“His name is Alex Cole, and he just moved here from Montana.” Talley said. “He is smart, attractive, funny, and madly in love with your sister.”
“What?” Two voices came out in unison -- mine incredulous and Jaseʼs furious.
Talley flinched slightly, but refused to be dissuaded. “Cʼmon, Scout. You said he was staring at you in Calc, and he was definitely flirting with you in Shakespeare. You could almost see the electricity in the air between you two.”
What the Hades was she talking about? I love Talley. Really, I do. But there are times when Talleyʼs world and the real world are two completely different places.
Jaseʼs lips were pressed so tightly together you could barely see them. “Stay away from him. I donʼt even want you talking to him. Do you understand?”
“Did you seriously just try to tell me what to do?”
Jase narrowed his eyes. “You do realize who he is, right? You remember what the other one said?”
“I remember.” Like that was the sort of thing that just slipped your mind. “But Alex doesnʼt seem so... intense. I think heʼs fairly innocuous.”
“I donʼt care what he is. I promised Iʼd keep you safe. I canʼt do that if youʼre hanging out with one of them.”
I could have argued the issue, pointing out that I was perfectly capable of taking care of myself, but I didnʼt. It wasnʼt like I actually wanted to hang out with the new guy. “No problem.
Really, I canʼt stand the guy. I would be perfectly happy if I never spoke to him again.”
“Good. Letʼs keep it that way.” Jase got up, shooting another glance in Alexʼs direction. “Iʼll see you at the car after school,” he said, grabbing half of my turkey sandwich.
“What was that all about?” Talley asked, watching Jase as he made his way out of the cafeteria.
“Iʼm not a hundred percent sure,” I admitted. “It has something to do with Alexʼs psycho brother. I think Jase is involved in something bad. I tried to ask him about it, but he just shrugged me off.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Iʼll just wait it out. Jase will eventually tell me whatʼs up.”
“I was talking about staying away from Alex.”
“I honestly donʼt think thatʼs going to be a problem.” Talley looked over at the table where Alex was now chatting away with Ashley. They were most likely going over baby names. I cringed at the mental image of little Ashleys.
“That may be a bit harder than you think.”
“Donʼt be crazy; itʼll be a piece of cake.”
And it was a piece of cake. I managed to avoid any and all contact with Alex Cole for two whole hours.
***
“There you are, Scout,” Mrs. Sole greeted me at the door of my print media class. “Editorial staff is at the table in the corner.”
I walked back to the table where Joi Fitzgerald and Meg Jamison waited for me. I took a deep, steadying breath as I sat in the only available seat, next to Alex.
Crap.
“We just keep running into each other,” he said as I began to consider becoming a sports writer.
“Yes, it seems karma is intent on us spending some time together. Obviously, I did something horrid in my previous life.”
“Or maybe youʼre my reward for being so good.” You would think that grey eyes would be dull and lifeless, but his seemed to glow.
I decided my best response would be silence. Unfortunately, he did not take this as a hint to end the conversation.
“So, I was going to sit by you at lunch, but your boyfriend beat me to it.”
“Who? My what?” The boyfriend statement threw me. “Do you mean Jase?” Joi, who had been listening intently to our conversation, looked even more shocked than Talley had earlier. “You and Jase have lunch together? But I thought that there had been a royal decree that the Donovan Twins werenʼt allowed within 500 feet of each other on school grounds since the Ms. Tubbs incident.”
Good grief. So you make one teacher have a mental breakdown in elementary school. Was it really that big of a deal?
“Twins?”
“Jase is my brother.”
“No, heʼs not,” Alex said with absolute conviction.
I was about to tell Alex exactly what I thought about him and his presumptuous arrogance when Joi decided to be helpful.
“Oh, we just call them twins. Jaseʼs mom married Scoutʼs dad when they were babies. They donʼt look anything alike, and Jase is technically a couple of months older, but they act like twins.”
“Five weeks to the day,” I corrected automatically.
“Thatʼs quite the distinction, Scout, ” Meg said. After watching an episode of Law and Order in the fifth grade, Meg Jamison decided she wanted nothing more in life than to be a lawyer.