“A girl has you thinking?” Liam interrupts with a little huff and a s mirk.
“So, what’s the problem?” Philip asks, his curiosity pi qued.
I take a breath and look back and forth at them both, still feeling confused my self.
“I don’t know what the problem is,” I say. “I don’t know what it is with this girl; something came over me as soon as I saw her. I couldn’t stop staring, and she noticed. I wouldn’t normally worry if a girl noticed me looking, but I f elt … ”
I stop there. I don’t know how to keep explainin g it.
“You felt what, El?” Liam asks.
Of course, he would be curious to hear someone describe their feelings. He loves this kind of stuff. But I don’t know how to say what I want to say, or how to describe what I felt when I locked eyes with her. Every time I try to, I just keep thinking of how I embarrassed my self.
Joanne arrives back at our table with our meals and she places each one of our plates in front o f us.
“Thanks, Joanne.” I look at her with a s mile.
“You’re welcome,” she says happily and turns around to attend to another t able.
I turn back to Liam. “I’m not sure what I felt. It doesn’t make any sense anyway, so let’s just drop it.” I am beginning to feel a little ann oyed.
“Why is this bothering you so much?” he asks.
“Maybe that’s what’s not making sense to you, Elvis,” Philip says while he stuffs a forkful of sirloin steak in his m outh.
“I don’t know why it would bother me. I didn’t really see it that way,” I mumble, cutting into my filet mignon. I take a bite and chew it very slowly. It’s delic ious.
“Something didn’t sit well with you about her,” Liam says.
“I don’t know, Liam. I don’t see why this would bother me. I just hope she’s not overthinking the fact that I was staring at her,”
I say. “That was humiliating.” I rub my hand over my forehead to push away the me mory.
“Did she give anything away?” Philip asks.
I think about it for a second. “No, nothing at all, actually.
Something else to wonder a bout.”
“Hold on, let me get this straight,” Liam laughs. “She gave you no attention at all?”
“No, she didn’t. There was a seat available next to me; instead she walked over to another desk two rows in front of mine. All I got was her back,” I answer with a forced grin, trying not to show them that was the worst part of my mor ning.
“Seriously?” they both ask in surprise, looking at each other with wide eyes.
Feeling more and more frustrated, I run my fingers through my hair and lean my back towards my seat.
“Yeah, nothing!” I re peat.
“There’s your answer, Elvis. You’re not happy about this simply because it’s your first rejection,” Liam suggests, throwing his hands up in the air as if he’s solved the case.
“There’s a first time for everything,” Philip says. “It has now been pr oven,”
I’m getting tired of their smart rem arks.
“She hasn’t rejected me yet, boys. So let’s not get ahead of ourselves, eh?” I say, with a confidence I’m not sure I really feel.
“Ha, I think it’s time for me to double that fifty bucks. This looks promising!” Philip says, rubbing his hands toge ther.
Liam looks at me, then Philip, and then two of them shake h ands.
“You’re on!” he says.
At least he has some faith in me. I shake my head at them both with a grin on my face.
We finish our meals and ask Joanne for the cheque. She places it on top of our table, already prep ared.
“It’s always nice seeing you guys,” she says, looking right at me with a s mile.
I smile back at her. If only I could be as confident with the brunette as I am with Joanne. We all dip into our wallets without looking at the bill, pay it in full, and leave a generous tip.
It’s a quiet ride home with only the sound of the music playing in the background. Philip’s is the first house we come to, and
just as he’s climbing out from the back seat, he turns to me.
“What’s this girl’s name, an yway?”
I don’t know why but his question takes me by surprise. It gets me thin king.
“Uh, I don’t know actually,” I say, avoiding his eye con tact.
“That’s your next challenge,” Liam says with a chu ckle.
“Yeah, if she even talks to him,” Philip la ughs.
“You two are starting to make me nervous,” I tell them, shoving my hand on Philip’s shoulder, pushing him to get out of the car.
“All right, all right, we will be more sensitive about your very first rejection,” he jokes as he climbs out of the L exus.
“The rejection hasn’t been confirmed yet,” I remind him.
Liam laughs at the both of us, and I smirk as we watch Philip walk towards his front doors. Liam gets back in, and minutes later, we’re in front of his house. He makes his way up the steps to his front doors, turns around, and waves. I make the same gesture and drive off, glad to finally be a lone.
It’s getting dark by this time, and there’s something about driving at night I enjoy. I turn my satellite radio on, and drive home nice and slow, listening to the mellow sound of the music.
But then I start to think about the brunette again and how little interest she had in me. I’m not egotistical, but when you get spoiled with so much attention from all sorts of girls your whole life, it’s hard to accept anything else. Could Liam and Philip be right? Am I bothered because she rejecte d me?
But she didn’t really reject me , I t hink.
She seemed shy and quiet, like something held her back from having the courage to come and sit beside me—a stranger. Then again, it’s a classroom, and no one really thinks much of it when someone takes a seat beside them. It must have been because she noticed me staring like I was going to eat her. Maybe that scared her to death. God! That was embarrassing. I truly wanted to crawl under an empty desk and die. What makes me feel better is that I didn’t see her talk to anyone else either. She kept to herself.
Maybe I still have a chance . The next time I see her I’ll get her to talk to me, I decide. It shouldn’t be that hard. It hasn’t been very difficult for me to strike up a conversation with a girl be fore.
I arrive home, and all the lights are on—it seems like everybody is home. I park the Lexus in the garage, and just as I step onto the front porch, I hear the sound of the piano. Allison plays it so beautifully. As I open the door, “Serenity of the Heart” by Martha Mier grows louder, and I see my mother leaning against the
railing that looks down to the basement. She has her eyes closed, appreciating every sound Allison releases around the h ouse.
“Hi, Mom,” I say, leaning in to give her a kiss on the cheek. She opens her eyes and turns with a sweet smile on her face.
“Hello, sweetheart. How was your first day?”
“It was good.”
“Are you hungry? Lizzie made chicken fettuc cine.”
But I’m already running down the stairs to the basement. “I had dinner at Joe Fortes with Liam and Phil,” I call back up to her, stopping to admire the aquarium for a moment as I stand at the bottom of the stairs. But the sound of the music pulls me towards Allison and the piano—Logan is sitting beside her. His hand rubs her back slowly up and down as he enjoys watching her play away at the keys. My eyes catch the strong intensity of her diamond ring.