“Cherish,” Meneik said, tugging her back to him for one last kiss. “It’s all good.” He told “Baby” he’d call her later before striding back to his car as I joined Cherry. I guess she was expected to be at all his games, but the same rule didn’t apply to him.
“What happened to ‘I don’t want to waste another second of my life on that jerk?’” I asked in a tone that sounded more weary than angry.
Cherry took her bag and turned toward the field without meeting my gaze. “Don’t give me a hard time, okay?”
“Hey,” I said, matching her stride. “I’m only quoting what you said to me. But come on, he’s not worth it. You agreed, and—”
Her eyes flashed as they finally met mine. “You need to stop.” Then she sighed and shook her head at me. “See, this is why I didn’t tell you. You don’t get it. You’ve never been in love.”
My cheeks flushed hot. No, I hadn’t, but I was a walking, talking casualty of it, and that was reason enough not to want any part of it. Love—the romantic kind—existed only in Nora Ephron movies, and we didn’t get to live in those.
“Meneik and me? We’re always going to get back to each other. You either get that—” she lifted her bag over her shoulder “—or you don’t.” Then she sidestepped me and jogged across the parking lot to where the rest of the team was waiting.
Cherry and I both moved through the game without our usual trash talk and laughter. Our teammates noticed and started asking what was up, but neither of us answered.
Without discussing it, after the game, we put on a show of normalcy for her parents, but on the drive home Cherry turned the music all the way up the second Gabe started the engine.
ADAM
“Hey, Adam. Got a minute?” On Monday afternoon, Erica Porter waved me over to her table in the cafeteria, eliciting a few grumbled comments from my friends Gideon and Rory. As I headed toward her, Rory muttered, “Lucky bastard,” and I couldn’t help but smile. Apart from being valedictorian, being noticed by Erica Porter was the epitome of my high school aspirations.
My heart started pounding as I drew closer to her table, so much so that I was sure she’d see it through my shirt. Erica wasn’t just beautiful, with her honey-blond hair, hazel eyes, and flawless tan skin, she was the kind of gorgeous that made it hurt to look at her for very long. Seeing her was like staring at the sun. Sure, there was a chance that you’d go blind, but she was so brilliant, you risked it anyway.
“You guys all know Adam, right?” Erica looked around the long rectangular table as heads nodded. I did know most everyone. A few other cheerleaders; their boyfriends; Erica’s younger brother, Peter; and her two best friends.
“Hey,” I said.
“So,” Erica said the second I slid onto the bench seat next to her, “you probably know why I called you over.”
I had a split-second thought that she found my uncontrollable blushing as “adorable” as Jolene did, because I could feel myself turning red as a tomato. “You’re after my pudding cup?”
Erica laughed and the sound, so close to my ear, sent tingling goose bumps all over my skin. “I was thinking more of a preemptive partnering up for the Beowulf project in British literature.”
I thought I could maybe die happy, knowing she had looked at me like that once in my life, as if I, and I alone, had the power to do something for her. “Oh yeah, sure.”
And then she hugged me. “Adam, you’re the best.” She released me before I worried she’d feel the copious amount of sweat my body decided to start producing. “I hate these group projects. I always end up doing all the work, and people who do nothing get the same grade.” She stabbed a strawberry with her fork. “I refuse to do it again, you know?”
While I hated that, too, my mouth was going to agree with anything she said. “Yeah.”
“Anyway, we have the two highest grades in the class, so I figured if we partner up, I won’t end up doing the report and the presentation by myself again. Oh, and I promise I’ll pull my weight.”
I’d gone to school with Erica since the fifth grade, and she’d always been one of the smartest people in the class. I wasn’t worried about her being a slacker, I was worried my brain would cease functioning if I sat close to her for too long. “I’d love to work with you, but Mr. Conyer always assigns partners. I don’t think we’ll get to pick.”
Erica chewed on her strawberry and held up a finger. “I’ve got that covered. He always pairs us based on who’s sharing a desk, so as long as you don’t mind sitting next to me...” She smiled, because even she knew that wasn’t a possibility.
“For a good grade, I think I can suffer through it.”
Erica grinned at me. “Great.”
* * *
I had to wait for Jeremy in the parking lot after school. I didn’t have a key to unlock the car, so I stood shivering outside for a good ten minutes before he strolled up. As soon as he started the car, I turned the heater on high.
“You get cold like a little girl,” Jeremy said. “It’s ’cause you’re so skinny.”
“Not everyone comes equipped with the natural insulation that you have.”
“Someone’s feeling cocky.” Jeremy’s smile was tight, but I’d been expecting a quick slam of the brakes or a sharp turn as he backed out of the parking lot. Something to bang me around or smack my head against the window in response to my insult. A smile of any kind was unnerving. “That have anything to do with your lunch date?”
Of course Jeremy would have heard about that. Even the seniors paid attention to Erica Porter.
Every guy I knew was half in love with her, and in my case, I’d been full gone on her ever since she’d beaten me in our fifth-grade spelling bee. Not that Jeremy was ribbing me because she was smart—I was betting it had more to do with how she looked in her cheerleader uniform, a sight that had rendered me speechless on more than one occasion.
I tried to shut any conversation down as quickly as possible. “I ate with her because we’re working on an assignment together.” I left out the part where she’d called me to her table in front of the entire cafeteria and then launched herself into my arms when I agreed to be her partner.
“Not what I heard.”
I knew better than to ask, but I couldn’t help myself. “What did you hear?”
Jeremy played coy for exactly one mile. “You know she’s single now.”
I’d heard that enticing rumor only that morning.