The day was going to be awkward and Wheels could even choose the reason why.
Heather and Erica sat at their desks, purposefully ignoring him a few rows back, as it was routine lately. At least he only spent homeroom with the people in the academic program, thanks to his history of almost failing the year.
That included Snake too. He seemed pretty well all considered, but he'd seemed it for month. They didn't even notice anything slightly off.
Wheels wondered what the mystery problem was. What got people kicked out? It seemed like something so abstract. He could eliminate the most extremes of things.
Like Snake probably didn't get Melanie pregnant, he would have told them they went all the way. Even if he was the most private person on the face of the earth, he would have said something about it in their mini fight the day before.
Next up on the list was a drug problem, but that would involve drugs or alcohol. Snake drank when alcohol was around, but it was more of a "now that we're here" kind of situation. It didn't seem bad at all.
But what else was there?
Wheels kept turning and tossing this thought in his mind all throughout the morning, trying to pick out the tiny things of how Snake acted. And yeah, they were the usual ones.
And studying him it didn't help at all with anything, especially the dread for when they'd be seeing Joey again.
It was lunch.
«So who are we starting with?» He asked. He had the memory of an elephant for things like these.
«I don't know» Snake shrugged.
Wheels wished he didn't notice the twins and Lucy sitting at a table behind them.
But of course he did. «I guess it's Wheel's turn first»
Wheels got up and got closer to them. Erica shoot him the nastiest look she could have possibly gave him.
«Heather, can we talk?»
He shoot back a glance to his friends. Joey seemed enthusiastic, so sure everything would work out fine. Snake looked past him, vaguely pissed for god knows what reason.
«Only took him two weeks to learn how to» Erica whispered to Lucy and she chuckled.
Heather got up and they got out of both duos of friend's earshot.
«I just wanted to apologise. I've acted like an idiot»
«I agree» She wasn't mad, really. Or at least she didn't sound like it.
«Peace?»
He offered her his hand to shake.
«Sure» she agreed.
He looked back to his table. Joey wasn't looking anymore.
Wheels wasn't actually going to ask her out. He couldn't do that to her twice. «Thanks then»
He came back to the other guys.
«So?» Joey asked, eager to hear all about how his best friend, the stud, managed to break a girl's heart and still have her hanging by his every words.
«She said no» Wheels lied. It's not like the odds pointed more to that answer than anything else.
«What? Why?»
«I have a couple of ideas»
«Give her one minute of sweet talking from Joey Jeremiah and you'll be very busy this Friday» he announced as he stood up, too fast to be stopped.
So now Wheels was in trouble. Great.
Snake refused to be of any help, staring at the table.
Lucy at some point was audibly laughing.
After some talking, Joey came back. «Liar»
Snake moved his head fast towards him, then went back at staring at the table. «She said yes?»
«She didn't say anything, you were to chicken to ask her out!»
«She hates me» was all that Wheels could reply, hoping that the conversation didn't go worse, that he wouldn't have to start telling the entire truth.
He doesn't think he could've handled that. Not as an answer to some accusation in the middle of the quad. Probably not normally either.
«Then why has to told me she would have said yes?» Joey continued.
«Good to know»
Lovely. He could kiss goodbye his friendship with any of the girls in their class, and also their boyfriends and maybe the rest of the class too. Determined to go down in history as the guy whose favourite pastime was destroying sweet, nerdy, caring Heather Farrel's heart.
«Go talk to her, do you need some sort of guide» Snake snapped.
So he did.
Then came Melanie and Snake's turn. Wheels wasn't there, too busy discussing the details of the least wanted date ever.
But apparently Snake chickened out too. Makes sense, whenever he was around her when they were sort-of-kind-of-dating he would swallow eight words out of ten. It was a miracle they even went out the couple times they did honestly.
But Joey didn't try to fix the situation, no that was apparently a Wheels special.
When Wheels asked Heather out to the movies, he did it because they wouldn't have to talk that much, and in whatever language she decoded his words in, that was understood. What was lost in translation was what exactly they were going to do instead.
Making wasn't bad per-se, but at some point Heather started feeling less like a human being and a lot more like a vacuum cleaner.
It must have been around forty-five minutes into the movie.
«I'm going to get some popcorn, okay?» Wheels tried to get out.
«We can eat later»
«I'm hungry now»
«You can't go out now!» She pointed to the screen.
«I couldn't tell you the name of the main character. I really don't care about the movie»
Heather got even closer to his ear that before. «We have been pretty busy during»
Was she ever not horny? It was starting to seriously anger Wheels.
«Give me just one minute to buy it and one minute to eat it… Then I'm yours»
Heather kissed him quick. «Does it have to be popcorn, can't you just get a soda? We'll eat later»
At least she was a bit nagging. An actual reason not to like her that Snake might accept. And even that was a stretch. He would be even more annoyed by their date if the making out also involved eating second-hand popcorn out of her mouth.
«Soda it is»
The date continued similarly for what felt like forever. When the lights turned on again at the end of the movie Wheels almost wanted to clap.
It wasn't even rational for Wheels to be so annoyed. Heather was fine, pretty, hot. There was nothing not to like. But he just couldn't. And the day was dragging too long.
They walked out of the theatre with Heather clinging to his arm as if she needed it to be her cane. It had started raining at some point while they were inside, so they were getting soaked to their bones.
«Where are we eating?» she asked.
«I don't know, the malt shop?»
She kissed him. «Sure»
They walked, trying to make small talk. He held her the door as she walked in the diner first.
It was starting to creep up in Wheels the usual feeling: maybe if he tried real hard, he would end up liking her. Maybe he was wrong about being… like that.
They sat in corner, ordered milkshakes and burgers, and stared at each other for a moment. Dates were awkward at best usually, and this one was worse.
With his view of the door, Wheels noticed Snake and Joey walking into the diner. He couldn't hear what they said to each other, but knowing them, and seeing Joey elbow Snake before walking straight towards their table, he knew their mission was to make this an even worse time for Wheels.
«Hello, mind if we join you?» Joey said sliding into the booth, next to Heather. Snake sat next to Wheels, in an equally jovial mood, but saying nothing.
«I really liked the movie» Heather tried to break the awkwardness of the situation.
«It wasn't bad» Wheels added.
Joey stole a couple of chips from Wheels plate.
«You actually watched it?» Snake asked, and it almost sounded like an earnest question.
«I'll walk you home, Heather, it's getting late» Wheels said, a bit too callously, as he got up. It didn't matter that he didn't even manage to eat half of his burger, or that it was seven pm at best. If he had to stay and hear his friends' stupid teasing any longer he would probably punch them both.
Snake took one moment too long to get up and out of the way. Just what Wheels needed in that moment.
And then Joey joked. Of course Joey joked. «They need to hurry and go see if the couch's still comfortable»
This was all Snake's fault. His fault he was on this stupid date, his fault the date was going terrible, his fault he knew the date could have never gone well. Or maybe it wasn't his fault and Wheels just wanted to be mad at someone and Snake was right in front of him. Either worked really.
«Why instead of being so much up in my shit don't you worry about your own problems, since apparently you've got so many of them!» He screamt, and yes, it was a low blow, and yes, he regretted every word the moment it got out of his mouth.
Snake's face fell. Archie Simpson opened up once in his entire life and it retorted in less than a week. What a great friend Wheels was.
He couldn't say he wished he didn't say anything, not in that moment. But he truly did. If that even mattered.
Snake pushed him. He inhaled deeply, trying to calm himself, then walked out of the restaurant.
Joey ran after him, to calm him down or just not to stand in the awkwardness that emanated from Wheels in that moment.
«I'm going home» Heather said.