Luke
A full week passed and it might have been the weirdest week of my life. Also, the loneliest. I still had Jason, but since I’d never talked to him about my friendship with Prince Z or how she was actually Suzie…well, it didn’t seem right to start now. Especially since he was dating her best friend and I had no way of knowing how much she’d told Margo.
So, while I still had Jason, I couldn’t really tell him what was going on. And ever since that showdown at the carnival, I had to figure I was persona non grata with the party crowd. Even if I was welcome to hang out with those guys, I wasn’t looking to party and I’d be just as lonely in that noisy crowd as I was sitting home alone in my room.
The saddest part of my loneliness was that I didn’t have Prince Z. For the first time in more than six months I didn’t have her to turn to when my dad was being a dick. And he was. Make no mistake about it. Every day I came home to be grilled about my grades, about the computer club, about this video game competition that he’d gotten wind of when he’d called the school to check up on me.
Fortunately he’d talked to Mr. Marsico who apparently sold the competition as a learning exercise in computer coding, business acumen, marketing, and blah blah blah. The point was, he made it sound epically boring to my dad so he wasn’t opposed to it. My dad seemed to think it would be good for my college applications and he was probably right.
But I didn’t care about the applications, I only cared about this contest.
And Suzie.
Right now, those two things were one and the same. We were still partners and that partnership was the only link I had to her—I wasn’t about to let that go. And I cared about this idea, I wanted to see us win. I wanted to see our dream a reality.
I just wished we could do it together. As a couple, and not as two strangers who just so happened to be placed on the same team.
You see, that’s how Suzie had been treating me all week. She still worked with me on the technical stuff and we worked together on the presentation for the class. But that was the extent of our interactions. My every attempt to joke around was squelched and the tiniest whiff of a lead-in to an actual conversation not involving the competition was met with cold, unyielding silence.
And now today was the day. I turned to her as we waited for our turn to present our concept to the club. “Do you want to do the honors?” I asked.
Her stare could only be described as withering. “Do you honestly think I’d be the better person for this particular job?”
I opened my mouth but hesitated because quite frankly I was stunned by the hostility in her voice. I mean, I’d known she was mad at me. Obviously. It didn’t take a genius to work that out. But I hadn’t seen even a glimpse of real emotion in her all week long. Now, here we were, minutes away from the most important presentation of my life, and I caught sight of a crack in her armor.
Too bad now was not the time to talk.
Since I hadn’t spoken, she filled the silence. “I mean, you of all people,” she continued, sarcasm creeping into her tone. “You who know me so well. Do you really think I’m the one who ought to be making the presentation?”
“Uh…” I scratched the back of my head as I tried to figure out how to navigate here. I mean, this was the first time she’d even so much as hinted toward my duplicity. This was the first time she’d so much as acknowledged that heated, emotional scene in the parking lot this past weekend.
“You do it,” she said with a little huff of exasperation, that glimpse of emotion covered over again with logic. “We both know you’re better at speaking in front of people, and on top of that you have the clout of popularity.”
“Clout of popularity?” I echoed. “What does that even mean?”
She gave a derisive snort. “Playing dumb doesn’t look good on you.”
Ouch. Now if that wasn’t an open acknowledgement of the secret I’d been keeping, I didn’t know what was. “Suzie, can we please talk?”
She outright ignored my plea as she handed me the notebook filled with the details of our plan. “Just stick to the basics when it comes to the tech side of things. If they ask pointed questions, I’ll step in.”
I took the book from her, the full weight of what I was about to do making me temporarily forget about the conversation that she and I still needed to have—the one I would have with her just as soon as she gave me an opening. But for now, our future was on the line. She and I both had everything to gain if we made it to the national level, and the first step to that round was to get our peers to vote for our concept. “You trust me with this?”
“Do I trust you? No,” she said swiftly, with a gut-wrenching finality. “But do I believe that you want to win this competition as badly as I do? Yes.”
I studied her as she kept her gaze fixed on the collar of my button-down shirt. We’d both dressed up a little for this presentation, maybe just to beef up our confidence.
“Well,” I said with a rueful smile. “I guess that’s something.” I leaned in a little closer and tried for teasing. “You know how much I like to win better than anyone, right?”
It was a nod to our gaming friendship. It was something we’d always had in common. She took a deep breath but she didn’t lift her eyes to meet my gaze.
“Almost as much as you like to demolish your enemies,” I added.
I watched her mouth grow taut, but I couldn’t tell if she was battling laughter or tears. She still wouldn’t look at me so I couldn’t see her eyes.
If only there was something I could say to make this right. “Suzie, please—”
“Mr. Warner, Ms. Bryers,” Mr. Marsico called. “You’re up.”
I turned to see Mr. Marsico gesturing toward the podium at the front of the classroom. Suzie nodded toward it as well, all but telling me to get on with it.
I strode to the front of the room and gave the small group the easy grin I’d spent years mastering. It worked perfectly now as I watched the room smile back, their expressions going from bored to expectant as they waited for me to entertain them, and maybe even wow them with our concept. We were the last to go and I felt confident that ours was the best—how could it not be when Suzie and I were the only people in this school who were so obsessive about the game?
I tapped into that confidence and gave the best presentation I could manage, using every ounce of the charisma Suzie had mentioned to win them over.
My presentation went well—really well, if I did say so myself. I turned to see Suzie’s reaction but I glanced over just in time to see her flee.
Awesome. My partner just ran away.
And I ran after her. I couldn’t take it anymore—the silences, in person and online. There was a hole in my life where Suzie once was and while I knew I ought to give her space, I just couldn’t.
But when I turned the corner and ran smack into Dale, with Suzie nowhere in sight, I had a feeling I might have to give her more space.
I might not have a choice.
“Yo, Warner,” Dale said, a scowl replacing his typical idiotic grin. His friends stayed by his locker as he stalked toward me but they were watching closely, clearly ready for a fight. The testosterone in the hallway was stifling and I didn’t have time for it.
“Hey,” I said. “Have you seen your sister?”
Dale crossed his arms. “She just ran out of here.” He lowered his voice and his chin so he was outright glaring. “She was crying.”
Ah crap. I’d known something was up for her to run away before the vote was held. But tears? I couldn’t handle Suzie crying, especially not because of me.
“She’s been acting weird ever since you two went out last weekend,” he said, his tone all macho and tough guy.
I so did not have time for this. “I’ve got to go find her.” But the moment I tried to step around him, he moved to block me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw his friends stirring, edging closer, no doubt smelling blood in the water.
I held back a sigh. “Look, man, I just want to apologize.”
That did not help my cause. Dale’s eyes narrowed on me. “For what? What did you do to my sister?”
“That’s none of your business.” I wasn’t a fighter. I didn’t fight. Like I’ve said before, I far prefer making jokes to throwing punches, but right now? I clenched my hands at my sides as impatience and a week’s worth of frustration threatened to override reason.
Every second I stood here talking to Suzie’s idiot of a brother, the further away from me she got.
It was Margo’s voice that cut through the tense silence. “Cut it out, Dale,” she said from behind me. “Suzie doesn’t need you to fight her battles.”
She came to a stop beside me and nodded in my direction. “At least, not this battle.”
Dale stopped glaring at me long enough to eye his sister’s best friend. “If he hurt her—”
“Then he’ll pay,” Margo said with a smirk. “You don’t really think I’d let some jerk get away with hurting my girl, do you?”
Dale backed away a bit, looking warily between Margo and me. “If I hear you’re messing with my sister—” He didn’t finish the threat as he jabbed a finger in my direction and went off to join his friends.
I let out a long, loud exhale. “She’s long gone, isn’t she?”
“Yup,” Margo said. “I just passed her in the parking lot.”
“Is she okay?”
Margo arched one brow. “What do you think?”
I studied her for a second, shoving my hands in my pockets. “Did she, uh…did she tell you what’s going on?”
She shook her head. “No. But that’s Suzie for you. She tends to close up when she’s upset. She locks herself in her room with her video games and doesn’t come out until she’s ready.”
I nodded. I knew that. I also knew that when she was upset and locked in her room, she wasn’t closed off to everyone. For the past six months, maybe even longer, she’d been talking to me—well, to DataG—about all the private stuff she normally kept inside.
I knew that because I’d done the same. I’d told her stuff I’d never even talked to Jason about—the stuff about my dad, about my perfect siblings. She’d become my most trusted friend, and there was no doubt that I’d been that for her too…
Until I’d broken that trust.
Margo seemed to read my pathetic sadness because she didn’t try to give me a lecture or threaten me with violence if I hurt her friend. Instead she surprised me by patting my shoulder. “Just give her some time, Luke.”
I nodded. What else could I do?
We were interrupted by Jason, who shouted out to Margo from one end of the hallway, giving me a wave and a grin as Margo ran off to tackle him with a hug that had them both laughing.
Jealous? Me? Nah.
As Jason and Margo were reuniting as if they hadn’t spent every spare second making out in the hallway between classes today, Mr. Marsico called my name from the doorway of his classroom. I headed back over to see him smiling like a proud parent. “Where did you and Suzie run off to?” he asked. “You missed all the fun.”
“So?” I asked, too eager to make chit-chat.
Mr. Marsico beamed. “Congratulations, Mr. Warner. You and Suzie are heading to the next round.”