“I’m not the one who hooked up with a Pop.”
“This year,” I reminded him sullenly. “And you have no proof I hooked up with anyone.”
“Not true,” Penny piped up. “We saw you hooking up with that Tad guy last term.”
“Ugh,” I sighed. “Will I ever live that down?”
“Probably not,” Jett admitted.
“Well, at least you’re honest in your hypocrisy.”
“Unlike you,” Penny pointed out as Jett said, “It was one kiss!”
“I told no fibs!” I replied indignantly.
“Technically correct,” Jett said.
“The best kind of correct. I am also not a hypocrite.”
“That one’s a fib.”
“How am I a hypocrite?”
“And I quote, ‘anyone who hooks up with a Pop should have their brain returned with immediate promptness’,” Penny said.
“Hyperbolic, but clear,” Jett added.
“Can we talk about something else?” I asked.
“If you don’t want to talk about it, you don’t have to talk about it.”
“That would require there being something to talk about.”
“Which you are apparently maintaining there is not.”
“I’d be lying if I said there was,” wasn’t a lie, because it wasn’t something I wanted to talk about.
“You’d also be lying if you said there wasn’t.”
Damn them for knowing me so well! “Fine,” I hissed. “I kissed him. Happy?”
“Not if it’s not true,” Penny said and I fired a glare at her.
“Don’t take your shit out on her,” Jett told me, quite right, of course.
I took a deep breath. “Sorry, Penny–”
“I forgive you.”
I smiled at her. “Thanks. But, yes. I kissed him. Kissing occurred.”
“Did more than kissing occur?”
“No. We were in his old treehouse.”
“So?” Jett asked.
“Um…so, there are splinters and bugs and…dirt.”
“It’s called a blanket, Charley.”
“You gunning for a job at Bed, Bath and Table?” I asked sarcastically, then held my hands up in defence. “Sorry! Sorry. I’m just…on edge.”
“You worried you’ve messed everything up?”
I nodded. “The simple answer is yes.”
“What’s the difficult answer?”
“I’m worried that nothing’s been messed up, which is equally as messy.”
“Okay. Well, do you want to talk about it?” Penny asked.
“Give him the rest of the day,” was Jett’s advice.
Penny and I both looked at him. “What?”
Jett shrugged as he held the door open for us. “Give him the rest of the day. Lindon has never gone a day without broadcasting his latest hook up to the school. The speed with which he does so might tell you how messed up things really are.”
I looked at him carefully. “That is really helpful, Jett. Thanks. So, everyone’s going to know my business now.”
“I’m just stating the obvious, Charley. I’ve never known Lindon to go a full day without announcing his latest hook up somehow.”
Reason #6,000,093 why I shouldn’t have let myself think there was a spark going on. But now I knew it was going on, and it wasn’t all just me, it was a hard thing to ignore…or really regret.
I sighed. “No. You’re right. Of course, you’re right.”
“He’s probably already started telling people.”
“That’d be likely.”
“You can hardly complain. You just told us.”
“You forced it out of me. That isn’t the same thing.”
“Isn’t it though?” Jett asked.
“I think that’s quite enough out of you, sir.”
I spent the rest of the day with my ear to the proverbial ground, trying to see if there was chatter about me hooking up with Zane. I watched every person I passed for any sign that they knew and if it made them look at me differently.
But there was nothing.
It was confirmed for me when we ran into them again after school.
“Well if it isn’t Queen and her dweebs,” Cody said with his fake smile. He looked me over same as usual. There was no knowing smirk, no snide comment, no vulgarity at all. It was like he didn’t know.
“And if it isn’t…” Shit! I had nothing. My eyes strayed to Zane, but that wasn’t helpful. “…the guy who makes everyone’s lives bleaker,” I finished lamely.
Now Cody was looking at me differently. But I didn’t blame him with that dismal performance. He didn’t look suspicious of anything, though. Just confused.
“You lost your mojo, Baines?” Jory asked.
I chose to ignore him.
“Zane,” I said with a curt nod, hoping to hurry everyone along.
“Charley.”
There was an awkward moment where they tried to get by us while we tried to get by them and everyone got in everyone’s way. Zane ended up with a handful of my boob (half handful, let’s be generous here) and I headbutted him in the nose. Both accidental, I’m sure.
Once we all sorted ourselves out, I scurried away quickly and hoped the others were following.
Had Zane Lindon actually kept our kiss to himself? And if yes, why? Was that a good thing or a bad thing? Did he not want to cheapen it by blurting it about? Or did he regret it and didn’t want the embarrassment of people knowing.
The whole thing gave me stress factor five and I didn’t know how to handle it.
Usually Zane and I could talk to each other about anything. But we’d never had to talk about us before. I didn’t want to bring it up because I didn’t want to risk him telling me that, in the cold hard light of day, he’d realised it was a mistake after all.
So, I did the most mature thing I could think of. I avoided him and caught the bus home.
Chapter 16: Zane
We had to talk about the kiss.
That day had been horrible. Everything was almost the same as it had been before we’d kissed, but that was somehow worse than if we’d just stopped talking to each other. I hadn’t known how to be around her all day. It was stupid. My concentration was all on her and it felt as if I’d done something wrong or if there was something more I was supposed to have done.
We’d side-stepped each other all day with not even the bare minimum of witty battles to make everything seem normal. We’d been polite to each other. I mean, what the hell? It was all bad and I had to fix it. I just didn’t know how.
I figured, for all intents and purposes, she’d taken the first step to the kiss which meant it was time I stepped up. Whatever this had the potential to be wasn’t going to be any good if I waited for Charley to do all the work. That wasn’t fair or right. I had to show her I wanted it. I think. Or, I’d look like I wanted it and realise she didn’t.