I took a step to his other side, but he met me once again. Three more attempts, and I now looked like I was trying and failing miserably at doing some spontaneous line dance sidesteps.
“Will you stop?” I finally growled, trying to move my mouth as little as possible.
He smiled a ridiculously full, closemouthed smile and glissaded away. “Good luck with the shrink.”
I hustled down the hall as fast as I could, afraid that he’d change his mind and harass me further. Vice Principal Wallace addressed me, but I darted right into Fritz’s office before he could finish his thought.
Chapter 7
Don’t Threaten Me With a Good Time
As you can imagine, talking to yourself draws unwanted attention. Yeah, I’d landed in the seventh circle of Hell. Dr. Fritz continued dropping a bunch of psychobabble about post traumatic stress, and Wallace just kept nodding and staring at me with widened eyes, trying to—I’m guessing—appear thoughtful. In actuality, he kind of just looked deranged. Though, given my present condition, it’s not like I had room to talk. His toes kept tapping and I quickly realized he wanted out of there as much as I did, so I confessed to talking in the library, but somehow convinced them that I’d been on my phone. I even pulled out my ear buds from my book bag, showing them to Dr. Fritz. She noted the microphone built in, and I explained that the conversation had just gotten out of hand.
Doctor Fritz scrunched up her nose as she glanced between me and the file open on her desk. “Well, if that’s the case, I suppose this is up to you on how to handle this,” she said to Wallace.
He huffed, stealing another look at his watch. “You know very well about our cell phone policy.”
“Yes, I’m sorry,” I lamented.
Before he even said it, I knew what was coming. His impatience was a dead giveaway. “But I suppose I’ll let it slide. Just this once.”
“Thank you, sir.” I sprang up from my seat and bolted for the door.
By the time I got out of there, there was only a couple minutes left before the final bell rang. Keeping a watchful eye, I made my way back to my locker. No sight of Reese. It should have given me comfort, but I could still feel the business card burning a hole in my front pocket. Wrestling with the urge to pull it out, I seemed to space for a moment, because I didn’t even realize classes let out until the hall was in hysterics with students barking and laughing about.
Just as my fingers started to slide into my pocket, Carly appeared at my side, throwing herself in the most theatrical fashion against the gray sheet metal of the locker beside mine. She whimpered, slowly sinking down to the floor.
I immediately retracted my hand. “What’s with you?”
She shrugged, as if that constituted for an answer.
“Cough it up. Why do you look like someone just murdered a basket of puppies?” I asked.
“Abrams’s making me stay after school.”
“Why? Did you fail a test or something?”
“Who knows? Probably.”
Carly wasn’t dumb by any means, but she unfortunately had a proclivity to focusing her attention on the wrong things. The girl could quote the latest issue of Cosmo from cover to cover, yet didn’t bother studying for most of her classes. Against all odds, she still somehow managed to squeak by with a C-average. Our physics teacher, Mr. Abrams, was a hard-ass though. If his radar picked up on untapped potential, he harped on the student in question until the person finally relented and put in the effort. In the end, it was less of a trouble to study than not. And by Carly’s melodramatic agony, it seemed Abrams had singled her out as his next pet project.
She pulled out her keys and tossed them at me. “You’re gonna have to take my Baby home. With all of the endless yammering, I could be stuck listening to one of Abrams’s lectures till dawn.”
“But how are you gonna get home?”
“Daniel can give me a lift,” she confirmed, seeing her boyfriend heading down the hall towards us. A little bit of her natural pep returned as she hopped back up to her feet and ensnared him in a kiss. “Speak of the devil.”
“Hope you’ve been saying nice things,” he laughed. “What’s up?”
“I need a ride home,” she pouted.
Daniel cringed.
“What?”
“Shit, I thought I told you. I have a game up in Winnetka. We’re heading out at four.”
“It’s okay,” I said, handing the keys back to Carly. “I can catch a ride with someone else.”
Her eyes narrowed at the mention. “Like who?”
We both knew everyone close to us was already busy. If there was a game, all the guys were out of the picture. And Vanessa and Kelsey had early dismissal, because they both worked at the country club bistro.