Excuse my French

dix. mot juste

I'd been watching the clock for so long that I was beginning to think that I should consider clock-watching as a possible career path in the future. All right, maybe that wouldn't be a very lucrative profession, but I was getting pretty damn good at it. My stomach felt hollow. Any time now...

It mewled a little. I bit my lip and tried to look as innocent as I could as the person who was making a very deep point about the role of fate in The Iliad stopped talking.

Heh. I clenched my abdomen. Please don't make any more noise. Please. Please. Please. As usual, my stomach did its own thing, like it was a crazy pop star or something.

This time, the person talking actually made eye contact with me. Luckily, his eyes moved over me and went to everyone else in the circle. I exhaled slowly. I was sure I was flaming red—I couldn't tell though. But what I could tell was that I was sweating more right now that I'd ever sweated in any gym class.

The final bell of the day rang, and I stood up from my desk hastily. Stuffing my books into my backpack, I rushed out of the classroom without saying anything to my teacher (I usually did—it was very important to suck up to my teachers in order to get good teacher recommendations in the coming fall). Well, that was mortifying.

In the crowded hallway, Olivia caught up with me, panting a little. "Hey, what's up with you?"

I clutched my stomach, which gurgled a few times (luckily for me, the hallway was so loud with the chatter of everyone walking down it that my stomach couldn't be heard). It hurt. Like really. "I'm so hungry."

Her eyes widened like she'd had a revelation. "So that was you back in there."

"Shut up."

She was so mean sometimes.

She laughed and elbowed me. "You were very impressive, if that makes you feel any better."

I rolled my eyes and took my phone out of my pocket. "Yeah, it totally does." 3:01. Just in time—fantastic.

I turned my head to look at Olivia, who was already peeking over my shoulder like the nosy person she was. "The hell're you doing?" I nudged her chin with my shoulder.

"You going somewhere?" We passed into the school lobby, where we waited next to a column. I unlocked my phone and checked my texts. Nothing so far. Hm, Luc should have sent me a confirmation text by now. I frowned, leaning against the column with one leg bent. (I reminded myself of a Greek statue. If only I didn't look ugly...)

"Hm? Right. Um, Luc and I have another discussion meeting type thing today. He should be texting me by now..."

"Huh." Olivia raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like you're meeting up a lot."

Was she jelly? I didn't know. After Luc's outburst, I'd been thinking—he was right. I always jumped to conclusions before actually observing a situation (which, funnily enough, I used to think I was good at). Maybe Olivia wasn't as shy and skittish with Luc as I thought. Maybe she was perfectly fine with him (aside from her crush on him) and Lila and I had only egged her on.

Either way (I was really, really tired of thinking now—pre-calc had drained all my brain juice a long time ago), I was gonna let it be. Even though it would be awkward.

See, I understood how she felt now. All those times I'd joked with Lila that Luc was hideous—I was being stupid and oblivious and hurtful. Poor Livy. And the thing was that now, I was starting to look forward to seeing his golden eyes every day...

That was stupid. Stop it. Stop it.

"Hepburn?" Olivia prodded my shoulder. "Hey, you're in the middle of a conversation with me, remember?"