Page 30 of String Boys
“Someone has a special friend?” the teacher asked kindly. He was a big solid family man, with a sunburned face and red neck from coaching track. Seth was on his team, and Mr. Lipinski liked to give them high fives when they turned in their homework or bettered their time.
“Just a friend,” Seth said. “But it was kind. Everybody likes to feel special.”
Most of the class looked at him in surprise. “Seth, that’s the most you’ve said all year,” Mr. Lipinski said in awe. “I wonder what would happen if someone you really cared about gave you a flower.”
Seth grinned, imagining Kelly’s eyes over a single carnation. “I’d be speechless,” he said before clapping his hand over his dorky little laugh.
Too late. The teacher laughed with him, and the class did too. Seth left fifth period in a happy daze and ran right into a very unhappy Kelly.
“You got a flower?” he asked, his voice pitching in outrage as he grabbed Seth’s arm and hustled him to the spot behind a bank of lockers and next to a closed classroom.
“From a friend,” Seth said, hoping that would calm him down. “She’s shy too. I have to wear it or it would hurt her feelings.”
Kelly scowled. “What aboutmyfeelings?”
Seth bit his lip. “Well, I have a….” Oh, he’d just planned to give Kelly this and not tell him about it first. “I have a card,” he said, voice low. “For you. For your feelings.”
Kelly perked up. “Really?”
Oh, how embarrassing.“I, uh, wanted to buy you flowers, but you’d have to explain them to people and….” He shrugged.
Kelly nodded and bit his lip. “Okay. You win. Feelings good. You can wear her flower so she doesn’t get hurt none. It’s okay.”
The urge to kiss him was so strong, Seth’s heart practically beat in his lips.
The locker next to them slammed, and Kelly jumped back, hustling down the hallway after giving Seth a long backward glance.
His heart was in his eyes, and Seth was suddenly glad he’d kept Amara’s flower.
His eyes, his lips, his sleeve—having his heart anywhere but his chest left him with a tremendous ache.
“Seth?”
Amara was sitting in her customary chair as he walked into Advanced Orchestra, and her look at him was so hopeful, he hurt for her.
“Thank you,” he said with a gentle smile. “This was thoughtful.”
Her face bloomed—that was the only word for it. Suddenly she looked every inch a delicate pale rose.
“You’re welcome. I was wondering… do you… you know? Have a date for the dance on Friday?”
Seth frowned. “There’s a dance Friday night?”
She laughed. “Yes, Seth. Dance Friday. I guess that means you aren’t going with anyone?”
Oh, how to do this…?“I… I wasn’t, but….”
Her face fell, and he nodded her over to the band locker, where he was putting his backpack and pulling out his violin. “This was really nice,” he said, his voice low. “But I have a… a friend already. We’re not going to the dance, though.”
She pursed her rather adorable pink mouth, and her eyebrows did a jumping thing that he usually only saw in the very intelligent giant dog that he and Kelly tried to pet when they were picking the girls up from school. “But… but why? Why wouldn’t you go to the—” She stopped talking and her green eyes grew huge. “Uhm….”
“What?” he said. “Uhm what?”
“Is your friend not a girl?”
“I have no idea what you mean,” he said, but his voice was all over the place, and he knew his lower lip quivered too.
“Shh….” She patted his hand. “It’s okay, Seth. Calm down. You have a friend. You’re not going to the dance. That’s all I needed to know. I’m sorry I pried.” She looked a little sad but not destroyed. And her hand on his was everything.
