Beauty and the Beat

Beauty and the Beat (11)

When it was time for the last period of the day, I already felt like pulling my hair out. I did not want to have to go sit through a class where I had to listen to everything Ethan had to say.

But before Freya and I could get to class, since Bennett had left with Maxxon before us, we were stopped by a familiar blonde girl who timidly called out my name to stop me from walking any farther.

“Hi,” Katarina greeted, and I greeted her back the same way. “Can I talk to you about something?”

I blinked at her. “Yeah, sure.”

She seemed nervous. I didn't know how to feel about this, so I just continued to stand there and wait for her to say whatever she wanted.

“Are you dating Maxxon?” she suddenly blurted.

My eyes went so wide that I thought they were going to fall out of their sockets. Before I could even respond, Freya started laughing so hard that she had to grab onto her sides.

“Maxxon and Sadie? Dating?” she guffawed, and I didn't know if there was anything I could say that would make her stop. “Are you kidding? Of course they're not!”

Katarina's face turned red. She was obviously even more embarrassed for getting this wrong, and Freya wasn't helping at all. 

“Freya,” I warned. There was no point in laughing at Katarina. “Could you go to class and tell Eth—” Damn it. “—Mr. Deveraux that Katarina and I might be late because I have to help Mrs. Carson with something, okay?”

He would probably believe that we were actually helping Mrs. Carson if it was the two of us and not just me. If I had asked Freya to tell him that only I was going to help Mrs. Carson, there was no way Ethan would have believed that. He would have thought I was trying to skip class.

Freya was still laughing, but nodded anyway. “Okay!”

She practically skipped away, and I took a step toward Katarina. Being this close to her, I found it really strange how much she really did look like her brother. I knew that they were twins, but I hadn’t ever seen a twin boy and girl look so much alike.

“Like Freya said, Maxxon and I aren’t dating,” I assured her, the thought of dating my sworn enemy since kindergarten making my skin crawl. “We’re… barely even friends. We’re only together because of the dance know and we have mutual friends. We have the same best friend and we get along with all our other friends.”

Katarina nodded, understanding. She wasn’t as red as she had been when Freya was laughing, but she was still obviously embarrassed by what she had said. I was surprised to see her this way, because she was so much different on the school news. She was bubbly and giggly, while now she was the exact opposite.

“Could you… Is there any way you could… Maybe…” Katarina gulped, and I waited patiently for her to get to the point. “Could you… ask Maxxon… what he thinks of me? Or if he likes anyone?”

I just stared at her for a moment. I understood it now. She had a crush on Maxxon. Huh… How cute.

I nodded at her now. “Sure, I’ll talk to him.”

She smiled so wide that I was surprised her lips didn’t crack. She obviously really liked Maxxon a lot, and I was happy for her. I couldn’t ever remember a time when Maxxon had had a girlfriend throughout the twelve years that I had known him, so Katarina could be a good start. She was really pretty, and obviously nice, so she could actually be very good for him. As obnoxious as he was, he deserved someone nice.

We made our way, late, to Ethan’s class. He didn’t even question us as we made our way inside, and I was thankful that Katarina was in this class with me. I definitely would have had detention if I had walked into class late by myself.