Owen, Ed and Me

8: Surprise

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I press myself against the side of the office wall. Maybe Owen won't see me. Maybe he'll just disappear-

"Toni!" Ed Pike's just stepped out of his office with an oversized, bright orange coffee mug in his hand. "What are ya still doing here?" He peers at me through those thick lenses and I cringe internally. So much for my plan. I point over my shoulder to where Owen is leaning outside the office. Ed follows my gaze and mouths a silent "Oh".

He then proceeds to make wild gestures that I can't for the life of me decipher. I scowl at him until he rolls his eyes like a little diva. "Oh Owen!" He twitters. In my desperation to stop him I slap my hands over his mouth. Ed scowls down at me and pries my hands off.

"Miss Tyron! It's inappropriate for a student to touch a member of staff that way!" He tuts; my cheeks are aflame.

"I'm sorry, I just-"

Ed isn't even listening to me. "Huh, where'd Owen go?"

I spin around to see that he has, in fact, vacated the space. I want to turn back to Ed but he's disappeared in the direction of the coffee machine.

"Hey! What if he comes back?" I whine helplessly. Ed waggles his index at me over his shoulder, not bothering to turn around.

"Not my problem. Get to class Miss Tyron!"

I glare at his back. No help there.

I carefully exit the school office, but only after securing the hallway in both directions. Then I sprint down the corridor to the staircase and up to the second floor. I don't stop until I've reached my classroom, barging in panting like crazy.

"Miss Tyron," Let's just say, Mr. Ellis isn't my favourite teacher. "You're late."

I fumble for the pink slip, slam it on his desk and drop into my seat next to Sophie. She wastes no time in leaning over.

"What happened?" She whispers furiously.

"That counsellor is a nutcase."

~ & ~

Sophie and I stare at our friend in pure horror. Jane is sitting opposite us in our favourite frozen yoghurt place, gushing about a boy.

Is this abnormal? Definitely not.

Is the problem the specific boy? Absolutely.

Who is he, you ask?

"Owen Knight?" I ask skeptically.

"My brother?" Sophie repeats. We've both paused eating our frozen goodness.

Jane rolls her eyes as she carefully licks off her spoon. "Yes," She drags out the word in an annoyed huff. "Owen. Owen Knight, your brother and your enemy, asked me out."

I look at Sophie. We're thinking the same thing.

"Jane," I start.

"You know he's just doing it to get to Toni." Sophie cuts me off bluntly. Jane's face visibly falls. But then something occurs to her and she fires right back up.

"No! He talked to me – for an entire half hour! He switched seats with Jamie just to sit by me the second he saw me in class."

I refrain from rolling my eyes. "Well, where is he taking you?"