Reprise

Chapter 41

Chapter Forty-One 

I can already tell that our major assignment for Advanced English class is going to be big, so a few of us head to the library after school one day to do some group research. Kate and a couple of the other girls in our group start pulling books from the shelves, so Watson and I head over to one of the computers to look through online databases for information. Watson and I still haven't had a proper conversation since he kissed me at the party, but he seems to have pushed the thoughts from his mind. I even overheard from someone that he was going on a date with a year eleven girl on the weekend.

I look over the task sheet for our assignment and give Watson some key words to look up. He starts searching and browsing through journal articles for a while, with me looking over his shoulder. When my legs get tired I pull up a chair to sit next to him, and it's then that he turns to me and says, 'So what were you doing the other day?'

'Hmm?' I ask, not looking up from a journal article that we're skimming through.

'I was talking to Dan,' Watson says. 'I just happened to mention that I put my car in because I backed it into a pole in a car park.'

'Oh really?' I say. 'That's unlucky.'

'Yeah, made a huge dent in it,' Watson says. 'It's going to cost me a few hundred dollars, which is annoying.'

'Yeah, your poor car,' I say. I pull open my notebook and start jotting down some notes from the article we're reading.

'Yeah,' Watson says. 'You know what's weird though?'

I look up at him. 'What?'

'Dan seems to think I picked you up the other day and we went for a drive,' he says.

'Huh?'

'Well that's what Dan said; you went out after school and you told him I was picking you up.'

'Oh, yeah,' I say, tapping my pen against my notebook.

'But I didn't pick you up,' Watson says. 'I mean the only reason Dan even mentioned it is because I told him I'd put my car in to get the dent out. He didn't think you would have lied to him, though.'

'Yeah, he must have been confused,' I say quickly. 'Julian came to pick me up.'

'Didn't you and Julian go to McDonalds straight after school?' Watson asks suspiciously. 'Why would you go home and then Julian picks you up straight away?'

'Julian's been feeling pretty miserable about this whole thing with Lexington,' I say. 'You know, so he just wanted to hang out a bit more and go for a drive to clear his head.'

'Right,' Watson says quietly. He grabs the mouse off me and scrolls through the article as if he's looking for something and then stops and highlights a meaningless sentence. 'It's weird, because I actually asked Julian about it. I figured maybe Dan had it wrong and you'd told him Jules was picking you up. But Jules didn't know anything about it.'

I frown at Watson. 'What, you think I'm hiding something from you?'

'I don't know, Benn, are you?' Watson asks me, looking at me.

'This is ridiculous,' I say. 'Do you know how crazy you sound? You're asking all my friends to check where I am at all times of the day?'

'You're being awfully defensive about this,' Watson says, raising his eyebrows.

'I had a date,' I say quickly. 'I just didn't want Dan to know. And honestly, I didn't want you to know either, okay? I'm sorry.' I lower my voice and glance back at the other students in the library.