Chapter 68: Warm Up
We ended up eating outside on one of the benches that nobody ever used, which was a nice change of pace from the controlled chaos of the cafeteria. The whole walk over, my brain was stuck on a single, ridiculous loop, replaying the moment in the classroom where she’d called me hot, which was a word I was pretty sure had never been used in the same sentence as my name before.
I wanted to ask her about it, to just casually bring it up and see if she was messing with me, but every time I opened my mouth to try, the words just got stuck somewhere between my brain and my tongue.
’Just let it go, you idiot,’ I thought, watching her unwrap the sandwich she’d brought from home. ’She was just teasing. It’s not that deep.’
"You’re doing that scrunchy eyebrow thing again," she said, her voice pulling me out of my head. She took a bite of her sandwich and looked at me, a little smile on her lips.
"Is this about your secret agent stuff with Jake? Are you planning a hostile takeover of the student council?"
"Something like that," I said, deciding to just roll with it because it was a thousand times easier than explaining the actual, mortifying truth. "Phase Three involves replacing all the water fountain water with soda. It’s a bold move, but I think we can pull it off."
She laughed, "I’ll support your coup, but only if you make it cherry soda."
"It’s a deal."
We ate in a comfortable quiet for a few minutes, which was something I was still getting used to, this idea that silence didn’t always have to be awkward.