When we all reached the library, it was surprisingly quiet. Lilly was eating her sandwich, and Lana and Josh were practically eating each other. They reluctantly broke apart when they finally noticed the runaway boys were not only back, but gawking at them.
I sat down next to Lilly without a word, or even a look, to Michael. Lilly raised her eyebrows at me but I said nothing.
"All right," Michael said from the front of the room. "Now we've all had a fun morning, let's just eat our lunches and then get back to silent study or whatever it is you're doing. No talking!"
I pulled out my squashed sandwich and started to eat it.
"Mia," Lilly whispered. "What happened?"
"Nothing," I whispered back, careful to shield my nostrils with my lunch.
She started to say something else but was distracted by Michael, who'd come to kneel beside my desk. She raised her eyebrows.
"Mia," he whispered. "Are you ok?"
"I'm fine," I said, not looking at him.
"You don't seem fine. Are you upset over what Clarke and Tommy said?"
I sighed. "I thought you said we had to be silent? It's not exactly fair if you make everyone be quiet if you don't enforce the rule yourself."
"Fine. Do you want to talk outside?"
"No, thank you. I'm fine here."
"Mia…"
I ignored him. It's better this way. At least now he doesn't have to break my heart by telling me what I already know he feels. That I'm too young and that it was all a big mistake. He never should have kissed me in the first place. I know it, and now so does he.
Eventually he sighed and left. As soon as he'd gone I was hit with yet another note-bullet from Lilly. This one landed on my can of Sprite, but luckily didn't go inside.
Ok, don't tell me it was 'nothing.' Clearly something happened out there. What was it?
I know Lilly is not the type of person to anger in a situation like this, but I'm really not in the mood for her right now. I'm heartbroken. So I wrote back,
NOTHING.
That'll teach her for sticking her pug-nose in where it doesn't belong.
I've been ignoring both Michael and Lilly for the last hour. He's sitting at the librarian's desk, probably sifting through the school files for incriminating evidence against Tommy and his loser minions, so that next time they run away he can threaten them with it and not have to resort to getting Lars out.
And Lilly gave up throwing note-bullets after I ignored five of them. And let me tell you, it was hard to ignore the one that flew up my nose. She's now busied herself in work.
Lana and Josh are taking their time sharing a bag of M&M's. They're taking so long because they eat one, then kiss for about five minutes, then eat another, and kiss again. It's a disgusting cycle.
Tommy and his friends are surprisingly silent. I think they're actually working. Or maybe they're just drawing up plans for their next runaway from detention or bank robbery or whatever. They keep sneaking looks back at Lars, who's polishing his glock with his hanky.
And me? What have I been doing for the last hour? I've been so busy ignoring Michael that I haven't taken my eyes off him. And I can't think enough to actually answer any of these stupid Algebra questions.
But at least there's only another hour to go before we get let out. I guess I can just count the holes in the ceiling to occupy myself…
Ok, new plan. There's too many holes in the ceiling to be bothered counting them all. So I'm just going to make up a number and be done with it.
Three hundred and…fifty seven holes. Now my brain can rest easy and I can think of important things. Like Michael.
No, not like Michael. I don't want to think about him. And it's not as if he's even thinking about me. He hasn't looked up from his computer screen in about a million years. He's not in anguish over us being over before we even got going! We could've had a love like they do in movies! But now we'll never know. And he's clearly not heartbroken about it!
Ok, Mia. You need to stop thinking about him. You need to get your head straight.
I lay my head down on the desk and closed my eyes. Rest, that's all I need.
A voice above me coughed and I felt a note being pushed under my arm. By the time I looked up to see who it was, they'd walked off. I turned around to see Michael talking to Lars, and Lilly looking at me with raised eyebrows.
I opened the note and read it, despite having ignored all of Lilly's previous notes. But what if this one's from Michael!
Look, Thermopolis, I don't know what happened to freak you out or get you angry at me or whatever, but just stick around after detention to talk to me about it, ok?
Ha! Like that's going to happen. As soon as detention is over I'm out of here! There's no way I'm sticking around to hear Michael's pathetic attempt to tell me there's no hope for us. I know that enough already!
I crumpled the note and put my head back down, ignoring Lilly's frantic attempts to get my attention. Boy, is she going to be pissed when we get out of here and she can yell at me.
