The Mathematics of Love ✔

Chapter 5

The next day, Louisa came into calculus class late. This wasn’t unusual, seeing as how she was late at least two days out of five. No, the shocking part was that she came in wearing a lip ring.

“So, I’m going to spend this day enjoying the little time I have left before I’m disowned from the family,” Louisa said as she swung her combat boots around her seat to face us both.

My eyebrows flew up in surprise, but Amelia’s reaction was the best. She dropped her pencil to the ground and practically choked on the granola bar she was sneakily eating, so that her whole face went purple.

I thumped her on the back.

“Wha—what—what is that?” Amelia managed to choke out at last.

“What does it look like?”

“Wow,” was all I could say.

Louisa fingered the ring and grinned at us proudly. “Yeah, I know. It was kind of an impulse buy.”

“And your parents let you do this?” I said in shock. Louisa’s dad was more prude than most Victorian-era women. He had once flipped out on his daughter for wearing a V-neck to school. “How are you still alive?”

Louisa gave us a mysterious little grin. “My parents don’t know about it yet. I just got this done.”

“You skipped part of class to get your lip pierced?” Amelia demanded like she thought Louisa might have gone mad. “Are you out of your mind?”

“It’s senior year, Amelia. Live it up a little.”

“Poking holes into my skin is considered ‘living it up’?”

Louisa rolled her eyes. “Geez, calm down. Who are you, my mother?”

The two of them went on like that for a while. This was the interesting thing about Louisa and Amelia: they could be best friends and worst enemies all at once. If that made any sense. If someone made them room together, one of them would probably be dead within the week.

Anyway, as Amelia pulled up her phone and explained to Louisa the dangers of piercing skin, I worked through the calculus set while Mr. Betts came around inspecting our progress. This was nothing out of the ordinary. That is, until a glance out of the corner of my eye showed me a pair of scruffy black Nike sneakers.

I looked up from my worksheet to find Alexander Lin peering over my shoulder.

“Geez!” I turned around immediately and tried to ignore how fast my heart was pounding. I must’ve been really shocked by his sudden appearance. “Can I help you, Alexander?” I said tightly. I hoped he didn’t think we were supposed to be friends now just because we were volunteering together.

“Actually, yes.”

While I waited for him to go on, Alexander just sort of stood there and smiled at me. It seemed like he hadn’t noticed that he was causing quite a commotion among the girls (all five of them) in our class.

“Okay…” I said, feeling my skin tingle uncomfortably at the idea of being watched. “Can you…elaborate on that?”

“No, I think I’m fine, thanks.” Without asking for my permission, he grabbed my worksheet off the desk and examined it. There was a moment of awkward silence while his brows furrowed and he hummed slightly.

I tried to ignore the fact that Louisa and Amelia had stopped their arguing to stare at Alexander with knowing looks on their faces.

Let me tell you, I knew exactly what those two were thinking. And I didn’t like it one bit.