Crazy but Sweet, Sweet but Crazy

13: two hypocrites

"Are you actually dating Elliot?" Ester asked, as we stood at the Chemistry lab, carefully examining a pipette at eye level.

She asked the question as calmly as she'd offered me the protective goggles earlier, that for a few seconds, the words didn't register in my head.

When the meaning of her utterance was fully internalized, I looked at Ester, who was carefully wiping the surface of a test tube.

Actually. That was the keyword.

I swallowed hard, a jumble of tangled thoughts squirming in my brain. What exactly was her motive of asking this question? She'd seemed like a pretty decent person, judging from her allergic-like reaction to the simple appearance of Reneé and her friends.

"What do you mean?" I said as casually as possible, slowly upturning the test tube into the sink at the teacher's instructions.

"Sorry if I was a bit intrusive," she mumbled, a hint of sheepishness on her face as she glanced at me sideways, before taking the test tube from my hand and rinsing it with hers. "It was just a bit surprising."

Surprise would be an understatement. At this point there wouldn't be a single individual in the school population that didn't know I was dating Elliot Lockwood.

The girl whose father tried to frame the innocent, philanthropic, selfless Lockwoods with crimes he committed. The girl who's shamelessly dating that very Elliot Lockwood.

"You mean because of what happened between our fathers?" I couldn't help but blurt out, taking one test tube from her hand and gently wiping it with a towel.

"Not really. It's just that the news broke on the first day you came to this school." Ester said, foaming her hands at the sink.

Then, she added without even looking at me, "What happened between your fathers, is what happened between them. That's all."

She wasn't accusing me of being shameless. She was genuinely surprised, that we started dating so fast.

This was like any other ordinary talk between two girls at school.

When did you guys start dating so fast? Where did you meet? Are you two dating, for real?

The kind of utterly useless talk that formed the foundation of any normal friendship between two girls in high school. The kind of a talk I hadn't had for a long time.

A part of my chest seemed to ache. Like any other ordinary school girl.

"I know, I don't exactly fondle him with love," I said drily with a grin I hoped didn't look like a grimace.

"F-fondle-" Ester blinked. "Ah, yes, that too," she said with a low chuckle, as we started recording the measurements on the paper.

The Chemistry teacher with a difficult long name gave instructions for us to finish cleaning up in three minutes. We removed our goggles and tucked them away in the drawers at our table.

"I'm not sure if it's something I should say... But I think it's nice," Ester remarked, surveying the rest of our classmates in the lab. "That he looks comfortable with you."

"C...comfortable?" Seemed like Ester wasn't exactly the most insightful girl around. I laughed awkwardly, shoving my hands into my pockets. "Ah, yeah." What else could I say?

"You're going to stay, right? To watch the tennis practice match after school?"

"Hey Elli, it's tennis club practice day, right?" Reneé said, not sparing the rest of us a glance. "There's this friend of mine- freshman, just joined- she's interested in joining the tennis club. I was wondering if you don't mind if we go to watch your practice matches?"