The Ordinary Life of Emily P. Bates (16 page)

My mind began to wander. At first I was watching Margo try to nudge the ball down the lane with the toe of her bowling shoe, and then my eyes began to drift. I stared at the back of Ethan’s head resentfully. Sure, I had lost almost all interest in him so far as dating went, but it still kind of stung that he didn’t seem to notice or care that I was sitting alone with nothing to do while he paid attention to my two girlfriends. What a jerk. He was almost as bad as Charlie! Not even his perfect dark skin or his hair that was always so carefully styled could change my mind. Nor could his stupid grin. Suddenly it seemed like that was all he ever did was grin. Had he ever had a serious thought pass through his head?

A movement across my field of vision drew my glare away from the back of Ethan’s head. Finn, his full attention still on his book, was reaching blindly across the table for his drink. His big hand made a couple of half-hearted grasps at nothing before finally closing around the ketchup bottle right next to his cup. He didn’t even look up as he lifted the bottle to his mouth, but jumped when the cold metal lid touched his lips.

I forced myself not to laugh as he replaced the ketchup bottle on the table and grabbed his drink this time. He took a long draw, and instead of placing it back on the table, he held it resting on his thigh
--
probably so he wouldn’t make the same mistake again the next time he was thirsty.

The whole time, the whole
damn
time, he did not look up. Not once. He never noticed that I was watching him. He never realized that anyone might be laughing at him (I noticed a couple of younger guys walking by smirk when he tried to drink the ketchup bottle). He was so incredibly focused. So intense. In that moment I realized that, though I’d seen Finnegan O’Malley about a thousand times since I’d met him, I don’t think I’d ever really
seen
him. Not really.

“No! Shannon’s was better!”

I jumped when Ethan shouted.

“Come on! Why?” Margo whined. Shannon was gloating next to her.

“Because she got three pins and you only got one! Besides, I’d like to see you try getting that kind of speed bent over like she was!” He whirled around in his seat, that grin still plastered across his face. “Am I right?” he asked me.

Right.
Now
he remembers I’m there.

I hadn’t even seen the stunts that were called into question, but I answered a confident, “No,” anyway. Ethan turned back to his spectators looking put-out.

“What?” Shannon exclaimed. “Not fair! She’s not even looking!”

She was right. I wasn’t looking. My eyes never left Finn’s face. When Shannon yelled, though, it broke his concentration. His eyes darted up from the page to meet my gaze and I instantly looked away, flushing. Finn had seen me staring at him. There was no way he couldn’t have.

After a few seconds, I dared to glance back at him, and to my relief his eyes were back on his book. There was a funny look on his face, though, and after a few minutes of paranoid but cautious observation, I could swear that he was just staring at a single spot on the page.

“They fired me,” Ethan said, making me jump again. “Now you’ll have to entertain me.” He was suddenly sitting next to me and before I knew it, his arm was resting on the back of my chair. I leaned forward subconsciously. Just a measly two months ago, being this close to Ethan would have sent sparks of electricity down my spine. Now I just wanted him to go away. What had changed? Was it just that one month of no interest that did the trick?

Shannon and Margo were still bickering over their
game, so Finn was the only one left to save me. “Sorry,” I said, thinking fast
,
“
b
ut Finn promised me a game of pool.”

“He did?” Ethan asked, sounding unconvinced.

Finn looked up. “I did?”

“Yes, you did. Earlier.” I turned in my seat and to my immense relief saw that one of the tables was free. “You promised.” I kicked him in the shin under the table and he jumped.

“But you don’t play pool,” he said through gritted teeth, obviously irritated that I’d kicked him.

I glared at him. “So teach me.” I reached over and grabbed his hand so that I could drag him over to the pool tables, but he tugged it away from me.

He got up anyway. “Fine.” I knew Ethan was watching us walk away, but I couldn’t make myself turn back and smile reassuringly at him.

As soon as we were safely out of earshot of the others, Finn rounded on me. “What’s going on?” he asked.

“What? Nothing!” I said. I grabbed a stick and the cube of blue chalk. If I knew anything about pool, it was how to use the chalk.

“Emily Prudence Bates!” he hissed at me, ripping the chalk out of my hand and making me jump. “What is your
issue
?”

“I don’t have a freaking issue, Finnegan! Now tell me what I’m supposed to do with this!” I held the stick in front of his face, and he jerked it away from me.

“Fine, keep your secrets.” He brandished the end of the stick in my face like a weapon. “But I
will
find out what’s going on.” He turned to rack the balls, but stopped and turned back. “And don’t
kick
me like that again!”

Thirteen

“So when are you going to do it?” Shannon whispered to me Monday morning in Chemistry. It was lab day again, and our experiment was so incredibly lame that we weren’t even pretending to do it. I’d just jotted down a few numbers in the worksheet that seemed plausible and now we were just playing with the equipment.

“I don’t know.”

Mr. Lankford had just spotted us and crossed the room with a determined stride.

“And how are you two doing?” he asked, picking up the worksheet and studying it over the rims of his glasses. “Done already?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“These numbers don’t seem right,” he said. “Try it again, and this time measure twice before adding the catalyst.”

“’Kay,” I said, erasing the paper tha
t
he handed back to me. I quickly wrote in new numbers as soon as his back was turned and turned back to Shannon, who was adjusting her goggles. “Finn knows something’s up.”

“Of course Finn knows. He’s Finn.” She finally gave up and took her goggles off altogether. A red ring around her eyes and across the bridge of her nose stood out painfully against her fair skin. “I hate these stupid things.”

“Yeah.” I started doodling on the worksheet, idly swiveling back and forth in my lab stool.

“What’s the matter?” she asked.

“I don’t know. I just don’t want to do it.” I pulled off my own goggles, feeling stupid now that she’d removed hers. “I wish he’d say something first, you know? So that I wouldn’t have to.”

“Maybe he will,” she said. “You never know.”

“No he won’t.” I groaned and rested my head in my hands. I rubbed my cool fingers over the sore line that the goggles had left on my face. “And what’s worse, we’re not even really together, so how can I break up with him?”

“Okay, here’s what you do,” she said, sounding a little bossy. “Just kind of avoid him, you know? Don’t sit by him. Don’t flirt with him. And if he asks you out, that’s your opportunity to just say no.”

“But that could take months!”

“It won’t take months.”

“He hasn’t asked me out in months, Shannon!”

“A month. One measly little month. And you were
grounded
the whole time. Of course he didn’t ask you out.”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I think I need to just buck up and call him or something.”

“Don’t you dare break up with someone over the phone!” she said. “That’s terrible!”

“I’m not breaking up with him because he’s
not my boyfriend
!”

“Then I don’t see the issue!”

“The issue is that Ethan and I are in a situation where anyone might assume we’re together and he might assume that he has some sort of claim on me at social functions because I’ve gone on a few dates with him and have not yet made it clear that I don’t want to date him anymore!”

“So tell him that.”

“I can’t tell him that!”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s ridiculous!”

“But it’s the truth!”

“And I’ll sound stupid saying it.”

“I still think you should just wait until he asks you out again.”

“Which will be never.”

“Again, I don’t see the issue.” She cocked her head to one side smugly.

Suddenly, there was a pronounced
pop!
from across the room, effectively silencing our irritated whispers. Everyone in the room turned to stare at Jeff Sweeny and Tom Noll, whose beaker had just exploded into a small puff of foul smelling white smoke. We all glared at them in shock and covered our noses. Those two had never once in our entire high school careers ever called attention to themselves. Not once. I think that might have been the first time that about half of the class had ever even noticed that they were in the room.

“Weird,” I said.

“Yeah.” She was staring at the pair of them, an odd expression on her face. Tom glanced up at us, waving his hands absently to clear the white smoke away. For just a few seconds, they looked at each other. Each seemed mildly surprised to be noticed by the other.

“Shannon?” I asked.

She shook her head and faced me once more. “Huh? What were we talking about?” 

“My situation with Ethan.”

“Right.” She shook her head again, clearing her throat. “So let me get this straight. You obviously think that he will ask you out because you seem determined to make it clear to him that you don’t want him to.”

“What?”

“Just don’t worry about it!” she cried in an undertone. I’d never heard anyone pull off exasperation in a whisper before.

“Fine!”

Mr. Lankford was watching us from across the room and when he saw me look, he tapped his own goggles sternly with his index finger. I pulled my goggles back on and elbowed Shannon.

“Okay, okay,” she said, snapping her own torture device back onto her face. “But I
hate
these things.”

“Speaking of hating things, the cast comes off tomorrow,” I said.

“Good. When?”

“In the morning. I’ll be out until after lunch.”

“Great,” she said. “Just in time for calculus.”

“That’s what I said.”

              The bell rang then, and we began gathering up our things and putting away the equipment. Tom knocked into me on his way by, making me spill the contents of the beaker in my hand all over my front. I glared after them, wishing I’d had the guts to say something. He and Jeff had left all of their equipment out on their counter, which wasn’t in their nature any more than standing out in a crowd. Nobody would notice it until much later because we were the only class that used the lab on Mondays.

              “What jerks,” Shannon grumbled, tossing me a roll of paper towels.

              “Seriously.” I dabbed at my shirt as we shuffled out of the room with everyone else. “I can’t believe I was nice to them at your stupid party.”

              I stalked off to my locker alone, keeping close to the wall to avoid hitting anyone in the crowded hall and frowning down at the stain across the front of my shirt. It wasn’t a great shirt or anything, but it was completely ruined now. If only I didn’t have to wear it the rest of the day.

              “Hey! Watch it!” someone shouted, ramming right into me. I looked up, startled to see Charlie glaring down at me. His expression cleared as soon as he realized who I was. “Emily! Sorry!” he said.

              “No, I’m sorry,” I said. “I wasn’t watching where I was going.” I smiled as politely as I could and tried to step around him into the rush of other students.

              “No hold on.” He took my arm and pulled me over to the wall so that we weren’t blocking traffic. “I’m glad I ran into you. I wanted to talk to you.”

              I looked up at him, confused. Since when did Charlie ever want to talk to me? “Uh, okay.”

              “Listen, I’m really sorry about what happened between me and Shannon. She doesn’t hate me does she?”

              “Uh, yeah Charlie. She pretty well hates you.” I tried to sidestep him again, but he was too quick for me.

              “I was afraid of that.”

              “Well what did you expect? You stuck your tongue down some cheerleader’s throat!”

              He winced. “Do you think she’ll forgive me?”

              “No!” Again I tried to leave, but he kept a firm hold on my arm just above the elbow. I rolled my eyes. “What now?”

              “Tell her I’m sorry,” he begged, his big blue eyes wide with desperation.

              “No.”

              “You have to!”

              “I don’t have to do anything, and I’m going to be late for class!” I pulled my arm away from him but he stopped me again. “Oh my go
d,
what do you want?”

              “I want you to get her to forgive me!”

              “Why me, Charlie? Why can’t you do it? It’s your problem, not mine.” The halls were beginning to empty now. I only had a couple of minutes to get all the way across the building to my locker and to class.

              “But how?”

              “How should I know?”

              “Maybe if I could prove my love to her or something. You know I love her! Tell her that.”

              “You’re seventeen years old!” I said. “You don’t know what love is! If you really did love her, then you wouldn’t have cheated on her!”

              “It was a mistake! But you’re right. I have to be the one to fix this. Thanks Em.”

              “Don’t call me that!” I spat at him. The bell rang and I groaned. “Great! Now I’m late for class! Thank you very much!” I tore away from him and stalked off down the hallway. I glared back at him. He stayed right where he was, obviously planning his great act of love. What a baby.

I should warn Shannon before he did anything stupid.

              I got to our lunch table long before anyone else. Ethan was sitting with his back to me across the room, laughing with some red head whose name I didn’t know. Maybe it was Maggie what’s-her-face from Shannon’s
Spanish
class.

              Shannon’s laughter from across the room drew my attention. She was walking toward me with Mandi Erickson and Kathy Fuller in tow. They were laughing and joking about something, but I couldn’t tell what.

              “See you guys later,” Shannon told them as she approached our table. The other girls waved and veered away from us without even glancing at me. I picked up my slice of cold pizza and took a small bite.

“Hey,” she said as she sat her lunch tray on the table.

              I swallowed my half-chewed bite. “You’ll never guess who I ran into this morning.”

              My tone was enough for Shannon to know that something was terribly wrong here. “Who?”

              “Charlie.”

              Her eyes immediately took on that pinched look that she had only just gotten away from a few days ago. She cleared her throat. “Oh. What did he have to say?”

              “He begged me to get you to forgive him.”

              “What?” she exclaimed.

              “Yeah. I know!”

              “Well what did you tell him?”

              “I said ‘no’ of course!”

              “Oh.” She frowned. “Why
--
why’d you tell him that?”

“Because he’s a lying, cheating jerk-hole!”

“Oh.”

              I narrowed my eyes. “Shannon, please don’t tell me that you’re thinking about forgiving him.”

              She squared her shoulders. “No. Of course not.”

              “Good. Because he’s delusional. He said he loved you!”

              Her lips twitched upwards ever so slightly, but she wiped her face clean almost immediately.

              She
liked
the idea that Charlie loved her. She
liked it!
How could she? How could she do that to herself? “Shannon please tell me that you’re not seriously considering getting back together with him!”

              She frowned, obviously displeased with my negative reaction to this new development, but she never got her chance to answer. Finn suddenly appeared by her side and slid into his seat.

“Nice stain,” he said when he saw my shirt.

              “Thanks,” I said around the bite of pizza in my mouth. I looked around, expecting to see Margo come up behind him. “What? No miniature Finnegan-Shadow?”

              “She’s sitting with Jessica and that weird kid again,” Shannon said.

              “Rusty,” I said.

              “Whatever.”

              “You know, Rusty isn’t really that weird,” Finn said. “He just sees the world in a different way than the rest of us do.”

              “He blows his nose then studies the contents of the tissue for at least five minutes in public,” Shannon said. “The kid is weird.”

              “Eccentric at worst.”

              “You know what, Finn?” Shannon began in an accusatory tone, “I feel bad for Margo. I feel bad because her boyfriend has a crush on the weird kid.”

              “Rusty,” I said again.

              “Whatever!” She crossed her arms and glared at him even though I was the one who had corrected her.

Finn frowned at her. “Down girl!” Poor guy. He had no idea what was bothering his sister or why she was yelling at him. I wanted to tell him about my conversation with Charlie, but the look on Shannon’s face stopped me. She didn’t need reminding just then.

Usually I would have expected Shannon to blow up at Finn for being patronizing. Instead, she turned to me and her face got suddenly bright and cheery. “So Emily, did I tell you what Margo said about Finn this morning? Why she is so upset with him right now that she’s not sitting with us?”