Battle of the Captains

truce

"That's what they all say."

"Actually," Liz joined in. "The only reason she's single is because she wont even give the only guy who could live up to my standards the time of day."

"Austin Collins is the perfect example for someone who doesn't even come close to my standards."

Liz raised her eyebrows. "Who said anything about Austin Collins? I didn't say anything about Austin Collins." She faced Clay. "Did you say anything about Austin Collins?"

"Nope."

"Could that mean that she thinks that he's boyfriend material?"

"Probably," Clay snickered. "Your reactions are better than Austin's, I swear.

He did the same thing to Austin.

Though I did enjoy the words better than Austin.

"Could you guys stop ganging up on me? It's not fair." I didn't have a boyfriend to team up with me and believe me, if Austin Collins, for whatever reason, did become my boyfriend, he'd team against me because that was just the way we were. "Maybe I just don't want a boyfriend." Maybe I thought that high school boys were useless and immature and maybe I didn't want any added problems to my life. Maybe I'd lived and been friends with too much boys to last me a lifetime and maybe I didn't want to add to that list.

Liz shrugged. "Just for now. Let's go out for pizza after school. I'll text the others."

"You can tell us all about Austin then."

"I don't want to talk about Collins."

"Why not?"

At the voice, a shiver ran up my spine to the back of my neck until I cringed. Your fault, I mouthed at Clay. Liz pursed her lips like she was trying not to laugh as I slowly turned around to face him and he was grinning childishly like he just caught me opening my presents on the day before Christmas. .

"You know, if you're going to spread rumors about me, you can at least be subtle and not throw my name around for me to hear."

"I wasn't spreading rumors about you," I said. "We made a truce, remember?"

"Now you're making me feel bad," he said. "I was just spreading rumors about you five minutes ago. I guess should go hunt that guy down and tell him that you don't actually have an extra, blue toe."

"That's sweet," I said. "You're a good friend."

Liz and Clay just stood there, watching us, trying to figure out what was going on yet at the same time, holding looks like they knew something we didn't.

Sensing the awkward tension, I took a step backward, closer to my friends. "We're just going to go–"

"Actually, I came here to talk to you."

So he knew where my locker was.

"Kody, I have to go," Liz tapped my arm. "I totally forgot that I had a make-up quiz thing. I'll see you after school, okay?"

She wasn't lying to get out of here as quickly as possible. She actually mentioned this make-up quiz yesterday after she missed it the other day when she had high fever and had to stay home. If I remembered correctly, she told me, "Remind me I have a make up quiz at lunch." I didn't. Whoops.

I didn't try to stop her or Clay from leaving me behind, but I wanted to. It had only been a day since our truce and improvement didn't happen overnight. Being alone with Austin always led to disaster.

"So what did you want to talk about?"

"When can we start tutoring sessions?" Maybe I looked confused or something, which I wasn't, because he felt the need to clarify. "Yesterday, you said that you would be willing to–"