Your Loyal Servant

(19) How Do You Cope with a Broken Heart?

"And then he made the stupidest face I've ever seen!" I managed before collapsing into laughter.

Brick plastered a smile on his face. He noted, "It seems you had a good weekend then."

Once my laughter subsided, I shrugged and looked for his hand to hold, but they were stuffed in his pockets. So I settled for clasping my hands together behind my back.

I allowed, "I suppose. I mean, it was studying for finals. I don't know if I'd categorize that as a good weekend."

He seemed relieved to ask, "Speaking of finals, how were your first couple?" He glanced at me with his beautiful brown eyes, and his smile began to look more natural.

My lips pulled back into a broad grin and I announced, "Pretty good. This is probably the first time since junior high that I've felt this confident about finals. Probably thanks to The Freak. Where is he, anyway?"

He released a sigh, sounding almost dejected. But he gave me a small smile and inquired, "Why do you call him that?"

I looked at him before gazing at the ground again. I chuckled shortly and answered, "Well, when we first met, I thought he was a bit of a freak. The nicknames just sorta followed, and they've stuck ever since."

When I caught sight of Freaky in the hall, I put my hand on Brick's arm to let him know I'd be back, and ran off to greet The Freak. Smiling, I told him, "Thanks to your awesome teaching ability, I think I totally rocked those finals."

His smile was just as large as mine as he exclaimed, "Congratulations! You deserve good results on your exams, since you studied so hard."

I beamed at him before whipping around to rejoin Brick, but he was nowhere in sight. Lips pursed, I ventured into my classroom and asked Selma and Apple, "Hey, have you seen Brick? He kinda disappeared on me."

They exchanged a look and then sighed simultaneously, causing my brow to quirk on my face.

Selma proposed, "Well, can you blame him?"

"What?" I asked, surprised, as I sat down beside them.

Apple looked in my eyes, pinning me to my spot. They weren't irritated or intense, but they were definitely pitiful. She explained, "It's just, you've been talking to him about Howie and talking about your conversations with Howie and what you do with Howie, that's it's beginning to sound like you want to be with Howie, not Brick."

Selma nodded her agreement.

My eyes widened and my mouth fell open. I wanted to jump from my seat, but I figured that was too dramatic. I shrieked, "What?" My voice lowered to my inside voice. "That's ridiculous. I don't want to be with The Freak. I mean, we are friends now, but that doesn't mean I want to be with him. I want to be with Brick."

"Maybe you should tell Brick that," Apple suggested, eyes almost accusing now.

The bell rang and everyone situated themselves in their seats, while I remained stationary in mine, head reeling.

Me, with Freaky? That was absolutely ridiculous. There was no way I felt that way towards him. But whatever.

_____ _____ _____

At lunch, I went in search of Brick to tell him I wanted to be with him, not Freaky—because that was messed up in so many ways. But as I wandered the halls for him, I instead found my enemy, Bianca Russox.