“Do you think I’m fat?” Cat asked in the lunch line on Wednesday. Eureka still hadn’t spoken to Brooks.
It was fried pork chop day, the gastronomical highlight of Cat’s week. But on her tray was a brownish mound of shredded iceberg lettuce, a scoop of gummy black-eyed peas, and a healthy squirt of hot sauce.
“Another one bites the dust.” Eureka pointed at Cat’s food. “Literally.” She swiped her card at the register to pay for her pork chop and chocolate milk. Eureka was bored by diet conversations. She would have loved to fill a bathing suit as well as Cat.
“I know I’m not fat,” Cat said as they navigated through the dizzying maze of tables. “And you know, apparently. But does Rodney know?”
“He’d better.” Eureka avoided the eyes of the sophomore cross-country girls at whom Cat blew a superior air kiss. “Did he say something? And if he did, do you care?”
Eureka wished she hadn’t said that. She didn’t want to be jealous of Cat. She wanted to be the best friend who was entranced by discussions of dieting and dating and dirt on the other kids in their class. Instead she was bitter and bored. And bruised from being practically deboned by Rhoda the night before over her early exit from Landry’s office. Rhoda had been so furious she couldn’t even think of a strong enough punishment, which now was pending and keeping Eureka on edge.
“No, it’s nothing like that.” Cat glanced at the cross-country seniors’ table, which was set back from the rest of the cafeteria in the alcove by the window. Theresa Leigh and Mary Monteau had two empty seats next to them on the black metal bench. They waved to Cat, smiled tentatively at Eureka.
Since she’d come back to school this year, Eureka had been eating lunch with Cat outside under the huge pecan tree in the courtyard. The cacophony of so many students eating, joking, arguing, selling crap for whatever church field trip they were trying to raise money for, was too much for Eureka, who’d barely gotten out of the hospital. Cat had never uttered a peep about missing the action inside, but today she winced as Eureka walked toward the back door. It was cold and blustery, and Cat was wearing the plaid skirt option of the Evangeline uniform with no stockings.
“Would you hate staying in today?” Cat nodded toward the empty seats at the cross-country table. “I’ll be a Catsicle out there.”
“No problem.” Though it seemed like a death sentence as Eureka slid onto the bench across from Cat, said hey to Theresa and Mary, and tried to pretend the whole table wasn’t staring at her.
“Rodney hasn’t said anything overt about my weight.” Cat swirled a piece of lettuce around in a puddle of hot sauce. “But he’s rail thin, and it makes me jumpy to think I might weigh more than my dude. You know how it is. It’s hard not to anticipate the future criticisms of someone you really like. Something about me is going to bug him eventually, the question is—”
“How long is the list going to be?” Eureka stared at her tray. She crossed and uncrossed her legs, thinking about Brooks.
“Take your mystery guy,” Cat said.
Eureka tugged the elastic band from her hair, then swept her hair back up in a bun identical to the one she’d just had. She knew her face was red. “Ander.”
“You’re blushing.”
“I am not.” Eureka shook Tabasco sauce violently onto food she wasn’t hungry for anymore. She just needed to drown something. “I’ll never see him again.”
“He’ll be back. It’s what boys do.” Cat chewed a bite of lettuce slowly, then reached over to steal a hunk of Eureka’s pork chop. Her diets were experiments, and this one, thankfully, had ended. “Fine, then, take Brooks. When you were dating him—”
Eureka motioned for Cat to stop. “There’s a reason I quit my therapist. I’m not up for rehashing my fifth-grade romance with Brooks.”