Page 14 of Catch Me

I shift uncomfortably. The only empty seat in the whole class is right next to me, and I silently curse the fact that I’m rebelling against my former self and sitting in the back of the class when I usually sit in the front.

The girls in the room immediately latch onto him. They watch him with their eyes. He is good looking. I can see why Sasha’s all over him. She likes new and shiny, but in the same respect, she likes the traditional, too. That’s why she’d still take Reid if she could.

“Hey,” Oscar says. I’m explicitly trying not to look at him, which means I’m pretty much the only one in the class who isn’t. “Yoohoo,” he says. “Briar, right?”

I turn as he sits in the empty seat. He nods, acknowledging me, but I turn back toward the front. Whoever this guy is, if he’s friends with Sasha, he isn’t a friend of mine.

I’m dying to know what happened between Sasha and the police. I could probably ask, considering I’m the one who’s in the picture she had on her phone, but the police also don’t know it was me. Even though she’s here acting like nothing happened, that can’t possibly be true, right? They had to do something to her, didn’t they? It’s not like she could’ve just gotten off with a slap on the wrist and a stern talking to.

Around me, the grinding of chairs against the decade old tile in the room erupts. I focus in to see people pairing up. I look around frantically, until Mr. Shaver says, “Oscar, Briar, you’re partners since neither of you were here when the assignment was announced.” He walks toward us, handing each of us a piece of paper with the heading Literary Assignment. I scan the room and find Theo partnered with another girl who’s in the top ten of the class. Of course, he is. Damn.

“Mr. Shaver, I’d like to work by myself,” I say before he can turn away.

The mid-life crisis teacher—he got an earring last year—looks up. “No can do. Part of this is learning how to work with other people. Besides, don’t we want to welcome the new kid to the school?”

He turns around without waiting for my answer. As I glare at his back, I realize pretty much every girl in the class is giving me a dirty look. I close my eyes and try to count to ten while I hear a snicker to the side of me. “You don’t like me, do you?”

“I don’t know you.”

“Exactly,” he says.

“But I do know Sasha,” I say, finally turning toward him. “She’s not my friend.”

Oscar lifts his shoulders. “Is this a catty girl thing? You’re dating her ex-boyfriend, so you automatically have to hate each other?”

“No, it’s a she’s a fucking cunt thing.”

His eyes round. “Huh. I had you pegged differently, but I like it.”

His cocky smirk ticks me off. It’s like he’s placating me, and whatever that look in his eyes is, I feel like he knows a lot more about what’s going on than he’s letting show. “So, you and her?”

“Friends.”

I give him a doubtful look.

“No one said friends without benefits. We’re not wearing promise rings or anything if that’s what you’re asking.”

I suddenly regret I asked. I peer down at the paper, quickly skimming through everything and realize we have to do a report together on a classic body of work or a classic writer. For the rest of the period, we talk over who we’d like to do it on and then check with Mr. Shaver as we leave to make sure no one else picked it already. I was really hoping for Jane Austen, but we settled on The Great Gatsby.

Since we’re the last two out of class, we inevitably walk side by side down the hall. It only takes me a moment to realize he’s going to lunch too, which means he’ll probably be sitting at our table. Or what used to be our table.

“Briar,” a voice calls out. I stop. Footsteps rush toward us from behind and then a strong arm lands around my shoulders. I look up to find Lex staring at Oscar with narrowed eyes.

Oscar looks at the two of us, mostly how close we are with his arm wrapped around my shoulders. He makes a face that looks like he’s filing away this information for later. The back of my neck burns, and an instinct kicks in to move as far away from Lex as possible. It’s not that I mind when he puts his arm around me like this, it’s just that I think Oscar is getting the wrong idea. He doesn’t understand how close we all are.

“Lex,” Oscar says, nodding at him.

He walks ahead of us. Lex leans down. “What’s going on?”

I shrug. “Just walking to lunch.”

When we enter the cafeteria, my gaze moves across the array of tables to see if we’re still sitting in the same place. There’s a crowd around our table. It isn’t until someone leaves that I notice it’s a crowd around Reid. He looks up, finding Lex and I walking through the entryway and stands.

I walk toward him, brushing past Oscar in the process. Reid isn’t looking at me anymore though. His attention is behind me, most likely on Lex. It isn’t until I’m right next to him that he finally looks at me, forcing a smile to his face. “There’s my girl.”

“Hey,” I say, worry working its way into my voice. “Are you okay?”

Reid shrugs, but motions toward the table. The crowd around him disperses as we sit. “I got your lunch.”

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