelief, thinking she must be pulling my leg. When her eyes continue to narrow at me and a smile never comes to her face, I realize that must not be the case after all.
“Well shit, Cooper. My bad,” I say, shaking my head.
Her red lips shift from a soft pout to a tight purse, and her gray eyes roll at me for what must be the tenth time in the last ten minutes.
She mumbles, nearly incoherently, but I think she says something along the lines of, “No worries. Checks out.”
She starts to storm back to Ms. Rose’s office but I stop her, reaching out and grabbing her by the arm.
“Hey,” I say. Her eyes flick down to my hand on her arm with a look as if I’ve just touched her with a radioactive substance. I drop her from my grasp, taking a step back. “What’s that about?”
She brushes off her shirt sleeve, keeping her eyes trained on it. “What’swhatabout?”
“Why does thatcheck out?” I ask, motioning my fingers into air quotes.
“You’re Robbie Summers,” she says, no hesitation whatsoever.
“You’re correct,” I say, echoing her from earlier. I leave out the part about the gold star though. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”
She looks up at me through her lashes. I swear I’ve never seen eyes like hers in my life. I can’t place what it is they remind me of, but I can’t look away from them. Even if she is giving me a seriously hard time with them right now.
“Well it’s just that, being Robbie Summers, I’m sure you’re entirely too consumed with waxing your muscle car, and adding more product to your luscious hair, and winning basketball games, and taking your perfect girlfriend out, and just waiting in the wings to take over an legendary family business to concern yourself with the peasant likes of me.”
Her cheeks are flushed by the time she finishes her monologue. We play the staring game for a solid five seconds before she shakes her head, turning away.
“Wait,” I say.
She stops in her tracks, slowly turning back to me.
I take a step towards her, bracing one hand on the bookshelf to our side. “You think my hair is luscious?”
Cooper rolls her eyes once again, turning away again and making her way back to the front counter.
“Hey, hey, Cooper, wait,” I say, jogging after her. She doesn’t wait, but she does stay mostly in one place as she starts sorting through books behind the counter again. “Catch me up to speed here.”
“How so?” she asks, not looking up at me.
“You don’t like me.”
“I didn’t say that.”
