Lola?” Cricket looks astonished. “What are you doing here?”
“I—” Now that I’m standing before his door, my excuses sound ludicrous. Hey, I was in the neighborhood, so I thought I’d drop by to hang out. Oh! And I wanted to get back that embarrassing binder, which I only lent to you because you were nice enough to offer to make something that would enable me to attend a dance with another guy. “I came to see if you had any ideas for the panniers. I’m . . . in a bit of a time crunch.”
Time crunch? I have never used the phrase time crunch before.
Cricket is still in shock.
“I mean, I came to see you, too. Of course.”
“Well. You found me. Hi.”
“Everything okay?” A girl pops out her head behind him. She’s taller than me, and she’s slender. And she has golden hair in natural waves and a glowing tan that says surfer girl rather than fake-and-bake.
And she looks totally pissed to see me here.
She places a hand possessively on his arm. His sleeve is pushed up so her bare skin is touching his. My stomach plummets. “S-sorry. It was rude of me to show up like this. I’ll see you later, okay?” And then I’m speed-walking down the hall.
“LOLA!”
I stop. I slowly turn around.
He looks bewildered. “Where are you going?”
“I didn’t mean to interrupt. I was in the neighborhood, um, shopping and . . . and of course you’re busy.” Stop freaking out. He can date or make out with or—oh God—sleep with whomever he wants.
“Is it raining?” The girl frowns at my raincoat and rain boots.
“Oh. No. They matched my dress.” I unsnap the coat to expose a pretty dress in the same shade of yellow. Cricket startles like he’s just noticed the girl’s hand. He slides from her grasp and into the hall.
“This is my friend Jessica. We were working on our physics homework. Jess, this is Lola. The one . . . the one I told you about.”
Jessica does not look pleased by this information.
HE TOLD HER ABOUT ME.
“So you came to work on the dress?” he asks.
“It’s not a big deal.” I move toward him. “We can do it later.”
“No! You’re here. You’re never here.” He glances at Jessica. “We’ll finish tomorrow, okay?”
“Right.” She fires me a death glare before storming away.
Cricket doesn’t notice. He opens his door wide. “Come in. How did you find me?”
“St. Cla—OH.”
“What? What is it?”
Two beds. Beside one, a constellation chart, a periodic table, and a desk crowded with papers and wires and small metal objects. Beside the other, more naked fantasy women, a gigantic television, and several gaming consoles.
“You have a roommate.”
“Yeah.” He sounds confused.
“The, um, picture on your door surprised me.”
“NO. No. I prefer my women with . . . fewer carnivorous beasts and less weaponry.” He pauses and smiles. “Naked is okay. What she needs are a golden retriever and a telescope. Maybe then it would do it for me.”
I laugh.
“A squirrel and a laboratory beaker?”
“A bunny rabbit and a flip chart,” I say.
“Only if the flip chart has mathematical equations on it.”
I fake-swoon onto his bed. “Too much, too much!” He’s laughing, but it fades as he watches me toss and turn. He looks pained. I sit up on my elbows. “What’s the matter?”
“You’re in my room,” he says quietly. “You weren’t in my room five minutes ago and now you are.”
I pull myself up the rest of the way, suddenly conscious of both the bed and its lingering scent of bar soap and sweet mechanical oil. I glance at a space close to his head but not quite at it. “I shouldn’t have barged in on you like this. I’m sorry.”
“No. I’m glad you’re here.”
I find the courage to meet his eyes, but he’s not looking at me anymore. He reaches for something on his desk. It’s overflowing with towers of graphing paper and partially completed projects, but there’s one area that’s been cleared of everything. Everything except for my binder. “I did some sketches this weekend in Pennsylvania—”
“Oh, yeah.” I looked up Skate America, and it was held in Reading this year. I ask the polite question. “How did Calliope do?”
“Good, good. First.”
“She broke her second-place streak?”
He looks up. “What? Oh. No. She always gets first in these early seasonal competitions. Not to take anything away from her,” he adds distractedly. Since he’s not bothered by the mention, I gather that he doesn’t know we spoke. Best to keep it that way. “Okay,” he says. “Here’s what I was working on.”
Cricket sits beside me on his bed. He’s in scientist inventor professional mode, so he’s forgotten his self-imposed distance rule. He pulls out a few illustrations that he’d tucked inside, and he’s rambling about materials and circumferences and other things I’m not thinking about, because all I see is how carefully he’s cradling my binder in his lap.
Like it’s fragile. Like it’s important.