Mark My Words

21 | Gay Crises

"Who knows. Maybe we'll be rivals once the season starts," Sami said with a wink.

"That'd be fun! I'd be okay with that," Isaiah said with a firm nod. They shook on it, and made light of the situation at hand.

Rosalie was munching on a cookie when Sami turned to her, leaning back on his hands. A sly smile tugged at his lips. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"What is it," she said dreadfully.

"So... I hear Joanna's preparing to fight everyone who crosses your path," Sami said with a wiggle of his eyebrows. "Sounds like true love to me."

"Shut up! It is not!" Rosalie cried, ducking her head behind her knees. "She's being ridiculous. You know she's been stalking Jamie? She got his address from Ray and snuck over there when his mom was measuring me for the dress."

"You're kidding," Isaiah gasped. "That red-headed Demon girl?! She's in woodshop with me and she almost hammered a guy's thumb flat on the table."

"No way," Sami snorted, falling back onto the carpet.

"Woodshop?" Rosalie said with a raised eyebrow. "But we have all the same classes together."

"Seventh period?" Isaiah asked, and Rosalie clamped her mouth shut and frowned at the blank television screen. She... never really did see Joanna during study hall...

"What's she doing in woodshop?" Rosalie pondered aloud, hand clasped to her chin. She took a bite out of her cookie to fuel her thinking machine.

"Honestly, Rosie-girl, I don't even know your type," Sami confessed. "I always just thought it was Lennie."

"Well, gave up on that fantasy when he started dating Harper," Rosalie muttered, only to perk up. "You know he had a crush on me till freshmen year? Jamie's little sister ratted him out."

"Lennie was there?" Sami gasped. "You're kidding. Why the hell was he there?"

Rosalie shrugged, uncertain. "Dunno. He's good friends with the Berrys. He mentioned he spends the weekends there sometimes, cleaning up house. The place is a pigsty if you ask me."

"Hold on, rewind—let's go back to the whole crush our dear Lennie Pittmen had once upon a dream," Isaiah said with a twirl of his finger. He pinned an unnerving, skeptical stare on Rosalie. "How'd he react. This means everything."

"How am I supposed to know?" she squeaked, petrified. The only time she was confident enough to look someone in the eye was at the lunch table, and that was because she knew everyone there. Lennie Pittmen was another story. She couldn't remember the color of his eyes even if she tried despite having had him on her radar for so many years.

"Did he blush? Did he deny it?"

"No, he didn't deny it. I guess he blushed a little... He wouldn't look at me afterwards so I can't really remember."

"Oh shit," Sami gasped, and Isaiah's jaw dropped. They shared a look. "This can't be."

"It can and it will be. Rosalie, I think he's still crushing on you," Isaiah said, looking awfully close to squealing as Rosalie choked on her cookie.

She coughed, thumping a fist on her chest. "What? No—Sami, you talked to Lennie about this. He treats me like his sister. Of course it's embarrassing that he had a crush on me. And besides, Joanna—"

She halted, staring wide-eyed at an eager Sami and Isaiah as they leaned in, awaiting the end of that sentence. She swallowed hard, and realized something dreadful: Sami and her never followed up on the outcome of her and Joanna's deal.