The Revenge Artist - Philip Siegel Page 0,48
It hammers away at my brain with tiny little pickaxes that garden gnomes are usually clutching. The one couple left to destroy is obviously Fred and I. The Revenge Artist already tried to break us up and failed.
“Are you okay?” The girl in the desk across the aisle stares at my leg. It’s shaking and causing my desk to rattle. A one-woman earthquake. But I’m not worried. Because the Revenge Artist will be found before any more drama can unfold.
After first period, I brave the girl’s bathroom. It’s usually a traffic jam of girls doing a quick reapply of their makeup, getting a gossip fix, sneaking in a cigarette, or, you know, going to the bathroom.
I push past a trio of girls who are just standing in front of the mirror, doing nothing except waiting to be seen. I check for feet under the stall, and Paulina swipes open the door. My breath catches in my throat, and I desperately wonder what she thinks about me, what she knows. Am I just some girl to her? I don’t know, but there she is. In the flesh. The object of Jake’s affection.
Paulina and I share this awkward moment. I’m just another girl to her, not the person stage-managing her social life. I think about Jake sulking in the hall, before I unjustly gave it to him good. Nice guys may finish last, but they don’t deserve to. And while the Revenge Artist is almost done wreaking havoc, I’ve only just begun.
“Hey.” I tap Paulina on the shoulder while she washes her hands. She turns around and gives me an innocent smile, and I remember that she has no reason to dislike me. She doesn’t act guarded like most kids at school. It’s refreshing to talk to someone who doesn’t mind being spoken to.
“Hi. Did you need to get in here?” she asks, stepping away from the sink.
“I’m good,” I say. Then she waits for me to say more. “It’s about Jake.”
Her pleasant expression slips into a frown, as if just saying his name causes her pain. She could walk away, close herself off, but she stands there. That means there’s still hope, I think. She’s hurt and angry, which is better than indifferent.
“I should go. The bell’s going to ring,” she says softly.
“Wait.” I search for the words. “Jake’s a good guy.” I search for better ones. “He’s sweet, funny, smart, cute. But above all that, he misses you.”
“I beg to differ.”
“He didn’t write that email.” I cut to the chase, and her eyes perk up.
“But it was from his email address.”
“It got hacked.”
“What? Why would someone do that?”
“I’m trying to figure that out.” Our bathroom clears out as the warning bell rings. A girl opens a stall door, tosses her cigarette butt into the toilet, and flushes.
“Listen to him,” I continue. “He’s telling the truth. I know that ninety-nine percent of the guys at this school are running around with their flies open, but he’s one of the good ones.”
Paulina gazes into the mirror. “I’ve had to play second fiddle to my sister my entire life. I thought I had finally found a guy who bucked that trend.”
“You did!”
A trace of a smile carves itself out on her lips. “Did Jake ask you to talk to me?”
“No. He’s just a good guy. Jake only has eyes for you.”
“I didn’t know you were friends.” She applies lipstick in the mirror and stops mid-upper lip. “Wait, aren’t you that matchmaker?”
Oh, crap on a stick. I really need to stop talking permanently.
“I prefer the term relationship engineer.”
“He hired you?”
“No. Of course not.” Paulina has one of those innocent faces that make it so hard to lie to.
She takes a step back. All of the chumminess between us got washed away in a wave of my own stupidity. “He doesn’t know a thing about crossword puzzles. I tried doing the Sunday New York Times puzzle with him, and he couldn’t get one right.”
“I may have given him a suggestion or two for clues.”
She steps farther back, until she’s nearly out the door. Her shock turns to disgust. “You created the crossword puzzle scavenger hunt.”
“Jake had input,” I say, a total lie. “And it worked.”
“It worked?” she says with a raised voice. So much for innocent nice girl.
“Why are you mad? Jake likes you. He’s always liked you.”
“Because you turned me into some kind of mission. You don’t even know me, yet you devised a plan to make me fall for Jake. You tapped into