“Of course it was.” She smiled, then reached down, picking up my backpack. “Come on. We should take you to the nurse, get some ice on that thing.”
I pushed myself to my feet, feeling her watching me. I felt all shaky, in that weird way you do when your equilibrium, not to mention everything else, has been knocked askew. As if sensing this, Riley took my arm, holding my elbow. Her touch was light, but I could still feel her steering me as we turned into the main hall.
Down in the nurse’s office, we were triaged behind a guy who was vomiting (ugh) and a tall girl with a fever and bright red cheeks. I was given a pack of frozen peas and told to wait. I picked a seat as far as I could from the other patients, then sat down, pressing it to my nose. Ahhhh.
Riley sat down beside me. “Is that helping?”
“Big-time,” I told her. Around the peas, I said, “You don’t have to stay. I’m sure you have something better to do.”
“Not really,” she replied. When I glanced at her, doubting this, she added, “I have a free period. I’m supposed to be in the math lab or the library, but no one really checks up.”
“Lucky you,” I said. “How’d you swing that?”
She shrugged, crossing her legs. “I have an honest face, I guess.”
I reached up, tentatively touching my nose again. It was a bit more numb now, but the bump was bigger. Great. Across the room, the vomiter was looking sort of green. I put the peas back on.
“So,” Riley said, as the nurse passed by, collecting the girl with the fever and taking her into the other room, “you and Dave, huh?”
I swallowed. Well, it wasn’t like this was a surprise. “It wasn’t really anything. We just went to the game.”
“So I saw.e="3">? I glanced at her. “My dad’s a big U fan. Watching the games is pretty much mandatory at my house.”
“My dad used to be like that, too,” I told her. “But about Defriese.”
“Not so much now, I bet.”
I took the peas away again. Her face was sympathetic, though, not teasing. “No,” I said. “Not so much.”
We sat there for a moment, both of us silent. Then she said, “I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable the other night. When we were talking outside your house.”
“You didn’t,” I told her.
“It’s just . . .” She looked down at her hands, then opened them up, spreading her fingers across her knees. “Dave kind of brings out my overprotective side. I don’t want to see him get hurt, you know?”
“He told me you were, like, his only friend when he started here.”
“Pretty much. He met Ellis in homeroom his first day, but we were the sum total of his inner circle. Plus, he was coming from Kiffney-Brown, which is like another planet. I mean, his best friend there was thirteen.”
“You mean Gerv the Perv?”
“He told you about him, huh? God, is that kid a nightmare. I mean, he’s supersmart and all, but a person can only take so many booger jokes, you know?” She rolled her eyes. “Truthfully, though, I probably wasn’t the best choice either. It’s because of me he started going to parties and doing all that other stuff that got him in so deep with his parents. He would have been better off with just Ellis.”
“You and Ellis aren’t friends?”
“We are now,” she said. “But mostly because we have Dave in common. Ellis, you know, he’s a good kid. Plays soccer, is involved with a bunch of school stuff. I mean, he does the freaking TV announcements. Definitely a better choice for Dave than taking up with me.”
“I’m not sure about that,” I said. “You seem like a pretty good friend.”
“Yeah?”
I nodded, and she smiled.
“I try. Really, though, it’s selfish in some ways. I have this weird thing about wanting to take care of everyone, not just Dave. It makes things complicated.”
I shifted the peas. “Simple has its downsides, too.”
“Meaning what?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I move around a lot. So I hardly get to know anybody. It might be easier, but it’s kind of lonely.”
I wasn’t sure why I was being so truthful. Maybe it was the crack to the head. Riley turned, looking at me. “You think you’ll be staying here for a while?”
“No idea,” I told her.
“Huh. Really.”
She faced forward again. I said, “What?”
“It’s just,” she said, “you haven’t done that here. Not made friends.”
“I haven’t?”
She looked at the green-faced guy across from us. “Mclean,” she said. “I’m sitting here with you, in the nurse’s office, during my free period. That means we’re friends.”
“But you’re just being nice,” I said.
“Just like you were nice to me, the other night at my car,” she replied. “Plus, you took Dave to the game. You invited Deb into a social gathering which, believe me, no one has ever done here, to my knowledge. And you haven’t smacked Heather yet, which is a much better record than most.”
“That’s not that hard,” I told her.
“Yes, it is. She’s my best friend and I love her, but she can be a total pain in the ass.” She sat back, crossing her legs again. “Face it, Mclean. You might think you don’t want any connections, but your actions say otherwise.”