Gravity - By Abigail Boyd Page 0,32

eyes.

"Maybe I won't let you run away."

My throat tightened, my breath catching. I had no idea what to say. I couldn't look away from him.

After a second, his face broke into his usual smile, his eyes softening. "Okay, that was too big bad wolf, huh? I try for cool and it comes out corny."

"It was a bit corny," I pretended to agree. It had not been the least bit corny. "But I'd be grateful not to flunk." I really did need the help, I reasoned with myself. So what if it came from someone cute? It didn't make the potential knowledge any less useful. As long as I could focus enough on the math to retain it.

"Good. Here's my number." He flipped to a blank page in my sketchbook and scribbled the digits upside down, so that they were right side up for me.

"Text me and tell me when is a good day and time for you," he said.

He picked up the reference book that he had gotten out of the supply cabinet and headed back to his seat. My mind was foggy, as if I'd just been dosed with tranquilizers. A heady sensation of giddiness was speeding up my torso.

I ran my index finger over the penciled numbers, not believing they were real. The graphite smudged a little. Theo wacked me on the arm, knocking me out of my reverie.

"Ow."

"He totally wants you, you know that right?" Her voice was high and excited. "What I just witnessed was basically verbal foreplay."

"He does not want me!" I said in a loud whisper. The girls at the next table glared at us; I tried my best to smile so they would look away.

"Lainey has him tightly ensnared in her web," I continued, wiggling my fingers like spider legs. "There's no way to extricate him from that. If I so much as lay one finger on Henry, that finger is as good as torn off."

Henry put one knee on his seat. He looked back at me and quickly flicked his eyebrows up, smiling again as he shifted and sat the rest of the way down.

"Yeah, you just keep on denying it," Theo said, whipping her sketchbook open with a flourish.

The whole walk home, I debated my interpretation of the scene between Henry and me. With Jenna no longer around, it was possible that I was gullible. She had always been my logic for me, offering me advice that was more often than not very solid. Now that I didn't have a person to bounce ideas off of (I liked Theo, but I didn't feel completely comfortable talking to her about that stuff), I didn't trust my own feelings.

At dinner, both of my parents were home for once. It had been a while since I'd seen them eat together. Since my birthday, in fact, if cake could be considered a meal. I assisted Hugh in making spaghetti. As the garlic bread baked it made the whole downstairs smell heavenly. I set the plates and silverware out on the dining room table.

"Use up the party napkins," Claire suggested, breezing into the room and kissing my dad on the cheek. She tossed her briefcase and laptop on the counter.

I took the brown happy birthday napkins out of the drawer and nestled them beneath the forks and knives, glad to get rid of them. And to forget all about that strange day, and the dream that had given me more questions than answers.

Around the dinner table, I prepared my proposal, wanting to get it right.

"I got a D on my first Geometry quiz," I said. "And I thought I knew the material, too." I never would have been so open to telling them before.

Claire immediately crinkled her nose, a common gesture that also occasionally appeared on her sister's gaunt face. It meant annoyance, a rift in the predictable flow of her life. But I stopped them before they could start the usual "try harder" math lecture.

"So would it be okay for me to have a tutor from school over this week?" I asked. "Mr. Vanderlip, my math teacher, suggested it."

"Who's the tutor?" Hugh asked with some suspicion, fork poised in the air.

"Henry Rhodes," I said, trying to remain calm. Just saying his name made overexcitement appear in my voice. "He just moved to Hell."

"A boy?" Claire asked, in the tone of voice she would have used had I suggested a wild animal. Maybe she thought the two were one in the same.

"Yes, I believe so," I