The Best Kind of Betrayal

Chapter 9

In science class, I tell Mr. Callahan I joined Matthew with the presentation, which he's super thrilled about.

"That's the spirit I was looking for," he tells me and grabs my shoulder. Ew. "You'll see, your grades will soon be on top again."

When where my grade ever on top? But that's not what I say. Instead, I smile and nod. "Yes, thank you Mr. Callahan. I'll work hard."

Mr. Callahan opens his mouth, as if to add something I'm definitely not keen on, so I discretely turn away and shuffle through my bag, adding a not so quiet "oh wow, I'm really late for math tutoring". Then, I'm practically running out of the room.

There is no math tutoring.

"Come on, club meeting," Carlos calls right as I pass through the door, apparently waiting for me with none other than Matthew, who's leaning against the wall with an amused smile and ruffled hair. I do not stare.

"We're going to send out the flyers today to get them printed, so arts crew is presenting all their drafts to us. Should be a highlight."

Matthew raises an eyebrow. "Um, yeah? This year's drafts are all great. Agatha and I worked really hard."

"Whatever you say, dude."

I somehow find myself walking in their middle, with is more than a little uncomfortable.

"Oh, look," I randomly point across the hall, desperate to not let any awkward silence come up, "There's Liling – with Duncan. They're close, aren't they?"

"Don't tell them," Carlos exchanges a grin with Matthew, "There's actually a whole betting pool running on who's going to ask out whom first – you can join if you want. Stakes are 1:2 Duncan makes the first move, and 1:3 Liling."

"Really?" I raise an eyebrow, "1:2 Duncan seems generous. You think there's still time for me to join?"

"I'm pretty sure it's going to happen during the junior's field trip, so you better join before that," Carlos says, "Matty here thinks Duncan won't make the first move until prom, which – never."

"I don't know, I feel like he needs the time," Matthew says, "Don't stress him."

"Yeah, but it's not like Dunan's capable of it ever," Carlos says, "It's going to be Liling. I can feel it. She's going to ask him out during the field trip, all romantic over some museum exhibitions. This is like, her thing."

Matthew laughs and I follow suit.

The clubroom's miraculously almost empty when we come in. There's only Liling sitting at her desk, working on what looks like her math homework. No Vivian, no Logan, thank God.

Liling apparently turned all the desk lamps on, and there's a nice, warm light all over the room. It looks comfortable and inviting, and I feel myself smiling while arranging my stuff all over our double desk.

"Hi guys," Liling smiles at us, "Great to see you. I'm really excited for the flyer presentation."

"Where's Duncan?" Carlos asks and furrows his brows, "Didn't he come with you?"

"Duncan's buying snacks," Liling makes a face, "He said the presentation is going to be uber boring, so he needs snacks to survive. That's so mean, right?"

"Better not let Agatha hear it," Matthew says and drops his backpack on their desk, "She's already pretty stressed out about the whole thing."

Johnny enters the room right after us, dark hair carefully gelled as usual, dressed in a white button up and neat blue jeans. He looks just like one of those prep school boys and the fact he's carrying a black leather bag isn't helping.