Annalisa has blue streaks in her dark hair and her fair skin and bright-blue eyes are accented by her dark-red lipstick. She is slightly more on the goth side, but not so much that she seems unapproachable. Despite not knowing Julian, I was proud of him for settling down with someone different from the obvious popular girls in school.
But is she friends with Kaitlyn? They were both eating at Aiden’s table. Julian is friends with Aiden and would therefore sit at that table. And Annalisa is dating Julian, so she, too, would sit at that table—with Kaitlyn and friends. I have the worst luck. I actually make some cool friends and one of them is friends with Kaitlyn and her bitches. As much as I like Annalisa, I don’t think I can be friends with her if she’s friends with those mean girls.
“What’s wrong?”
I decide to just ask her and find out. “How do you feel about Kaitlyn?”
“You mean Satan reincarnated? She’s actually quite pleasant to be around … when she isn’t talking. And isn’t looking at you. And is in a different room, in a different state, in a different country. With no cell service or Wi-Fi. So if all these conditions are met, then sure, she’s cool.”
I laugh. “What about if she’s in the same room as you, or at the same table?”
“You mean if I had to actually interact with her? Ew. Can’t stand her. She knows it too—knows everyone in my group of friends hates her. She’s just so in love with Aiden she still tries to find ways to hang out with us.”
“Anna, I think we’ll get along great.”
I’m actually really glad we’re becoming friends. But why would someone as cool as she is be dating one of the Boys, as I’ve dubbed them in my mind? Maybe Julian isn’t all that bad, since Annalisa doesn’t seem like the type to put up with bullshit. Julian is the only member of the group whom I haven’t met yet, and seeing as everyone except Aiden is cool, maybe my first interaction with a member of the Boys just happened to be with the one asshole of the group.
Annalisa and I trade numbers after spare period ends and promise to sit together again tomorrow during English.
I feel a tinge of guilt sweep over me. I’m not supposed to be making friends. I’m supposed to keep to myself and just get through school. But can I really just ignore people? Especially ones I get along with so well? It’s human nature to crave interaction with others, right? Plus, it’s not like I’m going around putting up flyers that say “Please be my friend! Here’s my phone number, let’s hang out!” It’s just a couple of people; I can handle it. For the risk that every new friend I make brings, I’ll be equally as vigilant about keeping my secrets. I can do it.
3
I walk into sixth and last period still thinking about the Boys, even though I wish I wasn’t. I stand at the front of the room awkwardly looking for somewhere to sit in the room full of conjoined desks, when suddenly all the breath is sucked from my lungs. There’s only one seat left unoccupied in the room—right beside the one and only grouchy pants himself: Aiden.
Checking the room once again, in case my eyes are playing tricks on me, I realize I have no other choice but to sit right beside Aiden. I feel someone glaring a hole into my skull, and turn to notice Kaitlyn sitting on the other side of the room with Makayla. Great, she’s in this class too.
Aiden’s talking to the two people sitting at the desk behind him—Mason and Noah. At least they’ll make this experience less awkward. It can’t be that bad now that Aiden (sort of) apologized for being an asshole. Maybe we can count this as a starting over of sorts. As I reach him, I’ve made up my mind to be friendly, but not so sweet that he thinks I want to be friends—like the respectful kind of approachable that you automatically switch on whenever your mom introduces you to her co-workers.
When I get to the desk, all three boys look up at me, two of the three breaking into big grins.
“Hey,” I say with a small smile. “Is someone sitting here?” I indicate the empty seat beside him.
He looks at me, seemingly having some kind of internal struggle.
“No,” he answers finally, and moves his bag from the chair beside him to the floor, to make room for me.
“Amelia!” Noah enthusiastically greets me. “I’ve missed you! How was your first day?”
“Noah, I saw you, like, four and a half hours ago.”
I get the sense that Noah’s the type of person you just can’t help smiling around. He’s like a cute, innocent little brother, except not so innocent, considering he’s probably slept with more girls than I can count on two hands.
“So! That doesn’t mean—”
“Okay, class, today you’re working on pages 57–68.”
Noah is interrupted by a very disinterested looking teacher. I turn back to the board and take my book out.
“Take notes and answer the questions on pages 69–70. Do it in pairs, individually, or in groups, I really don’t care.”
I sigh inwardly as the teacher goes back to his desk and opens his laptop. Clearly this is one of those classes where you have to teach yourself everything.
“K-bear, be my partner?”
I turn, realizing Mason is addressing me. “K-bear?”
“Short for koala.”
“I thought koalas weren’t bears?”
“They’re not, but it’s much cuter if I call you k-bear than k-marsupial.”
I hate myself for blushing. “Why don’t you just call me Amelia?”
“Because everyone calls you Amelia—it wouldn’t be our thing.”
My blush deepens. Are we having a moment? I think we’re having a moment. Beside me, Aiden’s rolling his eyes. What’s his problem? Wait, why do I care?
Focusing on Mason again, I look into his eyes and take in how rich and chocolaty his eye color is. He is quite the charmer—I see how girls fall for him so easily. He really does—
“Hey, no fair!” I’m torn from my dreamy stare and brought back to earth by the sound of Noah’s voice, and turn to look at him.
“I want to have a thing with Amelia! Amelia, why don’t we have a thing?”
I shrug and offer him a small smile. “Wrong place, wrong time I guess.”
“Starting now, I am making it my life’s goal to find a thing for us!” Noah declares.
Our laughter is cut off by a very irritable Aiden. “God, why don’t you guys get a room. I’m trying to learn about human society and your pathetic flirting is making it really hard for me to concentrate.”
I guess he’s back to being an ass.
“He’s just jealous he doesn’t have a thing with Amelia like we do,” Noah stage-whispers to Mason.
“I am not jealous!” Aiden roars, causing the whole class and, surprisingly, even the oblivious teacher to look up at us.
“Care to enlighten us as to what it is that you are not jealous of, Mr. Parker?” He addresses Aiden.
Aiden’s eyes narrow to slits. I can almost feel him trying to hold back an offensive response that would surely get him sent to the principal’s office.
Mason seems to pick up that vibe as well and jumps in before Aiden can get himself in trouble. “We were just saying that Aiden is jealous of us since we got the answer to a question that he didn’t, but don’t worry, we’ll explain it to him.”