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rag him off to fill his plate. I was happy to see that he had the ability to
feel somewhat comfortable there. I was also a little annoyed to feel a smal
l amount of jealously, which was not at all like me. But then, I d never rea
lly had anyone to be jealous over before.
It was Teresa Milldrum with her curly blonde hair, wearing a denim skirt, cu
t even shorter than the ones that the cheerleaders wore, who snatched me fro
m the table and toured the buffet with me. She was more than happy to point
out all of the carbs that my barbequed-chicken pizza had in it, and made fac
es as she sat next to me at the table while she watched me down it. Milo was
on the other side, fending off a few girls when they had the nerve to ask h
im which school had prettier girls, ours, or Stratfort. As I listened to him
, I think I was surprised more than anything at how charming he could be. He
was holding out chairs and offering to refill drinks. Maybe I shouldn t hav
e been that shocked, but it was definitely a side of him I d never seen, and
the fact that these girls were the ones bringing it out of him only served
to increase any jealousy I was feeling. But I shoved it down because Milo wa
sn t only being polite to them, he was also smiling at me again, talking to
me like two friends would, and he seemed comfortable about it. At least, unt
il my friends found us.
We d been there for fifteen minutes when Caleb, Joe and Haily found us. I d
expected that to happen sooner or later, which is why I hadn t gone looking
for them. Joe and Caleb liked the table I d chosen a lot more than Haily did
, but from across the table, all three of them kept looking between Milo and
me, obviously wanting to say something. At least they had the decency not t
o. I think they were trying to ignore Milo, as much as Milo was trying to ig
nore them. For my part, I acted like Milo sitting at our table was an everyd
ay occurrence, and as usual, talked to everyone. I thought it was very cleve
r of me, when I mentioned to Caleb that Milo knew a lot of girls from Stratf
ort. Milo had glared at me for it at the time, but when Caleb started seeing
him as an opened doorway to a whole new dating territory, and Milo offered
to introduce him to a few girls, the two of them seemed to warm to each othe
r, if only a little. It only lasted until Rebecca showed up at our table and
slapped Caleb in the back of the head, though. He had to go after her to ma
ke sure that he still had his date for homecoming. I was smiling when Joe pi
cked right up where Caleb left off, wanting to know about the Stratford girl
s. Of course, all of this talk about girls ended up making the ones already
surrounding us jealous. Teresa Milldrum couldn t figure out if she wanted to
cling to me, or Milo. I cursed Joe when he gave a pen to one of the cheerle
aders, because he wasn t the only one who ended up with phone numbers writte
n all the way up his arm. Haily pretty much sat across the table, scowling a
t us.
After dinner, when we headed to the school, I was not at all happy when Milo
and I were abruptly separated. Teresa Milldrum and a few other girls invite
d themselves into his car, packing it full of shaved legs and perfume. This
left Haily to drag me to Caleb s jeep as I worried over being able to find M
ilo in the crowds when we actually got to the rally. It seemed I had other t
hings to worry about first, though.
"That guy s a putz," Joe remarked from the back seat of Caleb s jeep, where
he was sitting with Haily.
"Who?" I asked, frowning. I already didn t like where this was going.
"Oh, come on, Nels," Joe said, as if it were obvious. I guess it was.
"Yeah. Okay," I responded dryly. "Fuck you."
"Hey, I m saying..."
"He s a pretty cool guy, Joe," I cut him off. "Don t even start talking shit
unless you know what the fuck you re talking about."
"Dude," Caleb cut in, reaching over to tap my shoulder. "Hey, it s okay, Nels
. Let s just drop this, guys."
I gritted my teeth, and stared out my window, fuming. It was never a good sig
n when Caleb became the voice of reason. But, I found it best to listen to hi
m as we all went silent. It was a better idea than to try reasoning with Joe,
especially since it was pointless to try to reason with a complete jackass.
"It s just..." Haily s voice spoke up timidly. "We don t get why we re hangi
ng out with him."
"No shit," Joe muttered.
"Because he s my friend," I snapped.
"We re your friends," Caleb said quietly, focusing on the road.
"Well so is he," I stated.
"That s fucking stupid," Joe remarked, and I turned to glare at him. He was
leaning back in his seat with an almost bored expression on his face. At one
time, I might have found it sexy. Now, I wanted to beat it off of him.
"You know, what the fuck has he ever done to you, Joe?" I demanded.
Joe snorted. "Are you kidding? All that shit last summer..."
"Oh, fuck that!" I cut him off. "It was more our fault than theirs."
Joe rolled his eyes. "If you re talking about those pictures again..."
"They were paintings, Joe! Really good fucking paintings, and you ruined the
m! Shit..." I took in a breath, trying to calm myself. "Dude, think of it th
is way. What if someone fucked with your Mustang?" That got his attention, a
nd he sat up in his seat, glaring at me like I was an asshole even for sugge
sting it. "It s the same thing with Milo s paintings."
"That is not the same thing," Joe objected.
"Well... maybe it is to him," Haily said quietly, and I smiled at her.
"Thank you, Haily."
She flashed me a small smile that didn t quite reach her eyes, and I turned b
ack around.
"Look," I said. "It s not like we re hanging out with Jame Graham. I m tell
ing you, Milo s cool. It s not gonna kill anyone to give him chance before
you decide you hate him."
"We didn t say we hated him," Haily insisted. "We just... never mind."
"Hey," Caleb said, glancing over at me. "If he s cool with you... it s fine, o
kay?"
I gave a slight nod as I removed my beanie from my jacket pocket and pulled
it back on my head, but I felt skeptical. I didn t necessarily see my frie
nds ever wanting Milo Trust hanging around. I was beginning to realize just
how much I cared about what my friends thought, and in my whole life, I d
never wanted to be more wrong.
.................................................
The outdoor lights lit the school, guiding our way past the football field.
I hadn t understood why the rally wasn t being held indoors because of the w
eather until we reached the small crowd and realized that the school had put
together a bonfire. Faces glowed in the dark as the flames lit the sky, and
the subtle breeze kept most of the smoke off of us. It was more of a bother
seeing my breath in front of my face as I buttoned up my jacket against the
cold.
Milo found me easily. Teresa Milldrum was with him, practically attached to
his arm. I frowned at this, but decided against calling her a slut and ord
ering her off my Milo. She looked miserable enough already in her short ski
rt. Her teeth were chattering, just like the cheerleaders, who were already
going through their routines, trying to keep warm as they cheered on the H
eywell Otters. Yes, Otters. My theory was that the same moron who came up w
ith our school colors came up with the name of our football team, too.
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