Complete Nothing (15 page)

“I know,” he replied, looking relieved over my apology. “But it looks like the Claudia and Peter plan is starting to come together.”

“Yeah,” I said lightly. “Hopefully.”

He nodded. I looked around the room again. If he wasn’t talking to my mother, and I knew he wasn’t talking to some dude from work, then who the hell had he been talking to?

“Well, I was going to turn in,” Hephaestus said suddenly. “Unless there was something else?”

I sighed. “No. Nothing. Have a good night.”

I walked out and closed the door behind me, feeling like a suspicious nutcase. Like a failure. And somehow, even more certain that Hephaestus was keeping secrets from me. Big, fat secrets.

“So then he gets up on the stage and reads this poem asking me to homecoming. . . .” Katrina beamed as she trailed off and looked over at Charlie.

“Pretty much the most humiliating moment of my life,” he said, shaking his head at the french fries on his plate.

“No! It was sweet! Everyone loved it.” Katrina rubbed his back, then leaned in to kiss his cheek. “
I
loved it.”

“As long as
you
loved it,” he said. “But I guarantee you I’m not going back to open mic poetry night at the library anytime soon.” Then he glanced up at Katrina. “Unless you’re reading, of course.”

I beamed across the lunch table at them—my big success story. It was just the three of us today, since Hephaestus had discovered this morning that the school had a functioning metal workroom in the arts wing and I was pretty sure I was never going to see him again. The good news was, being around Charlie and Katrina made me feel more confident that I would find a way to bring Peter and Claudia back together. It was just a matter of time.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have too much of that. Just ask the rapidly
emptying sand timer on my desk and the ever-looming threat of the AA twins.

“I got you a present.”

Wallace announced his arrival by tossing a wrapped gift on the table in front of me. He wasn’t one for hellos and good-byes, this one. I looked up as he grabbed a chair and sat at the end of the table. He was wearing a faded Star Wars T-shirt and plaid shorts along with battered flip-flops, and totally making the look work. Geek chic, I believe it was called.

“What’s this for?”

Wallace lifted a shoulder. “My mom always says, ‘When you see a need, fill it.’ That’s why she’s the CEO of a major multinational food chain,” he said matter-of-factly. “This is something you need, and I had one I didn’t want anymore, so now it’s yours.”

Charlie raised his eyebrows at me, intrigued. I tore open the package. Nestled into layers of tissue paper was a phone that looked exactly like Wallace’s, with the earbuds already attached.

“You’re giving me a cell phone?” I asked.

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. For my first couple of weeks on Earth I’d considered cell phones my enemy—the insidious monster that kept teens everywhere from experiencing actual interpersonal communication. But then I remembered the music. And I knew after watching Peter with his phone last night as he pined for Claudia, and hearing how mere texts between Keegan and Claudia had sent him over the edge, they might have some purpose in my mission. Slowly I was coming around to the idea that cell phones weren’t so bad. And now I had one of my very own. I was going to have to ask my mother to set up the account, but I was sure she would. She’d just gotten her own credit card, and if the shopping bags strewn throughout her room last night were any indication, she loved using it.

“It’s the last generation, so it’s not as cool as mine, but yeah. You can do everything you want with it,” Wallace said. “And I already downloaded some classical.”

“Wallace! This is too much!”

“What’re friends for?” he replied.

I got up to wrap my arms around his shoulders and planted a smacking kiss on his cheek, moved by the generosity of this person I barely knew. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

He was blushing by the time I sat down again.

“I’m Charlie Cox, by the way,” Charlie said, lifting a hand.

“Oh, hey. Wallace Bracken.” He lifted his chin at Katrina. “Hey, Kit Kat.”

“Hey, Wall-E,” she replied.

Charlie and I shared a confused glance.

“Day camp nicknames,” Katrina explained. “We had a counselor who couldn’t remember anyone’s names, so he made up nicknames for us. It was like a million years ago, but you don’t forget an entire summer being named after a chocolate bar.”

“Or a robot,” Wallace put in. “He probably woulda called you Chuck E. Cheese,” he said to Charlie.

“And you would have been True Dat,” Katrina added with a laugh, biting into an apple.

I laughed and unwound my earbuds, feeling relaxed for the first time in days.

“Hey, guys.”

My heart took a twisting, flipping dive into the depths of my stomach. Orion was hovering behind Wallace’s shoulder, holding his lunch tray. He wore a dark blue T-shirt that clung to his biceps, and had a bit of stubble on his chin and cheeks that reminded me of his first few days on Earth. The days when we were just getting to know each other.

“ ’Sup, Orion?” Charlie said. “Why don’t you sit with us?”

“Yes!” I could have hugged Charlie for suggesting it. And the closest empty chair just happened to be next to me. I pulled it out and grinned. “Please, sit with us. I need to get to know my football player better.”

Orion’s smile widened, nearly breaking my heart. “Okay. Sure.”

He glanced uncertainly at Wallace as he skirted past him and took the chair next to mine. As he sat, our knees touched, and a shot of attraction zoomed up my leg so hot and fast I almost passed out. Orion froze for a second. Had he felt it too?

“Sorry about that,” he said, clearing his throat.

“No, it’s . . . I’m fine.” I put my new phone back in its box and then suddenly didn’t know what to do with my hands. My stomach was in knots, so eating the macaroni salad in front of me wasn’t an option. Finally I placed them awkwardly in my lap, folding them together like some nineteenth-century student at a convent school in Italy, elbows out, back straight, ready to listen and learn.

“How’re your classes?” Charlie asked Orion, reaching for his iced tea.

“Pretty good,” Orion replied. “I don’t know why they stuck me in art ninth period, though.” He glanced over at me. It was one of the many classes we shared. “Mrs. Fabrizi’s kind of out there, right?”

“I like her,” I said. “She says what she thinks.”

“Saying what she thinks is one of True’s special talents,” Charlie said with a laugh.

“Oh yeah? What do you think of me?” Orion asked confidently, leaning his elbows on the table.

I gulped. My throat suddenly seemed the size of a drinking straw.
I think you’re incredible. I think there’s no one in the universe
like you. I think I want to spend the rest of my existence by your side.

But instead of gushing, I shook my hair back and narrowed my eyes at him. “I think you’re cocky, but in a good way. I think you’re going to get everything you want in life. And I think you’re going to find true love.”

“That’s her other special talent,” Katrina said, reaching for Charlie’s hand. “True’s a matchmaker.”

“Bonus,” Orion said, his eyes sparkling. “So who do you think I should—”

“What about me?” Wallace interjected.

I turned to look at him. He sat straight in his chair, his dark bangs shoved back from his forehead.

“What about you what?” I asked.

“Do me. What do you think of me?”

I smiled. “I think you’re sweet and giving and caring and very smart.”

To my right, Orion shifted in his seat and shoved a fistful of french fries into his mouth.

Wallace’s eyes widened. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” I replied.

“I’m gonna go get you some ice cream.” Wallace pushed his seat back and stood.

“That’s really not necessary,” I told him. “You’ve reached your gift quota for the day.”

“No. It really
is
necessary. No one’s ever said anything that cool to me before,” he replied. “Anyone else want anything?”

“I’m good!” Katrina and Charlie said as one.

“No, thanks,” Orion mumbled.

“Be right back.”

Wallace took off for the front of the room and I faced forward,
trying as hard as I could to act natural when Orion’s skin was mere inches from mine. I reached for my new phone and realized that I was smiling. Here I was, with my friends and the boy I loved, eating lunch, playing with my new cell phone. For five whole seconds, I felt like a normal teenage girl.

And I kind of liked it.

Nothing. I knew nothing. I was the dumbest dumb-ass in the history of dumb-ass Lake Carmody High. I tossed my quiz paper onto Mr. Flannery’s desk, walked out into the hall, and punched the first locker I saw. It made an awful, loud clanging noise, and my hand exploded in pain as if every one of my fingers had just been blown to bits.

“What the hell was that?” Gavin asked, coming up behind me.

“I thought the quiz was on the 1950s, not the sixties!” I shouted. Up and down the hall, people were staring in my direction. Of course they were. I’d just dented some poor kid’s locker and probably looked like a maniac. Near the doors to the stairwell, some dude in a Superman costume was hugging his girlfriend. Another happy couple going to homecoming. “I studied the wrong effing decade!” I said through my teeth.

“We already took the fifties quiz last week,” Gavin told me, grabbing the arm of my varsity jacket to turn me around—away from the spectators and the Man of Steel. “How did you study the same shit again?”

I squeezed my eyes shut as I shook my head. “I don’t know. I
usually study with Claudia. She would never’ve let me do that.” I stopped near the end of the hall and leaned back against the wall, smacking the back of my skull against the hard brick. It hurt, but I didn’t care. “I’m such an asshole. I completely flunked.”

Gavin sighed and looked back toward Flannery’s room. “Maybe you should tell him what happened. He might let you retake it.”

“Then I’ll look like an even bigger idiot,” I protested. “Who doesn’t remember that they already took a quiz on something?” I pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes hard enough to pop them into the back of my skull. “I was just so tired. . . . I knew it sounded familiar.” I banged my head into the wall again. This time I saw actual stars. “I’d rather just fail.”

With a groan, I rounded the corner and saw Claudia standing at her locker with Lauren. I froze. She looked so beautiful in a red dress with short sleeves and a wide collar that showed off her long neck. Suddenly I needed to talk to her more than anything. I had to. There was no getting around it.

Without giving myself a chance to double-think the decision, I walked right up to her, leaving Gavin in the dust. She turned to stone as she saw me coming and tried to keep talking to Lauren, but I knew she’d seen me, because her cheeks turned bright red. My heart was in my throat.

“Can I talk to you?” I asked.

Lauren gave her this look like
What do I do?

“It’s okay,” Claudia told her.

“I’ll be right over there,” Lauren replied.

She shot me this unreadable stare before walking over to stand by Gavin. The two of them just hung out by the corner and watched us, like we were about to burst out singing. Claudia turned to her locker and started rearranging books.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hi.” Her voice was strained.

“Um . . . hey,” I said again. God. This was not going well.

“That’s what you came over here to say? Hey?” she asked.

I cleared my throat. “Um, no. I just . . .” The scent of her flowery perfume was making my head fuzzy. “Can you just look at me, please?”

She hesitated a second before looking into my eyes, then she nervously looked away.

“This is how it’s gonna be now?” I asked. “You can’t even look at me?”

Her jaw dropped. “You’re the one who broke up with me.”

Yeah, but I take it back,
I wanted to say.
I take back every word.

But when I opened my mouth, the words choked in my throat. Because if we got back together now, we’d just have to break up again in a few months. Besides, she’d already moved on. And so had I, I told myself, trying to up my spirits.

“I know. I know. But can’t we . . . I don’t know . . . be friends or something?” My heart was desperate. I wanted more than anything to just reach out and touch her. Take her hand, pull her into me, kiss the top of her head. But I couldn’t. I wasn’t allowed to anymore. And it was my fault.

She made this soft but sort of strangled noise, then slammed her locker. Her eyes darted past my shoulder, and she paled. I glanced over and saw that Josie, Jessa, and a couple of their other girlfriends had joined Gavin, and they were watching us with a disgusted kind of glare.

“How would that work, exactly?” Claudia said. “You’ve always had your friends,” she added, nodding over at the cheerleaders.
“And I’ve always had mine. At least now we don’t have to make them pretend to like each other anymore.”

She started to walk away.

“Claudia,” I said. “Come on.”

“Friends is not something we were before, Peter,” she said quietly, looking at the floor. “And it’s not something I want to be now.”

Then she walked over to Lauren, grabbed her arm, and steered her around the corner, before I could even come up with another word to stop her.

I could feel my cells bouncing around inside my veins and under my skin as I waited for Liza to announce Peter’s name at our last pep rally run-through before the real deal. The whole football team was out on the basketball court in one long line, facing the bleachers, having already heard their positions and names announced. Now they were just waiting for their leader. The boosters stood behind them, between the locker room and their backs, lined up to face each other, since we’d be holding pom-poms and pennants and signs for the players to run through tomorrow. Flanked out on either side of our two lines were the cheerleaders, a few varsity and JV on each side. My sister was behind me. So was Josie the Big-Lipped Girl. I held my breath as Liza called him out.