spoken to me, although it had obviously been rhetorical.
"I should have stayed at home," he continued to himself.
He tinkered with his phone, oblivious to the fact that I was even there. I felt a little embarrassed for both of us. Him for possibly being mentally unbalanced, and me for thinking it had anything to do with me.
Stowing the phone away, he looked up, and our eyes met. The smile that appeared on his handsome face was so huge and bright it was almost goofy. His dark eyes lit up as though I were the most interesting person he'd ever seen. I wondered if I had ink smeared on my face or something, and rubbed my cheek.
"Sorry to inflict my inner monologue on you," he said, tilting his head in my direction. "I have a bad habit of having full conversations with myself."
"That's okay," I said softly, not knowing what else to say. I didn't do well with attractive boys. And I really had no interest in them now. I figured he'd go on his way, so I could get back to zoning out. But he didn't leave.
"Ridiculous that I'm this late for my first day, huh?" he asked, and then shrugged. "I can't think of an excuse, either."
To my surprise, he came and sat in the cubby to my left.
"The truth is, I slept in, but I don't think I can tell them that," he continued. "Do you have any ideas that could help me in my situation?"
"Nope, fresh out," I said matter-of-factly, keeping my eyes locked on the words in my textbook, even though it was impossible to read them with him talking to me.
"Okay, how about this..." He held his hands out as if framing the scene. "I was trying to save a possum caught in the middle of the road..."
"Make the animal cuter," I offered. I didn’t know why I was helping him.
"Okay. I was trying to save a rabbit from being squashed. And once I saved him, I had to find his home. So I went trampling through the woods, and forgot about the time." He dropped his hands. "Do you think the ladies in the office will buy it?"
The tone of his appealing voice was low, like we were conspiratorial partners. His lips were full and moved interestingly as he talked. I scolded myself for noticing that.
"Actually, I think it's terrible," I admitted. "Your pants are spotless, which they wouldn't be if you had been running around the woods. Just tell the office people your parents had car trouble like a normal person."
"I'm not really a normal person," he divulged, and the silly smile was back. It made him look even more attractive, his eyes crinkling. It was the kind of smile that any other person would immediately return, but he got on my nerves with his perpetual good mood. It was mostly annoying because I couldn't reciprocate.
"Pretend to be. That's what I'm doing," I said.
"Interesting," he said, leaning closer, his brown eyes inquiring. "Mind telling me why?"
"Not really," I said. "Since I don't know you." I told myself I just wanted him to go away. Part of me didn't, however. I tried to ignore that part.
He stood up and started walking towards the central office, then turned around and said, "I'm Henry Rhodes. I'm the village idiot where I come from. There — now you know me."
I was silent for a second, studying him. He was possibly the strangest boy I'd ever met.
"I'm Ariel," I replied.
He nodded his head in my direction again with a smirk, and continued on his way to go spout some lame excuse to get out of a half day's worth of tardies. He practically had a strut to his step as I watched him disappear.
The name clicked two seconds after he walked away. Henry was the boy Lainey had claimed.
I walked into Honors American History later that day, and was surprised to see Henry sitting in the back row. Several jock guys sat in the desks surrounding him, football players and swimming team stars. It was almost as though we sat on two different sides of a chess board, with a bunch of pawns in between us.
Thinking he would finally ignore me, and not knowing exactly how I felt about that, I walked in. When he spotted me, however, he smiled again. I turned away from him, my face heating up. There was no way that our little interaction was going to go anywhere. I wouldn't consider getting in