“Okay. Well, gotta go,” she sings. “Chem test tomorrow.”
I wave goodbye and prepare for Leo’s gibe, but interestingly, none comes. And when I peek at him, his head is bent low over his book. Taking his cue, I do the same, reading half a chapter without absorbing a word of it.
He suddenly breaks the silence. “How about Napoleon and Josephine?”
I’m so wound tight, I burst into giggles.
“What?” He laughs along with me. “You don’t think that’s a good suggestion?”
I shake my head. “Zander’s five-foot-ten. And I don’t think he even knows who Napoleon is.”
Leo blinks incredulously. “How can someone who’s in college not know who Napoleon is?”
“Okay, maybe he knows he’s somebody important,” I concede. “But he probably thinks he’s Russian or German or something.”
I’m laughing and trying to act like everything’s fine, even though I’m unraveling. Lara’s the type of girl who was born to gossip. No doubt she’s back at her desk, frantically texting right now.I just saw Betts Peterson in the library with some guy!
I look at Leo. He’s chuckling and his eyes are shining, and he’s so. Damned. Good-looking. If he smiled at her like that when I introduced them, I’m double-doomed.
Her next text?The guy is! Looked like they were getting cozy!
I’m so screwed. I should get up and walk out and avoid Leo at all costs, but I can’t bring myself to move. I need a friend like him. Someone to talk to about the deeper things, about history and books and, yes, even psychic abilities. Do I find him attractive? Sure. But I know how to behave. I’ve always been a one-man woman and that’s not going to change.
So instead of running away, I do the opposite. I ensure my friendshipwith Leo will continue. “You have a phone, don’t you? Like a normal person?”
“I do have a phone,” he says. “But not like a normal person.”
Right, for a moment there, I forgot who I was talking to.
He explains, “I share it with my roommate.”
“Can you do that?”
“Sure. Why not?” He shrugs. “Here, give me yours.”
I watch as he enters his number into my phone. The name that comes up is Robin Fawkes.
“That’s my roommate. If you see her name, you know it’s from me.” He sends himself—and Robin Fawkes—a text so he’ll have my number.
“She has the phone right now?”
He nods. “So if you call me and I’m not the one who has it, it might be a little while until I can call you back.”
“Gotcha.” I smile as though it all makes perfect sense, but it doesn’t. “Do you live off campus?”
“Yeah. In Breakridge.”
I’ve been to a few wild parties at Breakridge. It’s a sprawling apartment complex on the outskirts of Alderford that rents mostly to students. There’s a good chance Liv and I will get a place out there next year if we don’t end up living in a sorority house.
Leo and I settle back into silence, reading side by side. He gets up only once, to put the book of critical essays back on the shelf. Every ten minutes or so he throws out another costume suggestion for Zander and me. But it’s not until he proposes Santa and Mrs. Claus that I realize he’s teasing. Now it’s a game.
“Superman and Lois Lane?”
“I prefer Spider-Man.”
“Gatsby and Daisy?”
“Too tragic.”
