Strings Attached

Chapter Eleven

Brianna turned to see the bathroom door, then me. "I know something's going on between you two," she whispered, smirking.

I frowned. "Nothing's going on," I said.

She raised one of her eyebrows. "Liar." She smiled once again and winked. "Don't worry. I won't tell Mom."

I rolled my eyes. "I said nothing is going on, Brianna. Drop it!"

"Oh, teenage love," she said dreamily.

I narrowed my eyes at her and made the impression of holding something very small between my thumb and my index finger. "I am this close to killing you and making it look like an accident."

She chuckled. "Please! You're not smart enough to do that!"

I frowned. "Shut up!"

"You shut up," she said, smiling at me and entering her room.

"Close the door behind you, loser!" I exclaimed.

"Whatever, smartypants!" she exclaimed as she closed the door.

I smiled, knowing Brianna was the best sister in the world, even though she could be really annoying sometimes.

***

As days passed by, I wondered what had happened to Theodore's promise of taking revenge. I felt relieved that he had not done anything to me, but I should have never let my guard down because that Thursday, Theodore's counterattack took place.

Theodore sat with Louise and me at lunch, and we dedicated our time to study the lives of bystanders. It was nothing serious. We simply imagined what their lives were like. We would make harmless assumptions like, "That guy with the green sweater probably has a full collection or sweaters. He probably has one color for each day," or "That girl with the Superman shirt probably has watched the movie more than once."

The game was not entirely boring. It helped us kill time, but it also gave Theodore the excellent idea of counterattacking me when I least expected it. He pointed at a guy who was picking his nose. He was tall, and his hair was covering most of his eyes. I wrinkled my nose.

"How about him?" Theodore asked. "What assumption would you make about him?"

"He is fragile," said Louise. "And insecure. You can tell by the way he covers his eyes. His posture also shows us his lack of confidence in himself. His feelings are probably hurt easily, and he rarely asks girls out, fearing he will be rejected."

I smiled. "I couldn't have said it better myself."

Theodore grinned. "Wait here."

Theodore stood up and walked towards the boy. He said something to the boy, but we could not hear what it was. The boy nodded, and Theodore patted him on the back and said something else. The boy replied, and Theodore pointed at me and winked.

I frowned. What was he planning? I wanted to know what they were talking about, but I could not hear a thing they were saying.

"They're talking about going out on a date or something like that," Louise said.

I frowned. "You can hear them?"

She shook her head. "I'm reading their lips, or at least I'm trying to."

I raised my eyebrows, impressed. "That's very cool."

Louise smiled. "Thank you."

I turned to see Theodore, who simply nodded and walked towards us again. He smiled brightly at me.

"What did you tell him?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing..." Theodore smiled. He leaned on my shoulder and whispered, "I'll tell you when we get home."