Chapter 193
Before I could even get a statement of disbelief out of my mouth, Milo said, “It’s one thing to turn you down, but totally beyond disrespectful to then ask Jessica to go steady with him, just to rub it in your face.”
“Totally lame,” Wes agreed.
I didn’t have to defend myself. “WHAT?” Lucy exclaimed, pushing her tray of spaghetti away from herself. “You have got to be kidding me. That’s not even true! Cass doesn’t like Liam anymore—if she ever did. She turned him down for winter homecoming, remember?”
“Sure,” Wes replied, just sort of staring at her. “But… I’m just telling you what everyone has been saying.”
“So you don’t like him?” Milo asked.
I realized in the time it took Lucy to explain the situation to my other friends that none of it even mattered. If Liam needed to spread rumors about me to get his kicks, then so be it. And if he liked Jessica, which I thought he probably didn’t, but if he did, and she was happy, good for them. “No, I don’t like him,” I shrugged.
“Liam is a sleazeball.” Emma dropped her apple core into her sandwich bag and nodded at me, and I smiled.
Lucy was still irate. “Just wait. Wait until that little, puny moron sees the guy you’ve been hanging out with. Then he’ll be sorry.”
“Luce!” I exclaimed, hoping she’d keep Brandon out of this. “Those two things are not related.”
“Sure they are. Brandon is practically a man. Liam’s just a scrawny boychild with the mind of a pubescent…”
“Mealworm,” Emma offered.
“Precisely!” Lucy agreed. “Stupid William White….”
“Who’s Brandon?” Wes asked, his mouth almost too full to be understood.
“He’s… uh… the son of a friend. I saw him at my sister’s this weekend. He lives in Kansas City, though.”
“Cool. He’s a nice guy?” Milo asked.
“He is. But he’s not my boyfriend.” Thanks to my comments before we left Philadelphia, he probably never would be, either, even if I decided I’d made a terrible mistake.
“Maybe he’ll come and visit someday, and Liam can be put in his place,” Wes said. “Or… I can go put him in his place right now.”
I couldn’t help but smile that my friend wanted to be chivalrous. The boys would likely never know that I could rip Jessica’s arm off and beat Liam with it if I wanted to. “Thanks, but I honestly don’t care.”
“But the whole school thinks you asked him out,” Milo reminded me.
“And the whole school can bite me,” I replied. I was done with my lunch, even though most of it was still on my tray. I definitely wasn’t craving blood, but my appetite had been odd ever since the Transformation. “I’m going to go sit outside for a few minutes and make a phone call,” I said.
“If you go outside, everyone will think it’s true,” Emma warned me.
“That’s okay. I don’t care.” And I really didn’t. I couldn’t care less about what the kids at Shenandoah High School thought of me, and for once, I honestly felt silly wearing my cheerleading uniform. I took my tray and dumped it and headed out back to find a seat in the sun. It was a breezy late October day, but the temperature wasn’t too low, and I was comfortable. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and looked at it for a moment before I decided to call Brandon. I doubted he’d answer since he was likely in training, but surprisingly enough, he picked up on the second ring.
“What’s up, pretty lady?” he asked, and I was instantly smiling.
“Nothing,” I replied, realizing I didn’t feel like dumping any more Liam stories on him. “I just had a minute after lunch and thought I’d call and see how you’re doing, if you have a second.”
“I’m good. Your sister came and gave me a few more lessons on how to use my IAC, and I’m catching up on all sorts of history and stuff while I run on the treadmill. Of course, I took a break to talk to you, which Aurora doesn’t seem too happy about.” Then, he held the phone away from his mouth and said, I assume to the Hunter, “It’s Cass.” A second later he said, “She said to tell you hi.”
“You’ve been running on the treadmill?” I asked. “You don’t even sound winded.”
“Aw, thanks,” he replied. “Yeah, I was just getting warmed up. Five miles in… ten minutes. Not too shabby.”
“You’re running at thirty miles per hour?” I was whispering in case any of the few kids outside might be listening, but it was hard to keep the shock out of my voice.
“Yeah. Apparently, your sister can easily run thirty-five miles an hour for an hour, so I’ve got my work cut out for me. I wanna be faster than her.”
“I wonder how fast Aaron can run then.”
“I was told not to even think about being that fast. My understanding is there was some sort of an accident that caused him to be a lot faster than the rest of us, but I don’t know much about that, and the way Aurora is staring at me, I’m guessing I’m not supposed to ask.”
I couldn’t help but giggle. I could imagine the Amazonian woman staring him down. “Well, I have to get back to class, but I just wanted you to know… I was thinking about you. About your training, the IAC, everything.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” I wasn’t sure why that surprised him, unless he realized the first part of what I said was the truest. I’d been thinking about him. A lot.
“Well, that’s cool. I wish you were here.”
“Me, too.” I glanced at the time and knew I had to go. “All right. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“See you, Cass.”
When I walked back in, it seemed like the entire student body was looking at me, some of them snickering, others whispering. I swore I heard someone mention me “going off to cry.” I couldn’t believe Liam had made all of this happen in just a few hours, but then Elliott had proven that the power of suggestion was strong with this group. It was difficult, walking to class, pretending it didn’t bother me. Because as much as I didn’t really care what any of them thought, any time you’re in a situation where everyone is looking at you, it’s uncomfortable. It is for me, anyhow. I managed to make it to my next class, and once the teacher started talking, the whispering faded, at least for the length of the period. Something told me, I was in for a long afternoon. Part of me wished Brandon was there to shut them up. The rest of me just wanted Brandon there so that Brandon would be there….
