Between the Days and Nights ✔

Chapter 7: Fingertips

Tam

"I'm so excited for you! It's like a dream come true," Vinh screams in my ear.

"Dude, I'm right here." I plug my left ear for a moment before I continue putting books into my locker.

"I don't care. Let me be excited for you," he protests, plopping a donut hole from the bag in his hands into his mouth, then one in mine.

"You know, we're only going as friends..." I arrange my books in a pattern of short, tall, short, tall, so that it would be easier to pull each out later.

"Only because you left him hanging. His anxiety was probably crippling him. Poor guy. Poor handsome, charming, sweet, heroic, all around boyfriend material guy," he drawls, dragging each adjective dramatically.

"We're going AS FRIENDS," I scream in his face and laugh when he comically wipes away my spit from his eyebrow. "Now, can we talk about something else, like are you going to ask Jeremy to go to this?"

"He brought it up actually, so we're going to meet up there," he answers casually, then continues, "Do you know what you're wearing to this thing?"

"Something normal, because it's homecoming, not winter formal."

As a kid, I grew up spoiled by all the teen movies that always showed the homecoming dance as a fancy little thing that people dressed up for. Imagine the disappointment that hit me when everyone showed up in booty shorts and started a grinding train that snaked around the dancefloor. I don't need to ask to figure out what I need to wear to it because a tank top and a pair of shorts would suffice.

"Hey, kids. What are we talking about?"

I purse my lips, remembering what I had told Damon. I feel like I deserve a punch in the throat.

But it's true. He's proven himself to be a nice guy and potentially a good friend.

So why do I feel guilty? I didn't lie.

"Homecoming. You coming?" Vinh is either oblivious to how sensitive this situation or trying to torture me. I shoot him an "I'll kill you later" look.

"I-I don't know," Silas stutters, turning to look at me, "Are you going?"

"Yeah," I answer and swallow hard as I elaborate, "I'm meeting up with Damon."

I've never dangled candy in front of a child and then eaten it in front of them, but I imagine that's exactly what I just did to Silas. His slight smile drags itself down like the melting clock in Dalí's The Persistence of Memory.

Poor guy. I give him an apologetic smile and I think he understands.

He didn't ask. Damon did. It's only fair.

"I think I'm gonna sit this one out. I have a lot of That 70's Show seasons to watch if I want to catch up on your weird references."

"They're not weird if you actually got them," Vinh contends, rolling his eyes.

The bell rings, and we walk together until Vinh splits off to head to class. Silas and I share first, fourth, and sixth period together. I should have foreseen that he would bother me in class after the events of the past few days.

We don't have assigned seats in Mrs. Francis's class, but I'm sure everyone's found a seat they call home in this room. I personally prefer to see the entire class so I've been sitting in the back, with only one seat behind me, which is usually empty in the corner because it's right next to the trashcan. No one wants that seat because people have the tendency to throw their trash from a distance and miss.