Defending Parker

[Chapter 6]

Our laughter died down quickly, and Saige took the advantage of the silence to voice her curiosity once more. “So, what really brought you into the land of the daydreamers?”

I turned my head slowly from where I stood beside her, a sheepish smile adorning my face as I spoke. “I might have been thinking about Parker.”

Shock flashed in her eyes, but it was gone quickly, as though it was never there at all. “Oh really?” she asked, as though my reply hadn’t helped her curiosity, but made it much more prevalent. “Why? Does somebody have the makings of a crush?”

“No,” I replied with an eye roll, and even though I may have found Parker a little bit over average in the looks category, that didn’t mean she had to know. At least not right this second. “I’m just nervous about how this tutoring session is going to go.”

My honesty stunned her, and I can immediately see her teasing comments fly out of her mind as she shrugged simply. “I wouldn’t worry about it.” Saige said, standing up from her place on the lockers as she headed down the hallway.

Scurrying to catch up with her, I fell into stride as I spoke. “So you think it’ll be fine?”

Saige flashed me a smile as we continued to walk. “I don’t think there’s anything to worry about,” she said. “I mean, he’s really good in history and it’s not like he’s a jerk that’s out to get you or something. He’s not going to teach you the wrong stuff or anything.”

For some reason, for the first time since I met her, I felt like Saige was lying to me (and I wasn’t counting any information she was withholding about Parker’s past). “Now tell me how you really feel?” I asked, grabbing her arm lightly as I pulled her to a stop.

She sighed as she looked at me and shook her head. “Look,” she started, “I still don’t really understand why Parker agreed to tutor you to be honest. It’s just a little bit weird to me.”

The nerves that were still whirling around in the pit of my stomach grew bigger as I listened to Saige talk.

“What do you mean?” I asked timidly. “Do you, umm, think something is going to happen or something?”

My nerves were at an all-time high for the day as silence enveloped us for a couple seconds.

“Look,” Saige sighed, “I’m not saying that he lied about wanting to tutor you or that you’re not smart to ask him, somebody who’s really good at history, for help. All I’m saying is that I think it’s weird. He’s known for being the black sheep and the anti-social boy who lost his sister a couple of years ago, so I just don’t know exactly how you’re tutoring session is going to turn out.”

“Well, now that you’ve managed to make me think that this might not be such a great idea after all,” I said, trying to take deep breaths that weren’t too noticeable as Saige flashed me a smile of apology. “I’m off to meet Parker.”

“Sorry about that,” she apologized, “But hopefully it goes well and you prove me wrong.”