Boyfriend by Christmas

Chapter 16

When I get to school, Garrett and Thompson appear to be having a heated argument in front of Garrett's locker. From the looks of it, Garrett is winning. I've never seen his face so intense. It makes me want to sneak over and listen, but I decide I probably shouldn't. Maybe they're talking about whatever it is Thompson wants to talk about.

I wait at my locker for a solid twenty minutes before Thompson finally meets me there. That only leaves us five minutes until homeroom.

"So what's up?" I ask as casually as I can.

Thompson scratches the back of his neck. "I wanted to talk to you," he says.

"Okay. Then talk."

He sighs. "Have you picked your top two yet?"

"I have one date left," I say. "Jeremy and I are going out tomorrow night."

"How was your date last night? With Taylor?"

I take a step back. "Why are you asking me these questions?"

Thompson sighs again and looks behind me. Before I can turn around to see what it is he's looking at, he answers my question in one breath. "I'm hoping I'll make it to the next round."

"Oh," I say. "I don't.... Um... Probably you will. Unless my date with Jeremy is like unbelievably amazing and it knocks you out of the running. I had a really good time with Taylor last night but our date was really nice."

"Okay. Good."

Thompson turns and starts to leave right as the homeroom bell rings. "Wait," I call after him. "That's what you wanted to talk about?"

He hesitates, again looking over my shoulder. "Yeah, it was."

I can tell he's lying but I don't have time to press the issue. My homeroom teacher won't hesitate to give detention to anyone who shows up late. When I turn around, there's no one behind me so I have no idea who or what Thompson found so interesting back there.

Oh well. I guess that's a mystery for another time.

It just kinda sucks, though. Because even though Thompson said he wants to make it to the top two, it felt to me like that was the absolute last thing he wanted. But maybe I'm reading more into the situation than was actually there.

After school, I go in to work. Garrett is already there when I arrive at three. "Hey," I say. "What were you and Thompson arguing about earlier?" I figure I'll jump right into it. Why not?

"We weren't arguing."

"Yes, you were. I saw you guys."

"We were disagreeing."

"I don't think there's a difference."

"Sure there is."

I take a few steps towards the reference section. "Should I get out a dictionary so we can check the definitions?"

Garrett laughs. "Fine. We were arguing. It was stupid guy stuff though. Honestly, I don't even remember exactly."

He just became the second guy to lie to me today. That I know of.

"Why won't you tell me?"

He sighs. "Because it wasn't a big deal."

"Then you should tell me."

"Cassidy..."

"Don't Cassidy me! You can't keep a secret from me just because you feel like it. Because Thompson texted me last night and said we needed to talk and then I come to school to see you two going at it like my parents before the divorce. And when Thompson finally does talk to me, it's like he's tongue tied or something. He definitely didn't say what he planned on saying. Did you have something to do with that?"