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Kendall and I left his house at seven fifteen the following morning and drove to Enzo's Bistro to grab a breakfast of steamed milk. With my hands wrapped around my china cup, I tried to warm away the deep chill inside me. I'd showered, pulled on a red graphic shirt, gray jeans, and black boots borrowed from Kendall's closet.
"Don't look now,"Kendall said, "but Mr. Green Sweater keeps looking this way, estimating your long legs through your jeans...Oh! He just saluted me. I am not kidding. A little two finger military salute. How adorable."
I wasn't listening. Last night's accident had replayed itself in my head all night, chasing of sleep. My thoughts were tangles, my eyes were dry and heavy, and I couldn't concentrate.
"Mr. Green Sweater looks normal, but his wing-man looks hardcore bad boy," Kendall said. "Emits a certain don't mess with me signal. Tell me I'm imagining things."
Lifting my eyes just high enough to get a look at him without appearing I was, I took in his fine-boned, handsome face. Blond hair hung at his shoulders. Eyes the color of chrome. Unshaven. Impeccably dressed in a tailored jacket over his green sweater and dark designer jeans. I said, "You're imagining things."
"Did you miss the deep set eyes? The widow's peak? The tall lanky build? He might even be tall enough for me."
Kendall is closing in on six feet tall. He also has a thing about not dating shorter guys.
"Okay what's wrong?" Kendall asked "You've gone all incommunicado. This isn't about the crack in my windshield,right? So what if you hit an animal. It could happen to anyone. Granted, the chances would be a lot slimmer if your mom relocated out of the wilderness."
I was going to tell Kendall the truth about what happened. Soon. I just needed a little time to sort out the details. The problem was, I didn't see how I could. The only details left were spotty, at best. I twas as if an eraser had scrubbed my memory blank. Thinking back, I remembered the heavy rain cascading down the Neon's window, causing everything outside to blur. Had I in fact hit a deer?
"Mmm, check it out," Kendall said. "Mr. Green Sweater is getting out of his seat. Now that's a body that hits the gym regularly. He id definitely making his way toward us, his eyes pursuing the real estate, your real estate, that is."
A half beat later we were greeted with a low, pleasant, "Hello."
Kendall and I looked up at the same time. Mr. Green Sweater stood back from our table, his thumbs hooked in the pockets of his jeans. He was blue eyed, with stylishly shaggy blonde hair swept across his forehead.
"Hello yourself,"Kendall said. "I'm Kendall. This is Logan Michell."
I frowned at Kendall. I did appreciate her tagging on my last name, feeling that it violated an unspoken contract between boys, let alone best friends, upon meeting unknown boys. I gave a half hearted wave and brought my cup to my lips, immediately scalding my tongue.
He dragged a chair from the next table and sat backward on it, his arms resting where his back should have been. Holding a hand out to me he said, "I'm Dak Sanders." Feeling way too formal, I shook it. "And this is Jules," he added, jerking his chin toward his friend, whom Kendall had grossly underestimated by calling 'tall'.
Jules lowered all of himself into a seat beside Kendall, dwarfing the chair.
He said to him," I think you might be the tallest guy I've ever seen. Seriously, how tall are you?"
"Six foot ten," Jules muttered slumping in his eat and crossing his arms.
Dak cleared his throat. "Can I get you gentlemen something to eat?"
"I'm fine," I said raising my cup, "I already ordered."
Kendall kicked me under the table. "He'll have a vanilla-cream filled doughnut. Make that two."
"So much for the diet, huh?" I asked Kendall.
"Huh yourself. The vanilla bean is a fruit. A brown fruit."
"It's a legume."
"You sure about that?"
I wasn't.
Jules closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. Apparently he was as thrilled to be sitting with us as I was to have them here.
As Dak walked to the front counter, I let my eyes trail to him. He was definitely in high school, but I hadn't seen him at CHS before. I would remember. He had a charming, outgoing personality that didn't fade into the background. I f I wasn't feeling so shaken, I might actually taken an interest. In friendship, maybe more.
"Do you love around here?" Kendall asked Jules.
"Mmm."
"Go to school?"
"Kinghorn Prep." There was a tinge of superiority in the way he said it.
"Never heard of it."
"Private school. Portland. We start at nine." H e lifted his sleeve and glanced at his watch.
Kendall dipped a finger in the froth of his and licked it off. "Is it expensive?"
Jules looked at him directly the first time. His eyes stretched showing a little white around the edges.
"Are you rich? I bet you are," He said
Jules eyed Kendall like he'd killed a fly on his forehead. He scraped his chair several inches, distancing himself from us.
Dak returned with a box of half dozen doughnuts.
"Two vanilla creams for the gentlemen," He said, pushing the box toward me, "and four glazed for me. Guess I'd better fill up now since I don't know what the cafeteria is like at Coldwater High."
Kendall nearly spewed her milk. "You go to CHS?"
"As of today. I just transferred from Kinghorn Prep."
"Logan and I go to CHS." Kendall said. "I hope you appreciate your good fortune. Anything you need to know- including who you should invite to Spring Fling-just ask. Logan and I don't have dates yet."
I decided it was time to part ways. Jules was obviously bored and irritated and being in his company wasn't helping my already restless mood. I made a big presentation of looking at the clock on my sell phone and said, "We better get to school, Kendall. We have a bio test to study for. Dak and Jules, it was nice meeting you."
"Our bio test isn't until Friday,"Kendall said.
On the inside, I cringed. On the outside, I smiled through my teeth. "Right. I meant to say that I have an English test. The works of...Geoffrey Chaucer." Everyone knew I was lying.
In a remote way my rudeness bothered me, especially since Dak hadn't done anything to deserve it. But I didn't want to sit here any longer. I wanted to keep moving forward, distancing myself from last night. Maybe the diminishing memory wasn't such a bad thing after all. The sooner I forgot the accident, the sooner my life would resume it's normal place.
"I hope you have a really great first day, and maybe we'll see you at lunch," I told Dak. Then I dragged Kendall up by his elbow and steered him out the door.
The school day was almost over, only biology left, and after a quick stop by my locker to exchange books, I headed to class. Kendall and I arrived before Carlos;he slid into his empty seat and dug through his book bag, pulling out a box of Hot Tamales.
"One red fruit coming right up,"he said, offering me the box.
"Let me guess...cinnamon is a fruit?" I pushed the box away.
"You didn't eat lunch either," Kendall said, frowning.
"I'm not hungry."
"Liar. You're always hungry. Is this about Carlos? You're not worried he's really stalking you, are you? Because last night that whole thing at the library, I was joking."
I massaged small circles on my temples. The dull ache that had taking up residence behind my eyes flared at the mention of Carlos.
"Carlos is the least of my worries," I said. It wasn't exactly true.
"My seat, if you don't mind."
Kendall and I looked up automatically at the sound of Carlos voice.
He sounded pleasant enough, but he kept his eyes trained on Kendall as he rose and slung his book-bag over his shoulder.
"Looking good as always,"he said to me taking his chair. He leaned back in it, stretching his legs in front of him. I'd known all along he was tall, but I'd never put a measurement to it. Looking at the length of his legs now, I guessed him to to to maybe 5'9 or 6 feet.
"Thank you." I answered without thinking. Immediately I wanted to take it back. Thank you? Not like I liked his compliments. Right?
"You smell good too." said Carlos.
"It's call a shower," I was staring straight ahead. When he didn't answer, I turned sideways."Soap. Shampoo. Hot water."
"Naked I know the drill." Carlos said.
I opened my mouth to change the subject but the bell ranged.
"Put the textbooks away,"Coach said from behind his desk. "I'm handing out a practice quiz to get you warmed up from this Friday's real one."He started handing out the quizzes. "I want 15 minutes of pure silence while you answer the questions. The we'll discuss chapter seven. Good Luck."
I worked through the first few couple of questions. Pausing to shake the cramp out of my hand and felt Carlos lean toward me.
"You look tired. Rough night?" he whispered.
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