“Drink,” she urged me.
“Um…” I glanced at the cup again. “Are you sure it’s safe?”
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
“Because it’s milk…” I said slowly. “In your backpack…”
“Oh, I had it in my insulated lunch bag,” Madison said. “Totally safe.”
The school bell rang loudly. It was louder in the senior common room than anywhere else in the school. I was pretty sure it was because they knew seniors liked to skip classes by staying in there, and they were trying to make sure we could use the excuse of “I didn’t hear the bell.”
“That’s the warning bell,” Eli said. “We should get to class.”
He and Madison both stood up and grabbed their bags.
“Are you coming, Violet?” Madison asked. We had French class together that period. I knew we weren’t doing anything important in class that day, and I really didn’t want to deal with it right then, especially since Lewis was in the class as well, so I shook my head.
“Tell Madame that I’m sick or something,” I said. Eli and Madison shared a concerned look. I wasn’t usually one to skip classes. “I’m fine, guys. Really. I just can’t deal with school right now.”
“Okay,” Madison said. “I’ll meet you at your locker after school, okay?”
I nodded. I guess that was reassuring enough to them, or they were just worried about getting to class on time because theyboth nodded as well and left. I finally took a sip of the chocolate milk. To be honest, it did make me feel better.
I sighed and closed my eyes. I wanted to take a nap, but I couldn’t do that while still in there, just in case somebody walked in and saw me. That could lead to a really awkward conversation.
I was just sitting there stewing in my thoughts when I heard the door open again. My head snapped up. I was worried it was going to be a teacher coming in and asking me why I was in the common room in the middle of a class period, and I really wouldn’t have any reasonable explanation to give them. My go-to response was that I had a spare, but there was always a risk that it was a teacher who knew your schedule well enough to know that wasn’t true. I’d gotten more than a few detentions that year over that.
It wasn’t a teacher entering, though. It was just the most popular boy in my grade, Jaxon Andrews, which was somehow even worse. Jaxon Andrews was the absolute last person I wanted to see right then. My anger at him entering the common room was definitely a little over-the-top as his very existence was annoying me in that moment, so I tried to hold back on snapping at him.
“Hope you know CPR,” Jaxon said as he sat down. I took a deep breath to avoid screaming. Every time Jaxon saw me, he hit me with a new pickup line. It had been going on for four years at this point, and while I generally didn’t mind, I wasn’t exactly in the mood right then.
But I knew I would just be starting an argument if I didn’t answer, so as calmly as I could, I asked, “Why’s that, Jaxon?”
He grinned stupidly. “Because you take my breath away.”
I rolled my eyes so hard that it actually hurt a little. “I have to ask: did you really think that was going to work this time?”
“If I keep asking, one day you’ll say yes,” he said cheekily. That was one way to look at it, I supposed.
I put my cup down on the table so I wouldn’t spill it, then smiled condescendingly and patted his cheek. “It’s a good thing you’re pretty.”
He waggled his eyebrows. “So, you think I’m pretty, then?”
I scoffed and shook my head. “Keep dreaming, Andrews.”
“Oh, I—” He cut himself off as his head whipped toward the common room door.
I frowned. “What?”
“Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?” I strained my ears to listen for anything in the hallway, but it was completely silent.
“I thought I heard footsteps.”
“Well, we are in a school.”
He rolled his eyes. “I meant I thought I heard a teacher, smartass. High heels.”
