Chapter 57: Morals
I was about to push my chair back and head over to Nina – she was waiting by the classroom door, scrolling through her phone. But then Jake pulled up right next to my desk.
"Hey, man, got a sec?" he said, and I almost groaned.
’Not now,’ I thought. I was actually looking forward to lunch today, to just chilling with Nina and not thinking about friend missions or secret identities or any of that crap. ’Just for an hour, please.’
I looked up at Jake. He seemed pretty chill, actually, which made it even harder to blow him off. But I couldn’t just leave Nina hanging, she has already had to deal with some shit due to me.
"Hey, I’m kind of in a hurry," I said, trying to sound nice about it. "But we can talk later, okay?"
His face fell a little. "Oh, right, it’s lunch," he said, looking down at the ground. "Yeah, no worries."
’Great,’ I thought. ’Now I feel like a jerk.’ He was my ’friend,’ he is my friend, I guess, and I made a promise to help.
But this was kind of important. I glanced over at Nina, trying not to make it too obvious. She was looking the other way, out the window, but I knew she was listening.
"I’ll catch you after class," I added, trying to make it up to him. "We’ll figure out that plan, I promise. It’s just... kinda gotta go now."
He nodded, looking a little brighter. "Yeah, yeah, totally. You go do your thing, bro. We’ll strategize later."
He gave me this little fist-bump, then turned and walked off. I watched him go for a second, feeling that pang of guilt again.