CHAPTER 3

I'LL BE THE BEAUTY QUEEN IN TEARS

Standing up for a girl is a relatively cool thing to do, but failing to make good when called out is the epitome of Not Cool. For a moment that night, I had entertained the thought of trying to be more than friends with Eve, but I was now sure that opportunity was gone. The next day in French I said hi, as usual, and we talked about unimportant shit, also as usual. Neither of us brought up the previous night. The day after that, same thing. I got the message. But, like I'd told Kevin, I didn't have much time for romance anyway. I had to catch up on my studies, and if I had time, maybe try and re-connect with my old friends. Eve was a Monday problem, and it was now Wednesday. Bury the past.

And that might have been the end of the story, if not for the most hated student in the entire school: (Fucking) Annie. Annie was a junior who had taken Italian in 9th grade and Latin in 10th. She was short for her age, and had a rather obvious Napoleon complex. On account of being an honors student and a first-rate ass-kisser, she had been granted the powers of a hall monitor, which she exercised with righteous fury and terrible anger. Students cringed and cowered at the sight of her walking the halls with her notepad, primed and ready to deliver after-school detention at a moment's notice. That notepad took no shit. Nor did her piercing gaze, tight ponytail, knee-length skirt, burgundy sweater-vest the color of dried blood, or block-lettered paper badge saying "Hall Monitor" on a lanyard around her neck. She meant business, and her business was getting in your business. Just give her an excuse, this Dirty Harry of the mean hallways of high school.

The Friday of my first week back, Eve gave her an excuse. I walked into the cafeteria during lunchtime to find everyone's attention on the register area, where Eve and Annie were locked in mortal verbal combat. Kevin, manning the register as always, stood back with a worried look.

"For god's sake, Annie, it's a fucking orange!", Eve said, waving an orange in the other girl's face.

Annie stood with arms crossed in front of her, her face icy in the face of Eve's aggression. "It is shoplifting. Theft. You do realize that there are rules against this sort of thing, don't you?"

"I know that! But…"

"'But' nothing! You took that without paying, that's not only against school rules, it's against the law."

"It's an orange! It costs a dollar!"

"Then you shouldn't have any trouble paying for it, hmm? Tell me, is there a purpose for you stealing food, besides to thumb your nose at authority?"

At this point Kevin spoke up in an attempt to cool things down. "Whoa, whoa! Ladies, calm down. Annie, come on, this isn't worth such a fuss. If she can't pay, I'll spot her a buck out of my..."

"And make yourself an accessory after the fact? Because I have no problem calling the cops on both of you."

Eve rolled her eyes. Kevin tried not to laugh. "Look, Annie," he said, "think about this for a minute. Isn't it kind of silly? I mean, you're making a big deal over..."

"Theft of school property IS a big deal," Annie insisted.

"Yeah, but isn't it..." he leaned in and spoke too softly for me to hear.

Annie didn't bother with decorum. "Rules are rules. And don't patronize me. You may be an employee of the school, but my reports go directly to the administration. If you disagree with them, maybe the… STOP WHERE YOU ARE!"

That last was directed at Eve, who had been trying to slip away with the orange while Annie and Kevin are occupied.

"You are testing my patience, delinquent!" Annie proclaimed. "You are not walking away with school property, you are returning it RIGHT NOW before I put you on the list for detention to-"

Eve whirled and threw the orange at the fruit display. Fortunately, Kevin caught it in the air before it could hit anything. Eve turned back around, pulled her hood close around her face, and kept walking.

"Throwing things is also prohibited!", Annie yelled. Without breaking stride, Eve flipped her off over her shoulder.

"As are obscene gestures, especially at..." But Annie's parting shot was cut off by Eve shoving open the door to the parking lot and vanishing.

The door closed with a clang. For a second the lunchroom was utterly silent, as Annie seethed at the door. Than a stern look at the crowd had everyone in a rush to resume their previous conversations. With what passes for order in the lunchroom restored, Annie turned on her heels and took her leave.

I walked up to the register and grabbed a pack of cookies from the shelves. We were out at home. "Nice catch," I said to Kevin.

"Yeah, just like little league back in 6th grade." He rung up my cookies while I dug in my pants for my wallet.

"What was that about, anyway?" I asked.

"Well, the blue-haired girl, Eve… you know her?"

"Yeah, actually. She sits next to me in French."

Kevin was a bit thrown. "Really? You never mentioned that."

I shrugged. "I guess it never came up. We don't really know each other all that well, she and I."

"Huh. Well, anyway, every once in a blue moon, she comes in here with no money, and I let her take something small. Nothing fancy or expensive, mind you, just something to keep her from collapsing from starvation in the middle of gym."

"And Annie thinks keeping the students fed is a felony?"

"That's what I told her! But she's all like 'Rules are rules'."

"Yeah, rules are rules for as long as she can use them to bludgeon the student body." I shook my head. "Fucking Annie."

"Fucking Annie," Kevin agreed.

I laid two dollar bills on the counter. Extortionist prices for a packet of four chocolate-chip cookies was the administration's way of encouraging us to eat healthy. "Can she actually get you in trouble for this?"

Kevin smiled. "Only in her own mind. Annie doesn't have as much power as she wants everyone to think. She can give students detention for the current day, but for anything more than that, she has to make a recommendation to the principal. Who smiles and nods and then tosses them in the trash because she gives her thirty a week!" He chuckled.

"If she's such a pain, why do they even keep her around?"

"Who knows. Inertia, maybe. Or maybe they're hoping a little fear will keep the student body in line. But her time will come. She's using up faculty goodwill at an astonishing rate. Between you and me, even my boss has been whispering 'Fucking Annie' under her breath"

"And in the meantime, she gets to deny us our lunch."

Kevin shrugged. "High school is high school..."

"- and high school is drama," I finished. I looked off toward the door that Eve had stormed out of. Then I reached for the shelf of cookies again. "Ring up another one for me."

When the weather was good, students were allowed to spend lunch or free periods outside, and the schoolyard bustled with the low hum of conversation. People sat in groups on the blacktop or the athletic fields, assuming they weren't in use for gym or sports practice. Knowing that Eve favored the bleachers, I didn't have to look long to find her. Engrossed in drawing, she didn't notice me when I slid onto the bench next to her and started unpacking my lunch.

"Hey," I said. "I saw what happened inside."

She growled, her pencil moving on the paper with more force than necessary. "Fucking Annie."

"Yeah, fucking Annie. You allergic to peanuts?" I asked.

She looked up. "Uh... no," she responded quizzically. "Why?"

I unwrapped my PBJ from wax paper and handed half to her. "Here."

She smiled and flushed a little in embarrassment. "Oh, uh… it's okay, I'll just..."

"Take it," I insisted, pushing it towards her. "What kind of a guy would I be if I let my friends go hungry?"

After considering a minute, her hunger won out over her modesty. She laid her sketchbook aside and took the sandwich. "Thank you," she said.

"Nothing to it," I replied.

She took a large bite and "mmm"ed. Diane's PBJs weren't really worth "mmm"-ing about, but hungry people will "mmm" at anything, even stale bread. Mouth already half-full, Eve continued. "I'll pay you back for this, I promise. I don't want you to think I'm destitute or anything. I'm just always in a rush in the morning, and sometimes I forget to take my lunch money. Kevin usually spots me something and lets me pay the next day, but that little bitch has to come around and… ugh."

I twisted the cap off my iced tea bottle, opening it with a satisfying pop, and took a sip before answering. "Don't call Annie a bitch," I said.

Eve swallowed. "Why shouldn't I?" she asked between bites.

"Because it's an insult to the bitches of the world."

Eve snickered while chewing.

"I'm serious," I continued. "Do you know what a bitch is? Literally? A she-wolf. One of the noblest creatures there is. Loyal, strong-willed, affectionate, and takes no shit from anybody, including her mate or her disobedient children. A bitch is protector and provider, and every bit as good at it as her mate. A bitch lays her life on the line whenever necessary to protect her home and her family. Do not call Annie a bitch. She has not earned the honor. Annie is obviously a cunt."

Eve doubled over laughing with a mouthful of chewed PBJ. She covered her mouth, flailed her arms, and went red in the face trying not to spit it out. Coolly, I passed the iced tea to Eve. "Take a drink before you choke," I suggested.

Eve grabbed the bottle and took a big swig. She managed to hold her giggles long enough to swallow, then passed it back to me. "If you don't want me to choke, stop making me laugh while I'm eating, dumbass!" She slapped my shoulder playfully.

"I'm sorry, but it just comes so naturally," I said, coyly taking another sip before setting the bottle down between us. "So what're you drawing?"

She sighed. "It doesn't matter. It sucks. It always sucks if I draw it while I'm angry. And sometimes it seems I get a new reason to be angry every day around here."

"Well, like Kevin says, 'High school is high school...'"

"'-and high school is drama,'" Eve finished.

"You know Kevin?", I asked, surprised.

Eve shrugged. "Not really, but I started talking to him a while back, and he was friendly, so we make small talk during lunch and he occasionally lets me have something without paying."

"Oh," I said. "Uhh… you know he's gay, right?"

Eve turned to me with a suspicious look. "Yeah. Why, is it not cool to have gay friends these days?"

"No, no, no, of course not. It's just… it wouldn't be the first time some girl fell for his boyish charms and then ran away crying when she learned the truth."

Eve arched an eyebrow. "Oh, so you mean a woman can't talk to a man without an implicit offer to jump his bones?"

I took a good look at her to make sure she was joking. The small sparkle in her eyes told me she was. "Of course she can't," I said with maximum sarcasm. "Didn't you get the memo from the God Squad? If a woman starts talking to a man, it's a slippery slope to the point where she's lying spreadeagled on the bed begging for some per-marital hanky-panky. You should guard your pussy more righteously, young lady!"

Eve laughed. "Oh, Kevin is cute, but I can assure you he's getting no pussy from me." More seriously, she added: "But hey, how do you know Kevin?"

"He's my brother."

She looked at me with widened eyes. "Really?"

"Well, not my real brother, but we grew up together, and we're close like brothers."

"Huh. Well, that explains a few things."

"Like what?"

"Like why the two of you are the only people in this school I can stand."

I chuckled. "It is an honor to be tolerated."

A moment passed in silence. I took another bite and chewed.

"So hang on," Eve said, "if Kevin hates high school so much, why did he come back here to work?"

I shrugged. "I wouldn't really say he hated it, but anyway, he dropped out of college and they had an opening in the kitchen that didn't need a degree. I don't think he minds it that much when he's behind the counter, though. Drama's a lot different when you can enjoy it from safety instead of being in the thick of it. That's where reality TV comes from."

Eve nodded. "I can relate. It's why I eat lunch here."

"How so?" I asked, popping the last of my sandwich in my mouth.

Eve gestured towards the schoolyard. "Take a look. On a day like this, half the school eats lunch outside. And it's not just eating. They're also unloading their worries upon friends and enemies. And from the bleachers we have a panoramic, birds-eye view of it all."

Looking out over the schoolyard, I could see what she was talking about. Down at the track, an athletic girl was doing laps. Focused on her training, she was seemingly unaware of the guy eating lunch on the grass whose eyes kept wandering over to her. Off to one side, a small group of students were gathered together, playing a stupid hand-slapping game and laughing. Back by the school, a boy and girl were talking. His bearing said he was nervously trying to ask her out. Hers said she would be saying yes as soon as he could spit it out. Off by the fences, a tall kid ducked behind a tree, checked to see nobody was looking, and lit up what was either a cigarette or a joint. Two trees down, a pair of girls, likewise hidden from most people's view, were making out. Over at the baseball diamond, two bullies tormented a short kid by playing keep-away with his bag lunch, unaware of the gym teacher closing in from behind with an angry look. Over by the parking lot, someone drove off. A crying girl watched his car go.

"I see what you mean," I said. "There's, like, a hundred different storylines playing out out there."

Eve nodded. "Other people's drama in iMax."

"You following any plots in particular?", I asked.

"Yeah, that girl," she pointed. "Know her?"

I followed her finger to the bottom row of the bleachers. I did indeed recognize the girl she was pointing at: Roxy, the living cliche. She had a foot up on the bench seating and was leaning over to talk to a fat kid with glasses who had his back to us. From her position, he had a clear view down her blouse at the large and pendulous breasts inside. She licked her lollipop and gave him a smile that said she knew exactly what he could see.

Roxy looked and acted like a Barbie doll slathered in cheap perfume so as to better string along the G.I. Joes. She had been blessed by genetics with long blond hair, a svelte lower half, and outrageously giant breasts. Having learned back in junior high that those breasts had the power to command men's minds, she took full advantage. She used those gazongas to con horny and gullible schoolmates- and rumor had it, some teachers- out of all sorts of favors, from buying her jewelry to doing her homework. Her fashion sense pushed the bounds of the school's dress code; today she was wearing a pink tank-top that barely covered her (possibly padded) bra, gray hot pants that left little below the belt to the imagination, and short-heeled pumps that matched the color of her top. She was also wearing hoop earring and a bracelet- she had a huge collection of jewelry and accessories bought by various marks. Her trump card was that she almost always had a lollipop in her mouth, and when a little extra convincing was needed she would lick it suggestively. She could be quite attractive if she wasn't trying too hard. As it was, tawdry sexuality oozed out of her pores like pus from an infected wound.

"Yeah, I know her," I said. "Her name's Roxanne, but everyone calls her Roxy. She's in my Social Studies class. Sits in back, never raises her hand, chatters to her girlfriends when the teacher's not looking, copies her homework off of someone in exchange for letting them see her tits."

"Not anymore she isn't," Eve said. "I take gym with her and she's been complaining all week in the locker room about how she needs a new source."

"Really? We have a big assignment due this afternoon, maybe that explains why she's trawling the lonely hearts club."

As we watched, the kid in glasses stood up, dismissed Roxy with a wave of his hand, and walked off in the opposite direction. Roxy protested briefly, but eventually could only watch him go with a sad puppy face.

"Ouch!", Eve said gleefully. "Swing and a miss."

"Yeah, not surprising," I opined, turning to face Eve. "Roxy's been pulling this shit for so long the entire school's wise. She's used up the supply of bright but horny idiots. She might actually have to put out to get something."

"Or, you know, start studying."

"The horror!" I snickered. "I do almost feel bad for her, though. Almost. I mean, she's gone through everyone in the class and some who aren't. There's nobody left."

The look on Eve's face suddenly became serious. "Nobody?"

I thought about it. "Well, if she digs deep, she might be able to find one or two of the less-talented students. I mean, I know she never asked… me…"

I noticed Eve's gaze following something and turned. Sure enough, Roxy was tromping up the stairs towards us. She saw me looking and gave a wave and a big smile.

"Aw, shit," I said.

"Just don't talk to her," Eve suggested.

I opened a pack of cookies and took a sudden interest in them. Eve likewise focused on the remains of her sandwich. Neither of us looked up as Roxy slid into the seat next to us. "Heya, Aaron!," she said brightly.

We both ignored her. "Oh, Aaron..." she said in a singsong voice, and I knew instantly that the silent treatment wasn't going to work.

"No," I told her bluntly.

"No, what?"

"No, I won't let you copy my social studies homework, no I don't want to talk to you, no you can't sit here, no you can't offer me anything to change my mind. Take your pick."

Smiling, she sidled closer to me and leaned in to press tit-meat against my arm. It would have felt good, but not under these circumstances. "C'mon, Aaron, don't be a killjoy. I'm just wanted to see how you're doing."

I gave Roxy a doubtful look. "You're not getting my homework, Roxy."

"I'm not asking you to give it to me for nothing." She laid her hand on my thigh and rubbed it slowly. "Tell me, do you have a date for the senior prom yet? Because, as it so happens, I'm free..."

"Gee, I wonder why," Eve cut in. "Maybe it's because you're a miserable, conniving bitch?"

"Not a bitch," I corrected.

Eve smirked, just for a second. "Maybe it's because you're a miserable, conniving, can't-call-her-a-bitch-because-it's-an-insult-to-the-bitches-of-the-world?"

Roxy waved her lollipop at Eve like Harry Potter trying to knock someone across the room. "Zip it, bitty-titties. Aaron and I are talking."

Eve fumed.

"Actually," I corrected, "Eve and I were talking, and you're interrupting."

"Oh, my god…," Roxy whined, "What could she possibly have to say that would be interesting? She never talks to anybody, unless it's to dunk on them. She's always sitting around with her head down and her hood up, ignoring everyone. She spends her lunchtime way up here, away from everyone, always doodling, never talking..."

Eve had, indeed, taken up her sketchbook, and was scribbling furiously in it, her hood pulled close around her face.

"Listen, Aaron," Roxy said, conspiratorily. "If I'm not your type- not like I can see how, even the gay guys want me- then think about this: do you know what's going to happen if word gets around that you and I are an item?"

I rolled my eyes. "Let me guess: I go out with you, just once, and all the girls see me with the 'prettiest' girl in school and think, 'Ohmigod, I never realized how hot he really was!', and all of a sudden the girls are all falling over me trying to get what Roxy has and the boys are eager to rub shoulders hoping some of my mojo rubs off and I'm O-M-G-Popular! And everybody loves me and I'm the king of the high school, that about right? I've seen the movies you base your life around, Roxy, they're all piles of cliche garbage written by 40-year-olds in the 80's about the 50's and utterly divorced from reality. I don't care who's popular and who's not and who goes to the prom with who, or any other easily-broken promises you have to try and tempt we with. I'm not interested. Get lost!"

Now it was Roxy's turn to seethe. More than seethe, she looked like she was about to bite me clean in half. How dare I call her entire worldview into question?

But after a second of glaring, Roxy seemed to relax. Her mouth melted from a fiery, angry pout to an ophidian smile. "Aaron," she said bemusedly, "I'm beginning to think you don't want me around here."

"Most perceptive, Miss Roxanne," I said.

"Well then, how about this for a deal: you give me what I want, and I go away."

I raised a doubtful eyebrow.

"All I want from you is to copy your homework. Just give me that, and then I'll leave you and little miss flat, dark, and gloomy alone to whatever it is you want to do. If that's really what you want, of course." She emphasized that last point by taking her lollipop out of her mouth and swirling her tongue around it.

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. Considered a moment. Then I went into my backpack, took out my three-ring binder, and removed the three pages with my social studies homework. "Copy it quick, and remember to change enough that the teacher doesn't catch on." I held it out for her, then snatched it back as soon as she reached for it. "Not so fast. You don't get this for nothing."

Roxy smiled. "So you do want something after all?"

Beside me, I heard a brief stoppage in the scratching of Eve's pencil, then it resumed. Like a heart skipping a beat.

"Your lollipop," I said.

Roxy blinked in confusion. "What, this?", she said, holding it out.

I nodded slowly.

Roxy snickered. "Honey, if it's some candy you want, I've got a full jar in my locker. Come along, you can take four, five of them."

"Uh-uh," I said. "I don't want those lollipops. I want that lollipop."

"Uh…," Roxy said, "You do realize I've been sucking on this for like, twenty minutes already, right?"

Again, I nodded slowly. With the creepiest smile I could manage.

"Umm…," Roxy said. "Okay, like… gross. Eww."

I shrugged. "Hey, babe, whatever you want." I started to put my homework away.

"Wait!", Roxy said. I looked at her expectantly. "I… oh, alright, take it. Like I said, I have plenty."

I took the lollipop, popped it in my mouth, and handed over my homework. As Roxy took out her binder and started to copy, I turned to Eve. She was still scribbling furiously, and as I watched she crossed something out with vigor and flipped the page to start fresh. I tapped her shoulder gently. She turned a blazing stink-eye on me. I pointed two fingers at my eyes. Watch this.

For a few minutes, Roxy copied notes, Eve drew, and I sucked on a lollipop. It was rather bland- probably one of the sugar-free things you got from the dentist's office. I suppose Roxy used them for the look more than anything else. I felt around the underside of my seat, and as certain as the sunrise, I found a discarded wad of chewing gun, still soft and sticky. I pulled it out. It was green. I rolled it into a ball, which I speared onto the end of the lollipop stick like an olive, before squeezing it tightly to make sure it stayed in place.

This wasn't Roxy's first rodeo- she was done swiftly, and closed her binder before handing my homework back. "Done and done! Thanks, Aaron! I still need someone to provide me homework on the regular, so if you want to reconsider… you know where to find me." She gathered her things, blew a kiss, and turned to walk away.

"Not so fast," I called out.

"Hmm?", Roxy turned around. I took the lollipop out of my mouth and handed it back to her.

"I think I'm done with this. Take it back."

Roxy laughed. "Keep it. A little bonus."

"That wasn't a request," I said sternly. Roxy's smile dropped as I held the lollipop out to her. "Take it. I want you sucking on it from now until the end of social studies."

Roxy looked at me with revulsion. "Uh, no. Perv."

"Keep in mind, Roxy, I can still have a change of heart about this arrangement and report my misdeeds to the teacher."

Roxy stammered. "Y-you wouldn't! You'd get in as much trouble as me!"

"Oh, I don't think so. It'd be my first offense, but I'd wager this isn't the first time you'd be getting caught copying off someone. You have way more than me to lose here." The look on her face told me I was dead on. I held it out again, in a mockery of Roxy's own mannerisms. "This little thing. In your mouth. Until the end of seventh period. Try to get cute and switch it out for another…," I tapped the wad of gum on the end, "-and I'll know."

"This is blackmail!"

"Yep."

Roxy glared bullets at me. I just smiled back.

"Fine," she said, snatching it out of my hand. "Cocksucker," she muttered as she walked away.

I was tempted to retort "Takes one to know one," but no need to degrade into name-calling. Roxy stuck the lollipop in her mouth, trying not to heave as she did so. Then she walked away, holding her binder protectively to her oversize chest.

"And that," I said. "Should serve Roxy as a lesson in interrupting people during their lunch break."

Beside me, Eve seemed to be shaking.

"Something amuse you?" I asked.

Eve started laughing out loud. "Oh my god, it's like you raped her mouth with that lollipop!"

"What?!", I said. "No! No, absolutely… rape?! Why would you think that?" A pause. "Well… I suppose I might have… sexually harassed her tonsils a bit…"

Eve continued laughing. I munched on a cookie as she sputtered to a stop. Remembering, I took the second packet of cookies out on my bag and handed it to her. She took it without a word and ripped it open. "God, Aaron… I just wish I had the courage to do something like that. Something to get back at all these assholes always pushing me around."

"Yeah, well Roxy deserved it. I don't know how anybody stands her, she's so fake."

Eve raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, fake?"

"You know…," I gestured vaguely, "Fake. Phony. Manipulative. Pretending to be something she's not."

"Well... what is she? For real, I mean?"

"Hell, I don't know. Nobody knows. That's the thing, she always shows people what she wants them to see. Usually tits. And then they fall at her feet." Silence for a minute. Eve didn't seem to have much to say. "I mean," I continued, "I don't blame her for having big tits. It's not like she had a choice any more than I had a choice to be a skinny dude with oily hair. That's just the body I got. But we shouldn't let ourselves be defined by that shit. We have our own lives. We have the freedom to be what we want to be. We should have the courage to exercise it too."

"Well… who's to say a big-titted bimbo isn't what she wants to be?"

"Ah, I dunno. Maybe it is. Or maybe she just does it because it's what everybody expects. Because she wants to fit into the box they have set out for her for the sake of... acceptance or something. That's what I think gets me about her. If she was truly being what she wanted to be, she wouldn't be trying so hard to be one of the beautiful people. She wouldn't care. That's 'fake'. 'Fake' is when you care too much about what other people think of you, and not enough about being the 'you' that… I dunno, feels right to you." I leaned back, lifted my eyes to heaven, and heaved a heavy sigh. "Ah, I'm sorry. I'm being really rambly and really judgey here."

Eve waved her hand. "No, no, it's okay. I actually agree with a lot of what you're saying. I just have to wonder, if it ever came down to it, would you…?"

She trailed off, and after a minute I realized she wasn't going to continue. I looked over at her. "What?" I asked, quizzically.

Eve's eyes met mine briefly, and for a second something- some indefinable thing maybe like a hailing frequency on Star Trek- seemed to reach across the space between us. But she turned away and the transmission dispersed before reaching me. "Forget it," she said. "Anyway, Roxy's going to get no sympathy from me. She's an ass in gym too."

"Really?"

Eve groaned. "Oh my god, she is always trying to start something with me! She knows how insecure I am about my chest, and she never misses a chance to rub it in! It drives me straight up the fucking wall!"

"Does she? Well, maybe she's trying to deflect attention?"

"From what?"

"From the fact that you're so much prettier than her."

I smiled. Eve rolled her eyes, also smiling. "Okay, Romeo, that's enough of your B.S."

Before I could say anything to that, the bell rung. Eve crumpled up her now-empty packet of cookies and we both got to our feet.

"Well, back to the grind," I said.

"S.S.D.D.. Thanks for lunch, Aaron."

"No problem." I hefted my backpack on my shoulder and started back to school.

"Say, Aaron…?" Eve asked.

I turned back to her. "Yeah?"

"Out of curiosity, what've you got planned for the weekend?"

I hadn't really thought about it. "Probably stay home and catch up on schoolwork. I've been making steady progress, but there's just so much I missed."

Eve brushed her hair out of her face, suddenly looking very awkward. "Can I, uh… can I get your number?"

The request caught me off-guard. "Uh, sure. Got your phone?"

I gave her my number and she punched it in. A moment later, I received a text on my own phone.

"There, now you've got mine too. I get really bored on the weekends so, if you have time… give me a call. We can hang out at my place."

"Sounds good," I said. "I'll call if I can. Have a nice day."

"You too."

"Don't let the not-bitches get to you."

She gave me a thumbs-up.