Magnetic

Chapter Fifteen

My father never knew I snuck out.

Or if he did, he didn't mention a single word of it to me.

In the morning, he made biscuits and bacon for me for the first time since we had moved to West Cliff. I could tell he was really sorry about his promise, but he didn't say anything to me about himself quitting drinking. I knew that he probably wasn't going to, something that could shatter my heart into a million pieces. But him stepping up as a parent was a big step. This situation would take a long time to fix, but the solution was exactly that. Time. I couldn't rush it, even though I wanted to.

I was at lunch, sharing a bag of pretzels with Paisley while Brady and Gage were in the food line getting pizza, when my phone started ringing. It was Tesla, so I felt like I had to risk a teacher seeing it and taking it away to answer it. "Hello?"

"Nicki. Oh, my gosh. I need to talk to you."

"Tesla, are you okay?"

That's a cool name, Paisley mouthed to me.

I nodded while I heard Tesla loudly inhale, something she did when she was about to say something that made her nervous. "I broke up with Roger," she said, letting all the air back out.

"Really?"

"Yes. I gave him back the ring and everything. I really didn't want to do that, since it was absolutely gorgeous. You know, I really regretted it at first. But right now, I feel so carefree. Like I don't have to worry about him going behind my back." The other line made a really odd noise, as if the phone had fallen out of her hand. "Back," she said. "I dropped my phone. But I cannot repay you and Dominic for the good advice you guys gave me."

The fact that Dominic had actually been nice that day was still something that I couldn't wrap my mind around. Usually, he was so mean to me, critiquing every little thing I did, telling me it was wrong, or would reply to everything I said with an annoying, unnecessary comment.

"It was no problem at all. When did you do it?" I asked her as Brady and Gage sat down. Gage had bought me a slice of pizza. In all the morning confusion with my father, I had completely forgotten to pack my lunch. He slid it down to me on a paper plate.

"Last night. I was kind of an ass, though. He offered to take us out to a fancy expensive restaurant, so after I ate, I broke up with him and left him with the bill." Tesla tried not to laugh, but a chuckle slipped out.

"Who's that?" Gage asked, pointing to my phone.

"Someone named Tesla," Paisley told him.

Gage raised his eyebrows at me. "Why?"

I waved away his question. "He deserves that. Don't feel bad about it."

"I don't feel bad about it one bit. That is so unlike myself that it kind makes me nervous," Tesla said.

Across the cafeteria, I made eye contact with a teacher I didn't recognize. He pointed to his own ear, signaling for me to put away my phone. "Hey, I gotta go. I think I'm about to get in trouble with the phone police," I told her. Tesla snorted from the other end. "I'll try to call you later. Or we can just talk at work."

"Okay. See you then."

I hung up my phone dramatically, making a big scene of it so the teacher would see. He gave me a thumbs up and continued his conversation with another teacher at a lunch table.

"What did she want?" Gage asked. For some reason, he wasn't particularly fond of Tesla. He never told me why, and, to my understanding, she never did anything to him. But he just always didn't like her.

"I don't think she'd want me talking about it with other people."

He slid the piece of pizza he bought me back over to him. "Tell me."

"You are so childish. You know that?"

"I do now. Just tell me."

I snatched a pretzel from the Ziploc bag that sat between Paisley and I. "Nope. It has nothing to do with you, so there's no reason for me to tell."

He sighed loudly and slid the pizza back over to me, knowing I had won this round. Like usual.

~~~

"Have you talked to Paisley for me?"

I hadn't even stepped foot into the drama room when Alexander asked me this. He must've been waiting at the door because there was no other way he would've seen me coming.

"Please tell me you have," he said, following me as I walked to my seat to sit my books and binder down. I had never seen someone act so desperate before.

I turned around to face him; he had his arms crossed in front of him and his foot tapped rapidly. He was waiting for me to answer.

"No," I told him. "I haven't."

"Why not?"

"It hasn't come up."

"Make it come up."

I shot him a glare of annoyance. The look on his face showed that he either a.) thought that comment was somewhat clever or b.) didn't understand that he was both irritating me and standing way too close to me. "It'd be weird and obvious if I mention it out of the blue."

"That's true," he muttered, seeming to get the message. I thought he had understood that I was done with this conversation when he said, "Has she talked about me?"

It took every ounce of strength I had to not either yell or strangle him in the back of this classroom. "Alexander," I said, taking a step towards him, "I already said this. You have not come up in our conversation."

"Do you think she'll like me?"

I sat down and ignored him, hoping he'd go away. He didn't.

"If I do her math homework, will she like me?"

"Do you think she would go to prom with me?"

"Am I her type?"

Ignoring him obviously didn't work. Unfortunately, he was one of those people who could not get a hint, no matter how hard you tried to shove it in their face. And, also unfortunately, I had a tendency to not get along with those people.

I liked Alexander. I really did. I thought he was a great guy, an amazing actor, and wasn't totally slacking in the looks department. If he ditched the glasses and tried to style his hair, he had the potential to be really cute. But this desperation and anxiety he was giving off started to drive me insane, until I finally lost my cool and said, "She won't like you if you act like this! Desperate guys aren't attractive."

He instantly shut his mouth and I felt bad for calling him desperate. And indirectly calling him unattractive. But, for the first time today, he seemed to-at least somewhat-get the message, so he went back to the front of the classroom and sat in his seat.

For the rest of class, he didn't speak once. To anyone. I tried to talk to him after class ended, but he acted like he didn't hear me calling his name. He just pushed forward through the hallways, not even glancing behind him.