Once When You Were Mine

Chapter Three

                                                      "Something so strong will carry us away..."

                                                                                  - Crowded House

Fifth period found me filing through the instrument closet in the music room, where I grabbed my trumpet case, before wandering over towards the trumpet section. I set my case on the seat next to Austin so I could dig my music folder out of my backpack.

"So," I said as casually as I could, as I sat down, "What do you know about Nate Oswell?" I slapped the folder onto the music stand in front of me.

Austin, who had been absentmindedly warming up by making buzzing sounds with his mouthpiece, gave me a sideways glance. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason," I said innocently. "He's in my gym and physics classes, that's all."

"Uh-huh," he said, unconvinced. "All I know is that he's really good at physics. Genius, even."

"Ugh," I said, "Enough physics already. Do you know anything else?"

"Like whether he has a girlfriend?" Austin smirked.

I rolled my eyes. "Forget it." I yanked my trumpet out of its case and blew some warm up notes.

Suddenly Austin blurted, "Did I tell you? I think I'm going to ask Liz Iverly out."

"Really? That's great!" I had no idea he was even interested in her. But good for him. "When are you going to do it?

"After school, I think."

"Cool!" was all I had time to say before Mr. Haar, the band instructor started warming us up with an obligatory concert B flat scale.

Liz, a blond freshman, played flute, and the flutes sat below the brass section, making it easy for me to keep a speculative eye on her for the rest of the period. I kept an eye on Austin too, to see if he was watching Liz at all, but mostly he made faces at Dave over in the french horn section or cracked jokes to me. In some ways, I don't understand guys. Usually when I have a crush on someone, I have to be careful that I don't stare at them too much, and here Austin tells me he's going to ask Liz out and he doesn't so much as glance at her.

I frowned inwardly. I was going to be glad when psychology class was over for the semester. It was making me over-analyze everything.

* * *

I didn't see Austin after school because I had a trumpet lesson, but when I drove over to his house after dinner, hoping to pump him for information about Liz, all he could talk about was the physics homework. As much as I liked science, I was rapidly getting sick of expending all my energy on that one class. As we set up our books at the kitchen table, Austin chattered on about the homework assignment. I tuned him out until I caught the name 'Nate'.

"Nate's unbelievable!" Austin was marveling. "He already has all of the problems down and he was able to show me what I had done wrong in, like, five minutes!"

"If I didn't know better, I'd say you had a crush on him," I teased.

"I'd say one of us does," he smirked back.

"Look, I merely asked what you knew about him. That doesn't mean I have a crush on him."

"You sure perked up when I started talking about him!" He started laughing, "You were ignoring me until I said his name!"

"Shut up!" I socked his arm. He kept laughing so I shoved him off his chair. He was still laughing when he hit the floor.

"Come on, just admit you like him!" Austin said, starting to sober up.

"Why should I?"

"This is Austin, you're talking to. Your best buddy, remember? I thought we could tell each other anything. You've never held out on me before."

"Speaking of holding out, how did it go with Liz?" I tried desperately to change the subject.

"Oh, sure, you expect all the details of my love life..."

"If you don't want to tell me..." I looked down at my homework as if it were suddenly fascinating.

Austin relented. "Fine, fine. She said yes."

"That's so great!"

"We're going to a movie on Friday night. I'm so nervous," Austin admitted. "What if she backs out before then? And how do I act around her for the rest of the week?"

"She won't back out, and just be yourself," I said automatically. I paused and then, curious about the male psyche, asked, "So how did you ask her?"

"God, I was so nervous. I was practicing in my head all day. I didn't want to be too blunt, your know?"

I nodded. He picked himself off the floor and plunked himself back into his chair. He kicked at the rungs of it with a sock-covered foot.

"I'd feel like an idiot if I just blurted out 'Wanna go to a movie?', so I finally settled on the casual approach. She was in the band room and I had to wait forever for her friends to leave. Then before she could get away too, I went over to chat with her and kinda steered the conversation to movies. Then I used the old 'Oh, you want to see that movie too? Hey, why don't we go together' trick."

"Wow, I didn't know guys knew how to be devious! I'm impressed!"

"Thank you," he said modestly. "So, now that you've managed to get the conversation off of you, what are you going to do about Nate?"

Inadvertently admitting my crush, I promised, "I'm not sure yet, but I'll come up with something." I was already getting a sneaky idea that involved, of all things, physics.