Page 72 of Something Rad
Though it may have felt like pulling teeth the whole way for the two of us, we had the entirety of Bay View High eating out of the palms of our hands. There wasn’t a single person not looking at us. Not a single person not wondering what the hell was going on, whether the tides had reversed or Mercury was in retrograde. I could see it on every one of their faces.
What on earth is Robbie Summers doing with Sara Beth Cooper? And what on earth isshedoing withhim?
There was a short time on the ride to school this morning that I thought we both were nearly about to send each other running for the hills, but, in the end, I gotta give it up to Cooper. She played her part. And she played it well. I didn’t miss the way she held her chin high as she let me help her out of my car, or the way she leaned into me as we walked through that parking lot. And she probably didn’t miss the way I pulled her even closer when we passed Denise and half of the other girls on the cheer team. But it didn’t matter. Cooper wasn’t phased. Everybody was looking at her, but she was only looking straight forward.
Or at me.
I shake my head.No, she didn’t give anyone any room to question us. To questionher. We made our way through that entire parking lot and into the school foyer.
I could feel the buzz of anxiety coming off of Cooper, and I knew she wanted to pull away. I knew she wanted to bolt. But she didn’t. She let me lead her through the doors and didn’t slide out from under my arm until I brought us to a stop. She looked at me expectantly, her eyes swirling with shades of gray entirely new to me. She started to take a step back, but stopped herself, taking a small step towards me instead.
“What now?” she had asked.
“How about we start with this?” I said, pulling a pen out and holding it between us.
Her eyes flicked down to it, her brows raising.
I simply nodded to the side, to the bulletin board just feet away from us. To where the class election sign-up sheet was posted.
Cooper’s shoulders fell, her mouth opening and closing several times. She immediately reached for her backpack straps like I’ve noticed she does when she’s uneasy.
“Hey,” I said, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Confidence looked good on you out there.” I raised the pen in front of her face. “Don’t stop now.”
She swallowed hard, narrowing her eyes on me as if she was trying to read me. I didn’t waver. The deed was done. Denise saw us. I’d make sure she continued to see us, along with every other person in the school that ever questioned me. Now it was time to keep up my end of the bargain. I wouldn’t be in debt to anyone, much less Sara Beth Cooper.
I pushed the pen further in her direction. She glanced between me and the pen one more time, steeling herself, before she snatched it from my hand and stormed over to the bulletin board.
She wrote her name so frantically that I don’t think she even realized that she took up multiple lines with it, pressing the pen so hard into the paper that it nearly tore. But when she stepped back, there it was:Sara Cooper. The last name on the list of student body president sign-ups and written three times larger and twice as dark as every other name there.
She didn’t even take a second to admire it, simply spinning back around to face me. Her eyes found me first, but quickly shifted to the side, noticing basically every other person in the foyer noticingher. I could tell her automatic reaction was to slump her shoulders and retreat back into herself. She reached again for her backpack straps, but before she got to them, I saw the shift in her. She blew out a breath, instantly standing tall once again, and bypassed her backpack straps, instead running both of her hands through her hair to fluff it up.
Well I’ll be damned, Cooper, I thought.
She’d forced a pouty smile on her face, instantly blocking everyone around us out once again and strutting forward to me. I held my hand out as she reached me and she dropped the pen back into it. “I did it,” she said.
“Attagirl,” I nodded.
We stared back at each other for a few seconds, silence stretching between us. Eventually, we both started to say something at the same time, but the sound of the school bell drowned us both out, signaling that it was time to head to class.
After a quick and mostly amicable agreement with minimal eye rolling and gagging on how to handle Ms. Cage’s class second period (walk in together holding hands then just play it cool since we had a test to take today), and a not as quick or amicable argument on our lunch plans (Cooper insisting on needing to study in the library and me insisting that that’s the opposite of what lunch is for and both of us eventually compromising that she’d study at a table in the courtyard with me sitting next to her mostly in silence), we turned to go our separate ways.
I sensed Cooper hesitating and turned back to look at her. “Er…um…I…” she mumbled. I glanced down at her hands fidgeting. She took a step closer to me and I raised my brows at her.
“Yes, Cooper?” I asked.
She let out a huff. “Look, I’ve already been closer to you this morning than I care to ever be again, but I feel like we should probably look like we don’t hate each other as we say goodbye.”
“Can’t say I disagree,” I said, “but, yeah, that would probably be best.”
“So…” Cooper said, taking another step closer and raising her hand awkwardly. She looked like she was going to place it on my cheek for a second then suddenly raised it further, starting to run it through my hair. “Well, bye–”
My shoulders tensed, and my hand shot up, wrapping around her wrist. Cooper froze in place as I grabbed her, her fingers still halfway into my hair.
“Cooper, I know we said we still need to fully discuss ground rules later, but I’d just like to go ahead and state my rule number one.” Her brows pulled together in frustrated confusion. “Hands off the hair.”
She rolled her eyes at me, scoffing as she pulled her wrist from my grasp. “And you sayI’mobsessed with it. Why don’t you try getting over yourself,Summers?”
I leaned down closer to her, unable to help myself from matching her challenge. “How about you try getting under me instead?”
