It worked. She looked up as he stood before the class and announced, “My theme is love.”
The class groaned, but he paid them no mind. When Cam had fallen in love with Lilith in Canaan, Solomon had not yet been king of the Israelites. He’d been a boy of eighteen, newly in love himself with a girl from a neighboring village. Cam and Solomon had met in a Bedouin tent one night, both of them traveling in different directions. They’d shared only one meal together, but Solomon had recited to Cam the lovely words that would later become famous as the Song of Songs. Now, Cam gazed at Lilith and started reciting the poem by heart. When he got to his favorite part, he slipped out of English and into the poem’s original language, ancient Hebrew.
“?‘Rise up, my love, my beautiful one, and come away,’?” he said.
At her desk, Lilith dropped her pen. She stared at him, her mouth open, her face ghostly pale. He wished he could know what she was feeling. Did she remember anything?
By the time Cam reached the end of the poem, the bell was ringing. The classroom grew chaotic as students leapt up from their seats.
“Did you hear that?” a girl with rosy cheeks and a huge red backpack giggled to her friend as she walked past. “He switched to gibberish when he forgot a line.”
Her friend snorted. “He does look old enough to have Alzheimer’s.”
“Nice job,” Mr. Davidson said. “That’s one of my all-time favorites. And you know the Hebrew!”
“Yeah, thanks,” Cam said, pushing out of the room and racing after Lilith. He spotted her at the end of the hall, talking to Jean and Luis. They were looking at a poster taped to a classroom door.
“Lilith! Jean! Luis! Wait up,” he called, but by the time he had fought through the crush of students to reach the end of the hall, Lilith and the boys had turned the corner and disappeared.
Cam sighed. He couldn’t catch a break. And now he might not see her again all day.
He stared at the poster she’d been reading.
ARE YOU READY TO ROCK?!
He’d seen it before. It was advertising the same gig he’d tried to invite Lilith to his first day at school. The Perceived Slights were opening for a local band called Ho Hum. It was taking place that night at a fancy coffee shop a couple of miles away.
Was Lilith planning on going now? She hated Chloe King. So did Cam, for that matter. But on the off chance that Lilith did go to scope out the competition, Cam would be there.
As the sun went down that evening, Roland, Cam, and Arriane crunched through the grass to cross High Meadow Road, forcing cars to swerve around them. Cam was deep in thought. He barely noticed the screeching tires and blaring horns.
“I don’t know how we stuck around Sword & Cross as long as we did,” Roland said as a motorist flipped him off. “I can’t get kicked out of these atrocious mortal high schools fast enough.”
“Get out of the road!” a woman shrieked over her horn.
“Did you know that almost all car horns are tuned to F-sharp minor?” Arriane asked. “That’s why you should always listen to music in the key of A when you’re driving in a city. Or sing a song in A.”
“She’s a kind-hearted woman, she studies evil all the time,” Roland sang.
“Where are we going again?” Arriane asked.
“A coffee shop called Alfie’s,” Cam said, distracted. He had Lilith on his mind. He had to make up with her tonight in order for his plan to work.
“And why is that again?” Arriane patted Cam’s stomach. “Cammy’s hungry? Wants some crumb cake? You might want to watch your carb intake. Do they even make tuxes your size? Which reminds me, have you asked Lilith to prom yet?”
“Not yet,” Cam said. “Not yet. I’m going to need your help tonight,” he told his friends as they rounded the corner to the front of the café. “Don’t forget the plan.”
“Yes, right, the secret plan!” Arriane said, stopping to touch up her lipstick. “I love secrets. Almost as much as I love plans. Put us to work, boss.”
Cam walked into the coffee shop and held the door open for his friends. The entrance was crammed with shelves of knickknacks and trinkets, little metal trees meant for holding jewelry, coffee mugs painted with cheesy slogans for sale—all to make room for a small stage that had been set up at the back of the café.
The walls were mirrored, so Cam tried to avoid looking almost everywhere. He couldn’t stand to see the way he looked now. He was indisputably ugly.
“Come on, I need a mocha,” Arriane said, taking Cam’s hand and squeezing them through a narrow space between two bookshelves so they could join the audience.