Once

Ten

The six of them left the school gates together at three o'clock that afternoon. They were all looking stiff and uncomfortable and bored as hell after their talk from Mr Luzlic.

All but Elle, that is. She didn't know how she looked but she had a feeling she looked like she was on the verge of a heart attack. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest and the blood pumping in her ears. Why did she feel so alive all of a sudden? Why did she feel this mad rush of excitement as if something huge, something monumental was about to happen to her?

This was not exactly how she'd pictured this day going when she sat drinking coffee in her kitchen that morning.

Sellan and Maggie were saying their goodbyes - they were going left at the school gates, heading back to Sellan's, and everyone else was going right - but Elle hardly heard them. She barely even registered where she was or what she was doing until she was halfway down School Lane and Russell was suddenly saying to her:

"Elle. What the hell's going on with you today?"

She pulled herself out of her daydreaming with a serious effort, and said:

"Nothing." The obviousness of the lie hung between them for a second, and she added sharply, "I'm just feeling a bit - off. That's all."

"Not Mr Luzlic boring you to death, then? Christ, I thought it was never going to end."

Russell was grinning, but for some reason Elle found it hard to appreciate the joke.

"It's not that," she said. She tried to put a laugh into her voice as she spoke, trying to make it sound light and casual. She suspected it came off sounding more like hysterical. "I guess I'm just feeling a bit... off today. That's all."

Russell leaned in as close as he could to whisper:

"Not Lover Boy, is it?"

Elle tried not to look but she couldn't help it; her eye naturally flicked round to David, who was walking a few paces up ahead with Jax. He was wheeling his bike along and they were talking to each other in an easy, offhand way - anyone might have thought they'd been friends for years. Occasionally Jax would grab him lightly by the arm as she laughed at some hilarious thing he'd just said. So like Jax. So confident, so natural. Everything was easy where Jax was concerned. No wonder David had fallen naturally into step next to her instead of Elle.

The funny thing was, Elle wasn't jealous at all. She should have been, she supposed. But it was impossible to be jealous of Jax, and besides, it's not as if Jax was stealing him from her. It's not like Elle even fancied David. Because she definitely didn't. Definitely.

"Don't call him that," she said back to Russell. Again she suspected there was a shade too much emotion in her voice to be casual. "I don't, like, like him or anything. I only invited him to have lunch with us because it was his first day and I felt bad for him wandering round on his own. You're the one who's invited him shopping with us tomorrow."

"Ri-ight. And the fact that he's six-foot-something and gorgeous has nothing to do with the fact that you've been practically swooning since the first second you saw him this morning?"

Elle gave Russell a hard stare.

"I do not fancy him," she said, as slowly and deliberately as she could. "He seems... sweet."

"Yes. Doesn't he just."

Russell gave her a playful nudge in the ribs, and giggled to himself.

"It's - it's nothing to do with him," Elle said. She could hear her voice was growing distant and she was struggling to keep her mind focused.