Page 109 of Pride High

Ricky tensed with excitement when Dave, who was right next to him, slid over to make room for Cameron. They would be sitting side by side! Ricky bit down on his lower lip, trying to hide a smile. Anthony noticed anyway, staring at him with one of his eyebrows arched. Ricky scooted over too, figuring that was the issue, which made more than enough room for Cameron to sit.

“Guys, this is Cameron,” Anthony said. “He’s an old friend of mine, but we’ve been hanging out more lately. Let’s see, that’s Dave and this is David. Omar here is my right-hand man… even though he’s sitting on my left.”

“Hey,” Omar said. “We had a class together in junior high. History, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Cameron said. “Mr. Tiedeman. God he was boring.”

“Insanely boring!” Omar said with a grin. “It’s the only class I ever had where you’d get detention for falling asleep too much. He even explained it on the first day!”

“Three strikes,” Cameron said with a nod. “The need for that says a lot about his teaching methods.”

“He wasn’t teaching, man,” Omar shot back. “He was telling us stories from his childhood.” In an old shaky voice he said, “Back when I was on the Mayflower, we didn’t have anything to eat except dust and dead spiders.”

“That’s a good imitation,” Cameron said with a grin. “You should join the theater group.”

“Maybe I should,” Omar said, perking up. “Hey, do they ever film the—what do you call them—productions, I guess? I’d be super into that. And it would be an easy A.”

“We’ve tried. The quality is always terrible.”

“Do you mean the audio or the video?”

“Both!”

They continued talking. Ricky waited to be introduced, even though they secretly knew each other, but it never happened. “Hi!” he said, tired of being left out. “My name is Ricky. We’ve met before too, I think.”

“Not formally,” Cameron said pointedly before his tone softened. “But I’ve definitely heard about you from Anthony.”

“You have?” Ricky asked, unsure what to make of that.

“You came up in passing,” Anthony replied before focusing on his food.

“You used to be friends with Quincy Hammond, didn’t you?” Dave asked.

“That’s right,” Cameron confirmed.

“I was on his soccer team. I think we met at one of the after parties.”

“Yeah, I remember! Back when you guys went regional.”

This set them off on another tangent, which was fine. Ricky was content to bide his time, but there was no way in hell he was letting this crappy day end without getting answers. Cameron talked so much that he barely had time to eat. He seemed to make the rounds, giving everyone attention except for Ricky, whichbecame torturous. When lunch finally ended and everyone went in separate directions, he seized the opportunity. Cameron and Anthony were walking together, Ricky right behind them.

“Hey,” he said.

They both turned to face him.

“What?” Anthony replied.

Ricky tore his eyes away from the stony gaze to focus on Cameron. “Can we talk?”

Anthony shook his head and walked away without saying another word.

“Someone’s having a bad day,” Cameron murmured when watching him go.

“Mine hasn’t been so great either,” Ricky said. “What’s going on? Seriously! I deserve an explanation.”

“You do,” Cameron said, while shifting uncomfortably. “Where’s your next class?”

Ricky pointed.

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