Chapter 82
By the end of the week, the cheerfulness had died down a little bit. Though it was no longer the frenzy it had been before, people were still acting strange. I wondered what they would think of themselves in a few months when they were no longer brainwashed to believe every day was the best day ever and saw the videos they’d posted all over social media of themselves during this time of unruly giddiness.
“You coming to my house this weekend, Cass?” Lucy asked, picking the larger chunks of hamburger out of the pasta and meat concoction on her tray. I never understood why she got that when she hardly even ate half of it. “You haven’t been over for weeks.”
It was unusual how long it had been since I’d paid her a visit. I was just having a really hard time hanging out with either of my friends when I couldn’t tell them the truth about everything I’d discovered. Still, I needed to make an effort. “Uh, sure,” I replied.
“Cool. Milo and Wes are coming over Saturday afternoon to watch movies, and then we’ll have a girls’ night. Em’s coming—right Em?”
“Yes. I’m coming.”
The chipperness had worn off of her the quickest of all, I thought. She wasn’t acting paranoid like she had been Monday morning before Elliott got to her, but she was still acting funny, like a rain cloud was hanging over her head. She was never the type to be giddy for no reason, but this was taking it to a whole new level and it had me concerned. Would I have to stage Elliott interventions every week or so?
Lucy continued to talk about how much fun we were going to have, and I half-listened, half-stared at the back of Liam White’s head. We had an algebra test coming up in a couple of weeks, and I really hoped he’d ask me to help him study again. I remembered the last time. We’d sat at my dining room table, and he’d “accidentally” brushed my hand. It’d been magical.
“Cass? Are you even listening? Or are you too busy trying to see through Liam’s skull?”
Lucy’s voice was annoyed but not loud. “Sorry,” I muttered, returning my attention to my cheeseburger. “I was mostly listening.”
She only made a dejected sound. “Anyway, my mom won’t be there, only my dad, so he won’t care how loud we get.”
“Are we going to use his man cave?” Emma asked. “The last time we were down there, it smelled like… feet.”
I remembered the conversation. Emma had an overly sensitive nose.
“Sandy cleaned it really good this week. Promise.” Sandy was the housekeeper who cleaned Lucy’s ginormous house once a week.
“She better have used something stronger than Febreze,” Emma muttered, picking the crust off of her ham and cheese sandwich.
The two of them continued to spat and I realized my cell phone was buzzing. I pulled it out of my pocket and saw that it was my sister. It was super odd for her to call me during the middle of the day, but then, she knew my lunch time, too. “I’ve gotta take this,” I said, standing up and walking toward the hallway where it would be slightly quieter. “Hello?”
“Hey, Cass, sorry to bother you at school. I only had a few minutes, so I thought I’d give you a buzz. You’re at lunch, right?” Cadence asked.
“Yeah,” I replied, stopping just inside the hallway, nowhere near the classroom doors. The last thing I needed was to get in trouble for disturbing the other students while I was on my phone. “What’s up?”
“Nothing much.” Her voice sounded morose, like she was having a really tough day. “I just needed to hear your voice.”
While it made me happy to know my big sister was missing me, I couldn’t help but ask, “Are you okay? Is it Aaron?”
Cadence let out a really loud sigh. I knew she didn’t like to talk about stuff like that with me. But maybe she felt like she had nowhere else to turn. I couldn’t imagine Elliott was the best person to talk to about this sort of thing. He was good friends with Aaron from what I had gathered. “Yeah,” she said, her tone even more melancholy than before. “It’s just so hard to see the two of them together every day.”
My stomach turned over. “I bet.” It made me angry, thinking of the two of them flaunting their relationship in front of her. “What a jerk face.”
“I mean… he’s been very careful to sort of stay away from her in front of me, which is nice, I guess. But… she’s such a….” Her voice trailed off. I know the word she had settled on, but she wouldn’t say it to me.
I agreed. “Has he at least said he was sorry?” I asked, though I wasn’t sure why I was trying to get him off the hook. Maybe I wasn’t. Maybe I just wanted her to focus on the positive.
“He has. Through Elliott. I won’t talk to him.”
I wondered about that eye thingy he’d told me about. Could Aaron talk to her through her IAC? Did that count? I couldn’t ask that. “I don’t blame you. At least he said he’s sorry. But then… why is he still with her?”
Cadence sighed so loudly I had to pull my phone away from my ear. I saw my algebra teacher, Mr. James, walking down the hallway and took a step back toward the cafeteria so he’d remember I was at lunch. He left me alone. “I don’t know. He says it’s complicated.”
Elliott had said the same thing. “Well, I guess, try not to worry about it. Just focus on your job. I’m sure that’s hard, what with him being your boss and all, but he’s not always there on your hu---missions, is he?” I’d almost said hunts. I’d almost given it all away. Would she notice?
