Page 7 of Enemy Crush
Katie was definitely doing most of the talking, but Mason was hardly mute and I wondered just what sort of brother I was if I didn’t know about his friend. Had I only focused on the times when he’d been bullied and jumped to the conclusion that he had no friends?
I sat in bewilderment as they laughed and talked together, accepting that I was totally irrelevant. It was like a punch in the teeth. Seemed my brother didn’t need me at all and I’d been stressing for nothing. The relief was somewhat ironic.
So engulfed watching them, I failed to notice we’d arrived at Snow Ridge High. As the bus came to a halt and the door opened, kids emptied out, but Katie and Mason waited for the rush to die down. I stood and hitched my backpack onto one shoulder, ushering them out under my protective arm. At the exit, they both jumped down onto the sidewalk like it was a leap across a crevasse.
And as I was about to step off myself, Quinn Devereaux, who I’d momentarily forgotten about, appeared next to me. And my brain turned to utter mush. Her perfume, her dark hair tied up in a bun like she was a ballerina, her red lips, her eyes a brilliant blue that I’d almost forgotten about. It all rendered me speechless and stupid, and I stood there like a post.
“Hmphh,” she huffed, impatient for me to move. With a frustrated sigh, she stormed past me, her tote bag hitting myarm. It was almost the exact same way her mother had acted when she’d complained to Dad about my motorbike.
I rubbed my arm—wondering if she’d brought bricks to school—and was summonsed back to the real world when Mason said, “I’ll see you after school?”
“What? Wait. I’ll show you where to go.” I scrambled out, Quinn already a blur in the distance.
Mason was familiar with Snow Ridge High from a school tour but the compulsion to stick to him like glue was strong—though probably misguided. Dad had said to keep an eye on him, not smother him.
“I think we’ll be okay,” Mason said, Katie still at his side. “We both have Geography first period.”
“Oh...oh, okay,” I said. “Uh, maybe I’ll see you at lunch break?”
Mason nodded, like he was embarrassed I was hanging around and treating him like a little kid.
“Text me if you need to,” I said, tapping my pocket where my phone was.
He nodded again and he and Katie disappeared into the stream of kids, leaving me on my own. Okay, that was unexpected, but basically, I was redundant.
I pulled out my phone and messaged my friend group chat:Where are you guys?
I’d hung out with the same group of kids since freshman year. It had been through a project in Digital Tech class where I’d met Darwin, Brayden, Elise and Sienna. We’d had to write, act and film a seven minute video which meant spending a lot of time together. In the end, we’d gotten an A for our work and we kind of stuck together.
Brayden replied that he was at his locker so I headed inside, meeting Elise along the way. She squealed and hugged me, having been away for the summer.
“Hey, how are you? Isn’t this exciting, our senior year?”
“Yeah, super exciting,” I said, somewhat dryly.
Elise bumped my shoulder. “This year will be so much fun,” she said. “How’s Mason settling in?”
“Better than me. Apparently he’s embarrassed to be seen with me,” I said.
Elise laughed. “Well, I don’t mind being seen with you,” she said, hooking her arm through mine.
“Yeah, thanks,” I said, happy for her to pull me along. “Hey, tell me about your music camp.”
We congregated outside Brayden’s locker, everyone talking all at once, about class schedules, teachers and parking spots. It’s like I was hearing everyone but not listening to anyone. I worried about Mason, whether a sophomore had already shoved him into a locker.
“I didn’t see your motorbike out the front,” Darwin said to me.
“I came on the bus,” I said, “with Mase.”
“Ahh yeah, that’s right,” Darwin said, “he okay?”
“I hope so. He met a friend on the bus. A girl.”
Darwin raised his eyebrows. “Wow! He’s already doing better than his big brother,” he joked, nudging my arm. “Guess we don’t need to worry about him after all.”
I could count on my friends to look out for Mason too, and with Darwin being a star player on the football team and not shy about flexing his muscles, he was a good guy to have on my side.
“How’s the ‘Stang coming along?” Brayden asked, throwing his arm around my shoulder. “Will it be ready to drive before graduation?”
