Splinters: Part One

Part One | 16

"I don't want to talk about them, though," she abruptly stated, walking backwards and swinging her legs forward as she slowly began swaying on her blue seat back and forth. "I kinda just want to sit and be with you."

Wow. Collie certainly knows how to make a guy feel like Jello. I could never imagine a girl just wanting to be around me. My mom didn't even want that. How could a perfect girl like Collie?

"Tell me about your old boarding school," she suggested, smiling.

My stomach fell. "M-my boarding... school?"

"Yeah," Collie said nonchalantly, kicking her legs forward and back, and forward and back. "What were the people like? What was the place like?"

"Um..." I scrambled in my head for something to say, but nothing came up. All I thought about was telling her about St. Anne's, but I could always make a mistake with that. "Uh... It was... Nice."

"Nice?"

My throat felt dry for some reason. "Y-yes."

Collie was quiet for a moment until she stopped swinging and bowed her head, slowly losing speed and beginning to stop. "Did you, um... Did you have any girlfriends?"

This was the first time in the entire conversation where she showed fear or nervousy, something Collie never shows me. I shouldn't say never. I should say doesn't regularly, because she doesn't. Collie's always the confident one, the feisty one. I'm the one who freaks out over stupid questions. That's just me, though.

"No."

Collie let out a breath. I had a feeling she'd been holding it and she was relieved at my response which almost made me grin.

"Not any? No girls you had a thing for?"

I'd never had a thing for a girl until I met Collie. She's the first. I'm too much of a wimp to tell her that, though.

"Not really."

Collie smiled and stood up. So did I. We walked over to a bench and sat down next to each other. Her hand found mine and she intertwined out fingers and then she rest her head on my shoulder. It wasn't particularly comfortable, but there was no way I was going to say that. This is the first time Collie's ever really been this affectionate and the last thing I was going to ever do is ruin it. It's not like she can do this at Constance. It's not like we can do this at Constance.

But since the thought was gnawing at my brain ever since I've met Zech and have known of his petty crush on her, I had to ask, and I prayed I'd get the outcome I wished for.

"What about you?"

"Hm?" At Collie's groggy reply, I almost thought she fell asleep, but she ended up not being able to hear me. "What?"

"Have you had any boyfriends?"

Collie frowned and sat up. "Um... Sort of, I guess."

I didn't make eye contact. I just held her hand and stared at a particular wood chip in front of me on the swing set ground, trying desperately to not be jealous. "Who?"

Collie sighed. "My first boyfriend was Andrew, actually."

It might've been a record how fast I got jealous. "Andrew?"

Collie laughed. "It was, like, in the sixth grade. It lasted about that long, too."

It didn't matter to me though. At some point in time, Collie liked Andrew and Andrew liked Collie. I didn't want Collie with Andrew and I didn't want Andrew with Collie. Or my sister. I was beginning to think he was more of a threat than Zech!