The Quarterback, Outcast and Me ✔

Chapter Six - Weird is Another Word for Strange

I sought out Carrie the minute I had locked up my bike at the bike stand by the main entrance to school. I really needed a fellow female human to talk to after last night.

I found her at her locker, in the midst of cramming her oversized bag into the already stuffed locker. Leave it to Carrie to try and do the impossible.

I leaned against the lockers next to hers, folding my arms across my chest.

"I need to tell you something."

Carrie stopped the shoving and turned her head to look at me, with narrowed eyes and everything. I swear that girl could, without even looking at me, tell what mood I was in.

"What happened?" She asked, then sighed as her book-bag shoved itself back out again, but she managed to catch it before it fell to the floor. She blew a blonde strand of hair away from her face, tapping her pale pink ballerina flats impatiently against the floor.

"I spoke with Caleb last night."

It took a few seconds for the words to sink in and register, but when they did, Carrie's face twisted into the mask of surprise. Her body froze in mid-movement, leaving her bag to be stranded halfway onto her shoulder.

"You're telling me you had a proper conversation with Mr. Caleb I-talk-to-no-one-so-leave-me-alone Constantine?" She quickly regained motion and flung the backpack all the way onto her shoulder, clearly abandoning any hope of getting it into her filled-up locker. She closed it and turned to face me full on.

"Alright, tell me everything."

I couldn't help the smile that crept onto my face as I pushed myself away from the lockers, linking my arm through Carrie's as we took off down the hall.

Entering our homeroom we took our assigned seats. I glanced around the room, one of those empty seats belonged to Caleb and I wondered if he'd show up today.

"You think he's ditching again?" Carrie asked me, but I simply shrugged, having no clue what exactly went on in that head of his. I may have had a slight glimpse into his personal life last night, finding out he had a sister, though I couldn't help but remember the distant look on his face when he had mentioned her.

There were only two vacant seats as our teacher entered the room, but before he had time to close the door, an arm covered in a long black sleeve interfered and in came Caleb.

Somehow, his presence had my heart beating faster and when he looked around the room and his eyes connected with mine I felt my face flush. Quickly I averted my gaze before he could see and stared down at my table.

"Mr. Constantine, how nice of you to grace us with your presence," our teacher said overdramatically and then told him to take a seat. Thankfully, none of the seats surrounding me were available so I watched him walk between the rows and take a seat at a table by the wall.

As Mr. Weltzer droned on about the glory that was Oscar Wilde I zoned out, not being able to focus when I could constantly feel Caleb's eyes on me. Even Carrie, sitting behind me noticed and poked my shoulder, a smug grin on her face.

"It looks like you've got the attention of Mr. Pyro," Carrie whispered. I shushed her, but didn't dare turn and look at him; wouldn't that just be a dead giveaway?

"Don't call him that. You don't even know if it's true," I whispered back feverishly. I couldn't quite tell why I was being so protective of Caleb. I didn't even know the guy, yet I hated when people just assumed things about him. Especially when it came to all these ridiculous rumors about him.

No one deserved to be judged without evidence.

At the end of the class I had, several times, been close to caving in and glancing in a certain direction, but at the last minute I willed myself to keep staring down into my English book.