Page 51 of Crossing the Brooklyn Briggs
“I just told you. He’s Houston’s best friend.”
Clicking her tongue, she hands my phone back to me. “And has your brother forbidden you from dating his friend? Which would be stupid, by the way.”
“No, but—”
“Then there’s no problem.”
But thereisa problem, and it comes in the form of my curse when it comes to men. “Jay, I am a magnet for terrible relationships. I’m not going to ruin Jordan just because he’s flirty.”
“And mega hot,” she adds, as if I’ve forgotten that part.
I groan. “You’re really not helping things, and this is why I avoided you at lunch. You’re just going to try to push us together. Besides, he told me yesterday that he’s not looking to date right now, so there wouldn’t be a point.”
“But youdowant to date him?” She looks at me with a wide-eyed expression that probably means I’m doing a terrible job at hiding my feelings. Ha! As if I’ve ever been good at hiding my feelings. “Girl, I know you think you’re cursed, but you’re not. There’s no such thing.”
I haven’t told her about most of my relationships, even though she’s basically my best friend. She was so nice to me on my first day of teaching and welcomed me to Sky View with open arms, and my luck with friends has been about as good as my luck with boyfriends. That’s probably because my dating life usually took up most of my free time before I gave up on men, so no one had a reason to try to keep me around. I wasn’t around in the first place.
I don’t want Jay to think this friendship has an expiration date as soon as I start dating someone.IfI start dating someone. There’s no telling how things will go with Mark.
To my utter relief, Principle Cheng knocks on my door, stopping Jaydin from continuing her argument. She gives us a wide smile, probably the happiest administrator in existence. “Sorry to interrupt, ladies. Brooklyn, I just wanted to give you a heads up that you’ll be getting a new transfer student for your third period. I hope that doesn’t throw anything off.”
“No, of course not.” I’ll have to figure out what to do about lab partners, since that class is already even numbers, but I can make it work. Besides, I refuse to say no to Cheng until she makes her decision about the Teacher of the Year thing. “I’ll be happy to take anyone who needs a place.”
She smiles even wider. “Excellent. I’ll warn you, he’s had some trouble in the past, but his parents assure us that he will be on his best behavior here at Sky View.”
I scramble to grab a pen. “What’s his name?” I could look it up on our online portal, but that’s always a dangerous place for me to go unless absolutely necessary. It’s a miracle I haven’t messed up any grades yet, and I don’t want to know what might happen if I were to go into a student’s profile unnecessarily.
“Mateo Torres.”
My pen stills. Torres? It’s not like that isn’t a fairly common name, but there’s a part of me that is pretty sure Jordan’s youngest brother’s name is Mateo. It’s something with an M at least, and I know he’s a lot younger than Jordan. Is he young enough to still be in high school, though?
“I’ll leave you ladies to it,” Cheng says, and she leaves with a wave.
Jaydin doesn’t even wait until she’s through the classroom door. “Why do you look like you’ve seen a ghost?”
It’s not a big deal. It’s probably not even his brother. But what if it is? Isn’t there some sort of conflict of interest?
No. Maybe if Jordan and I were dating, but even then I don’t think the school would care. They’ve always been pretty loose, and Mrs. Buehler in the English department had her own daughter as a student last year. Besides, what am I supposed to say to Cheng?Sorry, but I won’t take on this troubled student and show you I can handle more because I’m worried it will make things weird with the guy I’m not dating.Ha!
“Brooklyn!” Jay snaps in front of my face.
“It’s the concussion,” I mumble, which honestly is a pretty good excuse now that I think about it. I don’t think Iactuallygot a concussion on Friday, but I can pretend. “Sorry.”
She narrows her eyes. “That excuse will only work for a few days, hon, so cash in on that while you can. But if you’re still dreamy-eyed by Thursday, just know that you’ll need to expect a hearty ‘I told you so’.”
“About what?”
“About you and that bronze god you have showing off in your yard.”
I snort. “God? And bronze isn’t the color I would use.”
“What would you call him, then? Because he’s all-around yummy, and you know it.”
She’s not wrong. Jordan’s mom is African American, and his dad is Mexican, leaving him blessed in so many ways. Where I’m pale, he’s dark, and my skin goes straight from white to red with the smallest bit of sun, while he always looked better after a baseball season in the sunshine. Despite his muscle, he’s generally lean, all angles and ridges and strong features. Though he keeps his hair short, it has the most incredible curl to it, unlike my barely-holds-a-curl blonde locks. And his eyes! Don’t get me started on his eyes. I’ve never seen eyes like his, so warm and deep, like I could dive into them and disappear.
Yeah… All-around yummy sums him up pretty well.
“Oh, you’ve got it bad, girl.”
