Chapter 481
If Heather noticed me choking, she didn’t say anything. We were in the lobby now. I called the elevator with my IAC, a little disappointed that my friend Juan Diego wasn’t hanging out in the lobby so I could practice my horrible Spanish, but it was just as well. I needed to get to Brandon’s apartment. He’d asked me a few minutes ago if I was headed that way, and when I’d said yes, I imagined he’d gone ahead and started lunch.
Heather hummed along to the Muzak in the elevator, some deranged version of “Stairway to Heaven” that was barely recognizable. We didn’t talk anymore, and when I got to my floor, I smiled and waved so as not to interrupt her jamming out to the chorus and bounded off to Brandon’s apartment. Despite my recent disposition, I was excited to see him. I knocked on the door with a little extra bounce in my step.
He pulled the door open with a smile. “Hello, beautiful,” he said in his nothing-is-wrong voice. “How was training?”
“Good,” I said giving him a quick kiss before I came inside. I expected to smell grilled cheese, but that’s not the scent that hit me when I walked in. Instead, it was the familiar scent of pepperoni and cheese. There was a pizza box on the coffee table, two Dr. Peppers, some paper plates, and a couple of napkins. I hoped my face didn’t reveal how disappointed I was. I mean, he had said lunch, not that he was intending to cook. I had just assumed....
“Since you didn’t get to go to Pizza Triangle with us last night, I thought we should have pizza for lunch.” He gestured at the presentation, and I tried to get over my shattered expectations. He wasn’t required to cook for me, after all. Besides, was grilled cheese really any different than ordering pizza?
“Thanks,” I said, dropping onto my usual spot on the sofa. I think he may actually eat pizza fourteen times a week, maybe more if one counts breakfast pizza. Brandon’s obsession with pizza is akin to Elliott’s obsession with Cheetos.
“Yeah, sure. So... you ready for school to start?” He sat down next to me in his usual spot and handed me a paper plate.
I hadn’t even been thinking about school. Normally, I would be back already. Emma had started before Labor Day. With everything going on with Cadence and Aaron and the portal, I’d decided to ask to start my online classes a few weeks later than everyone else, including Lucy. The school I attend is very flexible because a lot of students are athletes or actors, etc., so they’d agreed. I’d still have the same amount of work this semester as the rest of the seniors, I’d just have a few less weeks to work on it.
Brandon had already started his college classes, like a few days after he came back from the portal. It was so weird to think he was in college now. He’d still be able to help me with my math, but we wouldn’t be enrolled in the same classes, so he wouldn’t be able to take the tests ahead of me and give me a heads up on how hard they were. So, no, I wasn’t ready. I couldn’t even think about it at the moment. I was glad I was almost done with high school. Maybe I wouldn’t go to college right away. Cadence had dropped out before she finished her first semester, and she wasn’t a delinquent.
“I’d rather not think about it,” I said, putting a piece of pizza on my paper plate as Brandon loaded his up with three slices. I knew he’d eat most of the pie himself, which was fine with me. I wasn’t feeling it anyway. He handed me a bottle of pop, and I unscrewed the lid with my powers and took a sip, hoping I could choke back just the one slice of pepperoni.
“Yeah, it’ll be different than last year. But you can handle it. Algebra II should’ve prepared you just fine for calc.”
I smiled. I knew he’d taken Algebra II last year, along with calc, because I was in the easier class and he wanted to be able to help me with it. I wasn’t ready for calculus, but my mom insisted I take it because she didn’t want me to be a senior with no math class. I didn’t understand that reasoning, but I’d signed up. I’d be taking four online classes—Chemistry II, English Literature IV, Calculus, and American History II. The lit and history classes should be easy enough but the chemistry and calculus were bound to keep me busy and asking for a lot of help. I wished my schedule was as easy as Lucy’s. She only needed three more credits to graduate (technically, so did I, but my mom was making me take math) and they sounded so easy. Physical science, World literature, and Spanish II. She didn’t need another history credit and wasn’t interested in taking one. Juan Diego was helping her with her Spanish, so she’d do just fine in that class. Sometimes, I start to get a little jealous of how easy Lucy has it and then I remember what happened to her dad and I feel like a brat. She deserves for some things to be easy.
Brandon was asking questions about training, and I was trying to answer them, even though I was torn between worrying about school starting and my presentation to the committee that night. My answers were in tune enough with his questions that I didn’t sound like I wasn’t listening, I guessed, since he didn’t ask me if I was okay, not until he was done with his fifth slice of pizza and noticed I’d hardly touched mine. “What’s the matter, Cass?” he asked, eyeing the half-piece on my plate. “Taste okay?”
“Oh, yeah, it’s fine,” I tried to assure him. “It’s just... I guess I just don’t love pizza quite as much as you do, that’s all.”
“Oh.” He looked sad, like I’d popped his balloon or knocked his ice cream cone out of his hand. “I thought you liked the pizza from the place next door.”
“No, I do.” I took another bite, a big one. With food still in my mouth, I said, “It’s good. I’ve just got a lot on my mind.”
He nodded but I could still see some hurt in his eyes. “I can make you something else.”
“No, it’s fine.” I took another bite, the slice almost gone now. I wanted to say I wished he’d asked what I wanted last night, but there was no point in acting like a child. “It’s good.”
