Blame Gravity

Chapter 22

"Sit down, Miss Canmore," the principal says.

The principal is a tall and rather fat man. He has a beard and he looks quite kind, but I know he's not. He looks particularly surprised to have me here since I never get in trouble.

I obey him and sit down.

"Now, can you tell me what happened, exactly?" he asks.

I reevaluate my words and think about how I can make this sound the least terrible. "I said some bad words to Ms. Arquette," I finally say. Fuck, I should have phrased that differently.

He raises an eyebrow. 

"Well, then. I guess you'll get detention or something. I don't know. Today and tomorrow."

"Today and tomorrow?" I ask, fear settling.

"Yes, Miss Canmore. Did  I not speak loud enough for you to hear?"

I ignore his comment. "But... but I can't... I have a date..."

"Oh, well, then I'll move it to next week, alright?" he says softly. 

"Really?" I ask, hopeful.

"No! Now get out of here!"

I inhale sharply and nod, trying my best not to rip his face off, and leave.

When I step out of the office, I see James walking up and down, repeating something to himself. 

"Are you okay?" I ask, frowning.

His head shoots up, and he smiles at me softly. "Yes. I... uh..." His smile slowly disappears. "I thought I'd wait for you, since... you know... we have the same class anyway... and we could walk there together... because it, like, doesn't exactly matter whether we walk together or... you know... and so I thought-"

"I get it, Miller. We can walk together." 

He looks relieved and smiles again. We leave for I.T. 

"So, what happened?" he asks. "Did you get detention?"

I sigh. "I did, actually. Today and tomorrow."

"Wow! Canmore gets detention...? That's not something I expected to happen in this lifetime," he grins.

I smile at him spitefully and check my watch.  "There's still 20 minutes until the next class," I determine. 

We decide to walk around the halls and talk. After five minutes, the bell rings, and people come storming out of the classrooms. We're just next to the French class when Mike runs out of the classroom, and when he sees me, he runs up to me and kisses me passionately.

"I missed you so, so much," he says.

"I missed you too," I say, out of breath. Why are we doing this? Why is he making a scene?

I glance at James, who's looking away with a bitter expression. I frown, but Mike kisses me again.

"We're in public, Mike," I whisper. 

"I know, I just..." He breaks away. "Nevermind. I'm just glad you're back," he smiles. He glances at his phone. "I'm gonna go down to the cafeteria. You coming?"

I look at James. He's still sternly looking away. I turn back to Mike. "Not right now, sorry." 

Mike looks surprised, but smiles. "Okay. So, we still up for tomorrow?"

"I'll try to make time, yes."

He nods; beams; kisses my cheek, and walks away.

When he's gone, James snorts. "What an idiot," he whispers.