fell to the ground with a slap. He started to retrieve it when he met my eyes with a stunned expression before dropping his gaze to my shoulder.
“I noticed that you follow Heath Hall online. I know he’s not the actual actor who plays him,” I added before he had the chance to inform me of that.
“Yeah.” He went back to trying to fit his book in his too-full locker.
“So who is he?”
“You don’t know?”
Obviously, I wanted to say but instead just said, “No.”
He shook his head back and forth several times, then slammed his locker, his hand barely making it out. He pushed on the door once more as though he thought the books inside were about to shove it back open. Satisfied, he straightened up, then glared at my shoulder. “Can’t tell if you don’t know.”
Holy crap, how did this guy get all these people to keep their mouths shut? This was turning out to be way more work than I had anticipated. “Dylan. Look. I won’t tell anyone. I just need to talk to him.”
“You can’t just talk to him. Well, I mean you can but you can’t.”
What? “What is he, the Godfather? Come on.”
Dylan adjusted his backpack on his shoulder and stumbled a little under the weight of it. “Can’t tell you if you don’t know,” he said again, then nodded his head at the ground and left.
I smacked Dylan’s locker as if it was the one that had refused to spill its secrets and I turned to leave, walking straight into Jackson. “Moore, I should’ve known it was you.”
I took a step back. “What?”
“What did you say to Dylan?”
“What?” Why did I keep saying that?
“Dylan.” He pointed behind him, where I watched Dylan glance over his shoulder once, see us looking, then nearly trip over his own feet before righting himself and continuing forward.
“I said nothing.”
“It didn’t look like nothing.”
“Are you spying on me?” I asked.
“I was walking down the hall. So yes, I guess that means I was spying. I thought maybe I could learn your secret swimming powers for the next time someone strands me on an island in the middle of a lake.”
“Strands you? That’s a little dramatic, don’t you think? If you weren’t a strong swimmer, you shouldn’t have swum out there.”
“I’m a strong swimmer. I did beat you, after all.”
I started to protest, to tell him he only beat me because he cheated, but I stopped myself. That’s what he wanted me to do.
He bent down and picked up something off the ground by my foot. When he stood, I noticed it was my earbuds. I held out my hand for them. “Oh, thanks.”
He just tucked them into his pocket. “I better go turn these in to Lost and Found.”
“They’re mine.” I kept my palm outstretched.
“They were just sitting on the cement. They could be anyone’s.”
I sighed. “Jackson. They’re mine.”
He took them out of his pocket and held them over my hand. When I reached for them, he tugged them just out of my grasp. He laughed and did the exact same thing again. “You just have to grab them.”
“Why are you such a child?” Even his hair seemed to laugh at life. It was a curly mop on top of his head that he didn’t feel the need to tame.
“Why are you always so serious?” He dropped them onto my hand.
I wasn’t serious all the time. I had fun around the right people. Just not people who thought life was a big joke.
As if reading my mind, the smile on Jackson’s face disappeared. “Hey,” he said in a tone as sincere as his new expression. “I’m sorry if I offended you the other day. I didn’t think my joke out in the lake would scare you.”
“I . . .” wasn’t sure how to finish that sentence. I was sure he was seconds away from laughing and saying, Just kidding.
“You . . . ?” he prompted.
“Yeah. No big deal. It didn’t really scare me.”
“I think what you meant to say was, ‘Jack, not only did you not scare me, I thought it was hilarious. You’re the funniest person I know.’”
A breeze filled with salty ocean air blew a piece of my hair across my face. I pushed it out of the way. “Why is it so important that I find you funny? The rest of the school feeds your ego enough.”
“You’re the last holdout.”
“I’m positive I’m not the last.”
“Really? Have you started a club?”
I smiled a little. “Maybe I should.