Page 31 of The Big Easy & Other Lies
“It makes me feel better to not discuss underwear in the middle of the hallway,” I said, walking backwards down the hall toward the exit so I could get out to Mrs. Broussard.
He followed me. “Trouble with capstone?”
I shrugged. “No, this is kind of the norm. There’s always lots of back and forth with your advisor before you agree on the project.”
He picked up his pace to pull even with me. “I’ll walk you out.”
I shrugged again but gave him a small smile.
“So why does she want to see you? She doesn’t like your designs?”
“Kinda,” I said.
“Again with the being overly specific. You should work on that.”
I laughed. “She and I don’t agree on which line I should do.”
“What do you want to do?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Something that the Heart of LaSalle moms will eat up. They hold the scholarship purse strings. That means making something pretty mainstream.”
“And your advisor doesn’t like your designs?”
“No, she does.”
He scrunched his forehead. “I don’t understand the problem, but you aren’t going to explain it to me, are you?”
“No,” I said. “But don’t feel bad. I’m saving you from a boring conversation.” We walked a short way in silence. “Um, what about your capstone project? Figure anything out yet?”
“It’ll be musical somehow. That’s about as far as I’ve gotten.”
We stopped outside the theater. “Have fun,” he said.
“Thanks.”
“Cam?”
I turned. “Yeah?”
“I—”
“Rhett!” Angelique’s voice rang out across the quad. “Come eat lunch with me. There’s a yummy spinach salad you’ll like.”
“I’ll catch you during last period,” he said.
“Sure.” I slipped into the classroom without looking back. And then I counted down the minutes until theater arts.
Chapter 13
“I’m home,” I said. And glad about it for once. Rhett had been distant in theater arts, only giving me a nod before talking to Jake Zachary until Mr. Gervis sent the design kids out. It sucked. It wasn’t the cold shoulder, exactly. But close. And it kind of came out of nowhere.
Delphine didn’t look up from the TV. “I’m not deaf. I heard the door. What took you so long?”
“I had to work, remember?” The garden club party had only taken three hours, including prep and clean up. Most folks were barely starting to think about dinner, but I’m sure Delphine had been waiting the whole time for me to come home and nuke her something. “Would you like something to eat?” I asked.
“It’s suppertime. What do you think?” She turned to me with an angry stare. “It’s bad for my headaches when you mess with my mealtimes like that.”
“Sorry,” I said, not pointing out that it was the highly processed TV dinner that was going to make her headache worse. It was no wonder she was so small and shriveled. She didn’t put anything healthy in her mouth, ever. “Let me go heat something for you.”
