Our Song

Our Song (4)

The easiest thing to do would be to not answer it. But Cassie would have kept calling. And she would keep texting me, too. And turning my phone off wasn't a good idea because then if my mother tried to contact me, she'd think I was dead.

So I answered, even though I really didn't want to at all.

"Where are you?" she asked before I could even greet her, her voice high and squeaky. That meant she was stressed out.

"Um... at home?" I lied, biting on my lip when I realized that it sounded like a question.

"Don't lie to me, Leah," she snapped. "I just called your house and your mom said she thought you were with Leslie and me. Leslie and I are right here, and you're nowhere to be found. You even told us you were too busy to hang out today."

Damn it! They had caught me right in the middle of my lie. What was I supposed to tell them? They obviously didn't want me hanging out with Blake. And I knew my mom was probably freaking out now because I had lied to her.

"I'm with Blake," I told her truthfully, cracking under the pressure of the silence between us.

"Blake?" Cassie nearly screeched, causing me to move the phone away from my ear. "Blake Solo?"

"I don't know any other Blake."

"What are you doing with Blake Solo?"

"He's my partner for English, remember?" I reminded her flatly, in case she had somehow forgotten. I had told her the day before that Blake was my partner, but I wouldn't have really been surprised if she hadn't really been listening to me.

"Oh," she sneered, and all I wanted was to get off the phone with her. "Well, you should have hung out with Leslie and me today! I'm sure whatever we're going to do is so much better than whatever you're going to do with him."

I wasn't so sure about that. Sure, it was fun hanging out with my friends, but I was trying to break Blake out of his silent streak. If I could do this, Mrs. Sparks probably wouldn't despise me for no reason anymore.

"Blake and I really need to work on our project now, Cassie." It wasn't entirely true, but she didn't have to know that. "So, I have to go."

"You have all year to work on your project! What, are you going to spend every day with him?" she demanded, and I glanced over at Blake to see he was playing with a napkin that was sticking out of the dispenser awkwardly. I needed to get off the phone. "Just watch, Leah! He's going to fall in love with you or something. And then you'll have a freak that's in love with you. He'll probably follow you around, and then you and Sean are going to be bothered all the time, and—"

"I'm not dating Sean, and I won't ever date Sean," I snapped into the phone, getting tired of telling her this almost every single day. Feelings of love and affection weren't miraculously going to appear for him. After six years of rejecting him, I think it was pretty obvious I didn't like him that way!

"You don't... like Blake, do you?" Cassie gasped, as if it was the most horrible thing in the world, which it definitely wasn't. Blake wasn't a bad guy; he just had something troubling him. Something I planned on finding out sooner or later.

"No!" I denied, and I really felt like smashing my phone to permanently end this conversation. "I don't like him. Not like that. We're friends, which we're supposed to be for our project. Alright? Alright."

"Are you still going to come watch Sean practice on Monday?" she asked me now, sounding scared that I was going to say no.

I let out a sigh. "Are you going to come with me?"