Shades of Atlantis (5 page)

I turned to see Seth standing at the table, but I hadn’t heard him come in. He was looking at a sheet of paper in his hand, the staff work rotation.

“Sure,” I replied casually, closing the door of my locker.

Seth was as tall as Caleb and also had dark hair and dazzling blue eyes, although Seth’s had a sparkle of green to them, making them change color depending on the light. Today they were green. He thoughtfully tapped a pen against his straight bottom lip, his mouth slightly open. He was paler than Caleb and Joshua, too, but like them he always seemed to have a glow about him, like he radiated a warm light from within.

“Is there any chance you were considering
not
going to the winter formal at your school?” he asked doubtfully. Even his voice was suave; Seth exuded charm.

“I am going, actually,” I admitted, almost embarrassed. I found myself blushing at the prospect of a whole evening with Chris trying to paw at me.

“Oh, right.” He frowned. His eyes flickered at me, sparkling. “Any chance you’ll change your mind?”

Seth’s voice was oddly potent, as if there was something underlying it. I’d seen him do this to Jen when he wanted her to change shifts and to some of the customers. It was almost like he was sending them subliminal messages. I didn’t get it, and it seemed to frustrate him when I didn’t instantly agree.

“I can’t, really.” However appealing the idea of standing Chris up was, Amanda would probably lose it if I backed out now.

“Hmm.” Seth pouted as he eyed the schedule again, rubbing his thumb and forefinger down the razor sharp line of his jaw toward his squared chin. “That leaves Caleb with absolutely no servers on that night.” He glanced at me again persuasively. “Are you sure?”

Caleb was working. I flew through the list of likely outcomes for the night of the dance in my head. There was the possibility of being mauled by Chris, since I knew he would try. I shuddered. Seth’s eyes tightened as he watched me. Either Ben or I would end up in trouble for inevitably kicking Chris’s ass. I could cancel on Chris and stay home. Amanda would kill me, but this close to the dance it was looking much more appealing than outcome number one. The third outcome was even more appealing—namely, that I could work, telling Amanda it was that or lose the job and money that I so badly needed. I could spend the evening working with Caleb. He’d have to stay out in the dining room if we were short-staffed. I could be near him… I’m pathetic. Would I really go to those extremes just to spend an evening in the same room as the guy?

“Okay then,” I whined slowly. “You’ve convinced me. I’m not about to let you down when everyone else already has.” I faked my best resigned expression and sighed, trying not to smile.

“Great,” he exclaimed putting his arm around my shoulder triumphantly. “I knew I could count on you.”

I smiled pessimistically, knowing my acting skills weren’t up to much. He either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

“You’ll get a little extra in your paycheck for this.”

A whole evening around Caleb Wallace, and I was getting a bonus, too.

***

The next day I looked all over school for Chris. Of course on the day I actually wanted to see him, he couldn’t be found. Eventually, just before the last period before lunch, he strutted past me as I was going in the door to class.

“Hey there, gorgeous.” He smiled and winked at me, making a clicking noise with his tongue. He was so obnoxious.

The two guys with Chris, one walking on either side of him, leered at me with knowing smiles playing at their lips. I grimaced and clutched my books closer to my chest. I was wearing a turtleneck sweater for Pete’s sake. What were they gawking at?

“Actually, Chris, I need to talk to you about something if you have a minute?”

“Anything for you.” He winked again suggestively.

I raised an eyebrow at him quizzically, trying not to imagine what he was attempting to insinuate with that comment.

“I’ll catch up with you guys in class,” he finished, speaking toward his leering friends but not taking his eyes off me.

They moved on, thankfully, and Chris stood studying my face. I rubbed the side of my leg with one hand, still holding my books to my chest with the other. The crowds were moving from the hallway toward their respective classes. I was planning to keep this quick and hopefully painless—just like ripping a band aid off, I’d told myself. Unfortunately, now I was feeling a bit like a coward, and it wasn’t so easy.

“It’s about the formal…”

Chris’s eyes tightened; he suspected what I was about to say. Not that meat-headed after all.

“It’s just, well…” I continued in a muted voice trying to force the words out.

“You’re not going, are you?” he cut in, disbelieving.

I looked down, feigning regret, and then peeked up at him innocently from under my eyelashes. His expression was incredulous and furious at the same time.

“I can’t get the night off work,” I whispered.

“What?” he exclaimed loudly, his anger at me evident in his voice. “What kind of an excuse is that? It’s only a week away! What am I supposed to do now?”

I smiled guiltily. “I’m sorry, but I can’t lose my job, and you’ll get another date easily.”

“What, a week before the dance?” he shouted. “You’ll regret this.” There was an air of menace about his words. Chris leaned in toward me, backing me up against the door frame. This wasn’t going as well as I’d hoped.

“I wouldn’t do that, Baxter.” Ben’s voice boomed from behind us.

Damn, I didn’t want to cause trouble.

Chris glared back at Ben. “Or what?” he said with a sneer.

“Or you’ll have to deal with him and me.” Jonathan’s six-foot frame came out from behind Ben. Jonathan was sleek and brawny, and his athletic background showed in the sinewy muscles flexing in his coffee-colored forearms where his sleeves were rolled back.

Chris wasn’t about to fight with a teammate, but Jonathan would have no reservation in this particular scenario, where a guy was picking on a girl. Sensing defeat, Chris raised his hands with his palms forward and moved away.

“Okay, okay. She’s not worth it anyway,” he muttered.

Oh yeah
? I thought to myself,
you weren’t thinking that just a few minutes ago when it was just my younger brother.
Even though Ben was as tall as Jonathan, he was much slighter. People like Chris always thought that the ten-month age gap between us made Ben nothing more than a kid, even though we were in the same year.

Mr.
Cilmi
, our English teacher, was approaching us, coming up the hallway fast. “What’s going on here?”

“Nothing,” I claimed, but my face was beet red, giving me away. Jonathan relaxed his protective stance.

“Mr. Baxter?” Mr.
Cilmi
locked eyes with Chris, silently questioning him.

“Oh, we were just discussing the formal. Who’s driving, that kind of thing,” Chris lied convincingly with a slight smile on his face.

“Right,” Mr.
Cilmi
said, not as won over as I would have liked. “Maybe you should find your seats, then,” he continued, looking at Jonathan, Ben, and me. “And you should get to class too, Mr. Baxter,” he ordered.

We backed into the class, watching Chris spin on his heel and walk hurriedly down the hallway.

I made my way slowly to the back of the room and slumped into my seat next to Amanda.

“You okay?” Ben asked in a hushed voice, turning to me from his seat two rows up.

“Fine,” I mouthed wearily, as I opened the book of poetry on my desk.

“Mr. Pryor! When you’re ready?” Mr.
Cilmi
shouted sarcastically from the front of the classroom. “Or would you and your friends like to continue to delay class today?”

Ben twisted in his seat to face front and opened his book. I glanced over to Amanda. She pursed her lips sternly and looked away, ignoring me completely until the end-of-class bell pealed.

I took my time gathering my books, waiting for the onslaught from Amanda about the dance. She said nothing, just gave me a disappointed glance before stomping out the door ahead of me on her way to the cafeteria.

I stopped off at the restroom, so by the time I got to the cafeteria and threw some pasta salad and juice on my tray, Amanda, Jonathan, Ben, and Jen were already sitting at our regular table. I took a seat beside Amanda and silently began to play with my pasta, not putting any into my mouth. I wasn’t hungry. Jen had just come from gym class, which she had with Chris, and was in the process of informing us that Chris told everyone that
he
had cancelled on
me
. I could hazard a guess it was a pre-emptive strike to save his ego.

“I’ll set him straight,” Jonathan assured me before taking a bite of pizza.

“No, don’t even bother,” I mumbled. “I really couldn’t care less what he says to anyone.” I pushed my tray away.

I hated when Amanda was mad at me. She was turned away from me, her full attention pointedly on Jen. I glanced around the cafeteria over my shoulder and spotted several people staring at me and whispering.

“Shouldn’t people have more important things to think about?” I groaned.

“I hope this isn’t because of what I think it is,” Amanda said to me without looking in my direction, her tone clearly disgruntled.

“Well, if you think it’s the money, then you’re right,” I replied, trying to sound credible. “I’ve only got another few weeks of work as it is before the restaurant closes until March.”

A lot of places in the town closed for winter when the weather got too bad. The restaurant could have stayed open, there were enough customers most of the time, but it seemed no more than a hobby to Caleb, Joshua, and Seth. They clearly didn’t need the money. I counted myself lucky I would only be out of work for two months. I jammed a straw into my juice box a bit too hard, making orange juice splutter over the top of the straw and onto the table. Amanda turned her head, her lips pressed together dubiously, and handed me a tissue. As I mopped up the splatter of juice, her eyes tightened, analyzing me closely. I felt the blush on my cheeks.

“You know he has a girlfriend?” she snapped, her voice a little harsher than usual. She didn’t need to specify she was talking about Caleb. She knew I didn’t know. She said it to hurt me, and it worked. I felt a twinge in my chest.

“We don’t know that for sure,” Jen butted in. Her expression was a marginally more sympathetic.

My stomach turned over. I was glad I hadn’t eaten the pasta. Ben and Jonathan engrossed themselves in a conversation about football with two other guys at the opposite end of the table, conspicuously ignoring the female gossip at this end. Amanda sighed, and her expression eased a little, but I could still see the annoyance in her eyes.

“Jonathan’s parents were in Manhattan a few weeks back for a weekend, and they saw Caleb Wallace at a restaurant with a woman.”

I played with the straw, attempting to appear unbothered about the information Amanda was feeding me, even though I could feel my heart speeding. So what if he was out for dinner with a woman? It didn’t necessarily mean anything, and it was absolutely none of our business, anyway. Amanda took a breath and continued.

“Apparently she was stunning,” Amanda said. “Long, pale blond hair and amazing silver eyes—really beautiful and a little older than him by all accounts. Early thirties, Ellen guessed.” She raised an eyebrow at that bit of extra non-essential information, added purely for drama.

“Ellen didn’t say she was his girlfriend,” Jen corrected her, seeming indignant that Amanda was using a conversation between them to get at me.

“Anyway.” Amanda glared at Jen for interrupting. “He was very animated and very emotional when he was talking to her, and then Jen heard him on the phone talking about her.” She looked to Jen for affirmation.

My breathing was slightly unsteady, and I made an effort to cover it. My friends thought I was making a fool of myself. Maybe I should have just stuck to the original plan and gone to the dance with Chris. I looked around and spotted Chris walking into the cafeteria. If looks could kill, I would have dropped like a stone. The Chris option was well off the table. Amanda nudged Jen in the ribs with her elbow.

“Ouch!” Jen exclaimed, moving her seat further away from Amanda. Then, relenting, she turned to me. “I was in the kitchen last week after work, and the office door was open. I could hear Caleb on the phone talking to someone about a woman. He was going on about how he was finding it harder every day to stay away from her and that he couldn’t stop thinking about her.” She paused, apparently reluctant to tell me any of this. Her eyes flickered to Amanda with irritation. “He said she was making him feel like he was losing his mind. He didn’t even hear me knock on the door to tell him I was going until the third time I tried.”

My stomach hurt. I was just a silly schoolgirl with a silly schoolgirl crush. It was embarrassing. I was too old for this.

“He’s kind of bizarrely intense, isn’t he?” Amanda added. The annoyance faded from her face, leaving her looking like she just felt sorry for me, and her head tilted to the side. She was considering something, planning.