Merely Human

Chapter 4

"Five minutes left." The teacher called from her desk, sending a small apologetic look my way when the sound of her voice made me jump.

I immediately began to write faster, trying to cram in the last few questions before time was over. Finally I put my pencil down and flexed my hand, trying to get some feeling back into the cramped muscles. I glanced over at Trish to find her already done as well, unsurprisingly. She might not have great studying habits, but she was incredibly smart and very good at retaining information, which was why she hardly ever felt it necessary to study.

"Please bring your tests up here when you're done." The teacher called out and I stood up to follow her instructions before grabbing my bag and leaving the classroom. Trish quickly caught up with me and she flashed me a huge smile.

"Excited now that midterms are over?" she questioned.

"Definitely." I nodded. "Now we don't have to worry about school until after spring break."

"You aren't going home for break this year?" Trish questioned. I could understand why this might confuse her; my parents were the type who wanted me to visit whenever I had a break.

"My parents are going to Hawaii for their anniversary." I shrugged.

"That's so romantic!" she cooed.

I laughed at her expression and was about to reply when her face shifted slightly to one of anger.

"Wha-" I started but she interrupted me in a low voice, so soft I almost couldn't hear her.

"Why is Caden staring over at you? I've seen him do that a couple of times this week, and it's weird to see him in the first place. We never used to see him around."

I glanced over my shoulder as inconspicuously as possible and sure enough I found him sitting on the grass with some other guys. His eyes were still trained on me and they narrowed slightly when our eyes met. I inhaled sharply and turned back around to Trish.

"I don't know. Maybe he's still mad about when I ran into him earlier in the week." I replied.

"You haven't talked to him since then, have you?"

I shook my head. I didn't count that time in the library as talking seeing as he didn't really say anything.

"Derek told me about what happened between you guys when you and Andrés started dating." I said.

"Yeah, he told me." Trish nodded. "Let's just say Caden has a few issues."

I studied her face for a second and she gave me a questioning look.

"I get the feeling that there is more to the story then just some of Caden's 'issues'." I told her.

Trish gave me a wry smile. "That's not a story I really want to go in too."

"All right." I nodded, not wanting to push her to tell me something she wasn't comfortable with. "What time we going to the party tonight." I asked instead.

"Andrés was thinking of heading out around 9."

"Did we ever figure out what Isaac and Derek were doing?" I asked with a small smile, still amused by the fact that Isaac was passing on going to a party.

"Nope." Trish said, looking away from me and tucking a piece of hair behind her ear.

She never had been a very good liar, but I decided not to mention it. They did this sometimes and it hurt to think that they didn't trust me enough with whatever secret they were hiding, but I never pushed it and I don't think they realized to what extent I could see past their façade of honesty.