Page 13 of We Thought We Were Invincible
“And how old are you now?” She giggled.
Indulging her, he answered. “Thirty-one.”
“Now,” he continued. “This year we will work on your writing, but it will be fun. Writing should always be fun, or else what's the point of doing it?”
The class was overwhelmingly female, and he had our rapt attention as he went over the syllabus.
When class ended, a few girls stayed back, including Morgan, and I used that as my cover to slide out without having to talk to anyone.
There was no way Calc would be as interesting. I kept my head down as I walked through the crowded hall. If I didn't make eye contact, I wouldn't have to interact.
It turned out, someone had other ideas. I felt a hand wrap around my upper arm. Remembering Saturday night, my fight instinct kicked in and I spun around before being pushed into an unused classroom.
The door shut behind me.
“What the hell, Jamie?” I yelled, shoving him into the wall as I felt the usual anger he evoked rising.
“Chill, will you?”
“Only when you leave me alone.”
“Here we go again.” He threw his arms up in the air.
“Look, I didn't mean that how it sounded. I'm just not used to you actually talking to me at school.”
“It was you who didn't talk to me.” He pointed at me to emphasize his point.
“That's ridiculous.”
“You're ridiculous,” he countered.
“Your mom's ridiculous.”
A laugh burst out of him. “Did you just 'your momma' me?”
I smirked. “Ended the argument, didn't it?”
“I thought you liked arguing with me?”
“You just make it so easy.” I laughed.
“Well, do you want to know why I'm making you late to class?” he asked.
I looked at the clock on the wall and turned toward the door. “Shit. I have to get to Calc.”
“No, you have to get to the beach.”
That stopped me. I turned back around and looked up at him. “Why?”
“There's a storm coming.” He grinned.
5
Jamie
I wasn't lying exactly. We were expected to be getting a storm next week, but it wouldn't be kicking up the waves quite yet. I was banking on the fact that Callie had been too distracted by the start of school to check herself.
Skipping the first day of school was probably stupid, but it was senior year and the beach was calling. Plus, I'd been dying to hang out with Cal since the beach party on Saturday. I still had no illusions that she thought of me as someone worthy of her time, someone as good as my brother Jay, the future lawyer who had everything together. No, I was the screw up of the family and everyone saw that eventually.
