This earns me one of his booming laughs and a “For you, my coffee and I will be there. Large. Coffee.”
Ellie Cooper stops me next, and it’s hard to maintain a smile. Just this once I’d like to get from point A to point B without having twenty conversations. Invisibility sounds like the most desirable of superpowers—I’ll have to ask Peter which radioactive creature needs to bite me.
“B, I’m going to be a little late on Sunday. Tennis lesson.”
“That’s okay. We’ll probably be at the library until noonish.”
“Great! I’ll be there by ten. At the latest. Who’s coming?”
The list is at the bottom of my bag—and if I pull it out, she’ll want to talk about everyone on it. So I wink. “Wait and see.”
“You’re the worst. Ugh, okay, I guess I’ll be patient. Oh, almost forgot, Mr. Donnelly wants to see you before you leave.”
“He does?” Mr. Donnelly is the Key Club advisor. I’m sure it’s nothing, just some last-minute reminders about the book project, but it’s yet another thing between me and my car. I pull on a smile. “Thanks, Ellie. See you Sunday.”
Three interruptions later, we finally reach the empty computer lab. Silvia inserts a thumb drive and pulls up her lab report. My chest tightens when I look at the screen. She’s normally a good student, but her equations are a mess. This isn’t going to be simple or fast. I look at the clock and pull out chairs.
“Silvie, this is kind of …”
“A disaster?” she suggests. Laughs. Then drops her head into her hands. “Ugh, I know! I was just so distracted!”
“Well, it shouldn’t take us too long. Let’s get started.” I scroll down the pages looking for something to compliment. I know from yearbook that Silvia needs to hear something positive before a negative. “Your conclusion is solid; we just need to swap around some of the chemical names and results in the procedure so they match.”
“Yeah, I copied most of that from Izzie. I just couldn’t pay attention today!”
“Then we’ll need to change the wording, or Mr. Leland will notice.” I take the mouse and start this process.
She sighs. “Sorry! You’re probably totally impatient to get out of here. But, honestly, this is not my fault. Anyone would have flaked in my situation.” She looks at me and raises her eyebrows, waiting for me to ask.
I swallow my sigh and let go of the mouse. “Everything okay?”
“Adrian! Forrester!” She says this like it’s an answer, but I’m not sure how it matches my question. When I shrug, she continues. “Do you know him? Super tall? Super blond? Super hot? Both our lab partners were absent, so Mr. Leland paired us up for this …”
She stops talking and stares dreamily at the computer screen.
“And?” I prompt.
“Oh! And nothing.” She frowns. “But, gah, he’s too adorable! He’s wearing this yellow polo today, with a blue stripe that is the exact same color as his eyes. How am I supposed to pay attention when he’s wearing that? And he was telling Max at the next table about his new car—he just got his license. I’d die to be his copilot!”
I don’t have time to be relationship therapist and chemtutor, so I offer the obvious solution and hope we can move on. “So, why don’t you ask him out?”
Silvia laughs and plays with the mouse. “Yeah, right! We’re not all you. I could never. When it comes to Adrian, I’m just … hopeless!”
I’m not going to bite this time. I’m not going to play Who’s More Popular or list the reasons any guy would be lucky to date her. I know she expects this, and it would only take a blink to conjure up the words.
But I can’t. I just can’t.
“Well, then, let’s focus on something less hopeless, like getting you an A on this lab.”
It’s kinder than what I’m thinking—it must be nice to have your biggest problem be a hot lab partner—but my tone is sharper than I intend.
Silvia’s face crumples. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have bothered you. You can go. I’ll—I’ll stop being so stupid and figure it out.”
My stomach clenches. Hurting her feels like punching myself in the gut. “Oh, Silvie, I’m sorry. That came out wrong.” I give her a one-armed hug and say what I should have said the first time. “Any guy would be lucky to have someone as adorable, funny, and wonderful as you. Your snickerdoodles alone would make most guys drool—combine those with how pretty you are, and how nice? If Adrian hasn’t noticed, then he’s the one who’s stupid.”
“Yeah. Sure. Thanks.” But there aren’t exclamation points on these sentences. She turns her face toward the screen. “I’ll get started so you can get out of here.”