“So is that your big problem? How to better avoid Felix and Matt? With Felix I think the running in the opposite direction thing you’ve got going on is really productive. And it sends a good message. He’ll stay away soon enough.”
That plan had failed entirely. If anything, I wanted to be closer to Felix than before. Which was seriously freaking me out now. I thought I could figure out a way to convince my uncle to tell me the truth about my father on my own. But the few times I’d mentioned it since Friday night, he’d quickly changed the subject. And now it was all that I could think about. Well, that and kissing Felix. Which just reminded me of the questions about my father.Ugh. Gross.
“No, that’s not my big problem. My problem is that my uncle mentioned that my father used to live in the city. What if he still does? What if he has other kids? What if one of his other kids goes here? Or his brother or sister’s kid? Or something else like that?”
Kennedy shrugged. “It hardly changes anything for you.” She took another huge bite.
“Of course it does. What if I’m related to Felix? What if I kiss my half-brother? Or cousin? Or worse?”
Kennedy started choking and spit her spaghetti all over her tray. “Wait, did Felix kiss you?”
“You’re missing the point! I could be related to him.”
“But did you kiss him?”
“No. I got hit in the face during dodgeball and ended up at the nurse.” I gestured to my nose which was still red from the icepack. “Oh…and there’s the little fact that I might be related to him! Of course I didn’t kiss him!”
Kennedy took a huge breath. “Well that’s good. You should probably not ever kiss him then.”
“You’re not helping.”
“That’s just my honest opinion. You shouldn’t kiss him because you might be related to him.” She shrugged and started eating again.
“I was kind of hoping this conversation would lead you to helping me figure out who my father is.”
“Why? You said your father didn’t want you. So you shouldn’t want him in your life either. Period.”
I put my elbows on the table and leaned forward as far as I could. “Did you not hear the fact that I could be related to someone in this school?” I whispered. “How am I supposed to live like that?”
“By not kissing Felix.”
Kennedy was exasperating today. It was like all she cared about was whether or not I kissed Felix. She was completely missing the bigger picture. “I need your help. You know my uncle better than I do. Can you try to get the information out of him?”
“I don’t know if I know him better than you…”
“You grew up next door to him. You call him Uncle Jim. Your mom and him are basically best friends.”
“Fine. I’ll see what I can do. But it might take some time.”
“Thank you.” Hopefully it wouldn’t take that much time. I couldn’t always get drunk or hit in the face with a ball to avoid kissing Felix. And I was afraid I’d have to if I was going to be able to resist him.
Kennedy twirled some spaghetti on her fork. “What if you really are related to Felix? Wouldn’t that be hilarious?”
“No. Clearly I don’t find it hilarious. What’s up with you today?”
She shrugged. “Nothing. I’m having an excellent day.”
“Okay, weirdo.”
She made a kissy face. “Love you back, weirdo.”
***
Matt was incredibly easy to avoid. As usual, he didn’t glance at me as he sat down at the desk in front of mine. I eavesdropped on his conversation with Rob. They were talking about the football game on Friday. Apparently, Matt got a touchdown and everyone loved him. Yadda yadda.
I knew Matt would never talk to me in class. He’d made that pretty clear. So why did I still stare at the back of his perfect head when he was such a jerk? Unlike the rest of the student body, I no longer viewed him as a god. Gods didn’t ice people out of their lives so blatantly. And then pretend to care at parties. He was as flawed as the rest of the Untouchables. And I no longer wanted to touch.
I stared at my blank notebook page instead. Maybe I was putting too much weight on the whole not knowing my dad thing. I mean, what were the odds that I was actually related to Felix? Pretty slim. My mother and I weren’t well off. I doubt she mingled with anyone rich enough to have kids or nephews in this school. Besides, my uncle would have told me if I was about to do something terrible.Right?He wouldn’t just let me run aroundkissing my brother. Absolutely not. But I also hadn’t told my uncle about Felix… I was going to have to tell my uncle that I liked someone. That could get the truth out of him.
