Page 13 of Ominous: Part 1
“Is there something I can help you with, Eli?” Ms. Romano sounds vaguely disinterested, but her voice is a touch lower than usual. She’s used to my dawdling. She’s not accustomed to… whatever is happening right now with Eli.
I find him staring at me, bag on his shoulders, arms folded over his chest as he half-sits on his desk. “No, Ms. Romano, I’m good.”
Shit.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see our Latin teacher shuffling papers, gazing at me above the rim of her reading glasses.
Her eyes flicker to Eli.
Then back to me.
“May I speak to you for a minute, Eden?”
Surprise bolts through me, and I start to wonder if, despite my studying, I failed the pop quiz. I glance at Eli, but he only smiles, and doesn’t move.
I slowly approach Ms. Romano’s desk, sweat dripping down my back with nerves. She keeps her eyes on the papers she’s shuffling, her red-tipped nails catching my eye, her straight, dark A-line bob hiding the severity of the angle of her jaw.
“Your quiz,” she says, her voice betraying nothing.
I squeeze the straps of my bag tighter. If she tells me right here, right now, with Eli watching, I failed, I might flip this desk over between us.
Slowly, her light brown eyes lift to mine, and she stops fucking with the papers. “You aced it.”
Relief is warm in my veins, and I take a breath, for the first time since I’d been standing here, I realize.
A slow smile curves Ms. Romano’s thin lips. “What colleges are you applying to?”
I bite the inside of my cheek, aware Eli is listening. “Bloor,” I say, my voice a little hoarse. “I want to major in Classics.”
She arches a perfectly manicured brow, lifting her chin, her hair falling away from her face. It feels as if she’s searching for something. I’m worried she won’t find it.
But then she says, “And so you will.” She waves one hand, dropping her eyes back to her papers. “You may go.”
I can’t stop the wide smile on my face with her words. I feel a little dazed, but I manage to keep myself together as I turn to face Eli.
The smile on my face is almost reflected on his. A little more subdued, but it’s there.
I try not to get sucked in.
“What’s your next class?” he asks, straightening when I pass by, saying nothing about his tip last night, helping me with the damn quiz. And together, like maybe it’s normal, maybe we’ve done this before, maybe we’ll do it again, we both head to the door, my elbow touching his wrist, just slightly as we walk out.
I put more space between us, trying to breathe a little easier.
I swear I feel Ms. Romano’s eyes on us, and I can’t help but to wonder what she thinks of him.
With his question as we walk toward the commons, I imagine the book I needed splayed in his palm last night.
“Guess.” It’s easier for me to play with Eli when I don’t look at him, so I keep staring straight ahead. Unfortunately, that gives me the viewpoint of all the people who are brave enough to stare right at him. And call out to him. And furrow their brows at me. Or check me out.
I keep my expression bland and resist the urge to itch my scalp as sweat makes me want to rip out my braids.You’re putting me under a microscope, and I don’t want to be dissected.
Eli’s elbow grazes my shoulder, his hands loose by his sides while mine are damp around my backpack straps.
I move away again. He doesn’t comment on it.
“An Introduction to Ancient Greece and Rome.” Eli’s guess makes me bristle. I don’t have that course next.
But I have it for third period. Slowly, I turn to face him as we come to a silently agreed upon stop in the commons, by a bank of lockers.
