Lethal Weapons

Chapter 2

 The bell rings in a long monotone charm, singing the Hallelujah chorus of the end of school. Sighs all around me tell me I'm not the only one ready to get home and celebrate. Standing and putting my one strap bag over my shoulder, I turn around to see Claudia standing on the other side of the desk beside me. Her smile tells me she has something planned.

 “So what do you have planned for tonight?” Claudia asks. I smile and begin walking down the isle of desks, Claudia following my every inch.

 “Nothing, I don’t think. But I have to check with my Madre before I go and make plans.”

 Claudia takes my wrist to stop me when we reach the end of the isle. “You cannot be serious. You know I have been planning this party forever! Why hadn’t you told her about it?”

 “I have.” I say. I turn around to walk out of the room as Claudia stands behind me, not moving.

 “What?” I hear her say. In less than an instant she is by my side again and tugging on my arm. “You mean you told her?”

 I stop walking and move to the side of the hallway to look back at her. “I think that’s what I said… I don’t remember. Isn't it what I said? Mh…”

 “Riley don’t be so sarcastic! This is serious!”Claudia pulls me down the hallway until we get to the front doors, waiting for our other friends.

 “I don’t see the seriousness in it, really.”

 “But if you knew about it then why didn’t you ask your mom?”

 Sighing, I say, “Actually, I didn’t press on it because I think my mom has something planned.”

 “Do you know for sure?”

 “No, but I picked up the home phone one day and overheard her talking to my aunt. I think I'm having family over.”

 Claudia groans right as Sean and Ginger come up to us. “Where is Jen?” Ginger asks.

 “Don’t know. You don’t think she is still-” Someone saying my name behind me interrupts my sentence. I turn around and see Link Lamond, the Scottish exchange student from eleventh grade. He knows my name? Since when?

 “Riley, hey I want to talk to you.” He says peacefully. I look back at my friends. Claudia smiles widely, telling me to go, but the guys don’t look too happy. “Can you spare a moment? I'm sorry to take you away from your friends, but I would really love to talk to you.”

 I practically melt right where I stand. Can you spare a moment? No one says that anymore unless it's a gentlemen in a dream. Maybe this is a dream.

 “Sure.” I say. I follow Link away from my friends until we are standing in front of the office.

 “Riley, I was wondering, since school is over, would you like to maybe have lunch with me sometime? I'll be working at my uncles sub shop, but that means I get free lunches. So… would you, maybe, sometime want to have lunch?” He asks with less calmness than when he first spoke to me.

 Smiling, I look him in the eyes. Mh, those dark green eyes are so gorgeous. “I'd like that.” I say. Link's smile broadens as he looks down at the floor. He clears his throat and then pulls out a piece of paper from his back pocket.

 “Here's my number. Feel free to call or text me whenever, my Uncle's phone service has unlimited texting and, um, phone calls.” Link smiles and then chuckles apprehensively as he hands me the number on the piece of paper. I take it and inspect his handwriting. His numbers are very large but kind of hard to read. A typical boy's handwriting.