@HersheyClements: what r u doing?
Watching FH scrimmage, I typed. Omitting avoiding you and thinking about North.
@HersheyClements: get ur ass back here. we r going to din. Xo
“We’re leaving in sixty seconds,” she announced when I came through the door. “We have to eat early because Izzy wants to digest before bed.” Our dress fittings for the Masquerade Ball were the next day, and Izzy had been dieting all week so she could fit into a smaller size. According to Lux she was still seven pounds over her recommended weight, which seemed crazy to me. She was curvy, not fat, and her waist was tiny. I had my own anxieties about tomorrow’s fittings. With zero boobs, short legs, and a body like a ruler, I wasn’t a girl who looked good in formal wear. At homecoming the year before, I could’ve passed as a fourth-grader playing dress-up. Likely the reason I didn’t have a date.
“I’ll meet you guys downtown,” I said, stepping past Hershey into our room. “I’m gonna take a shower first.”
She sighed like I’d just ruined the entire evening.
“Izzy’s fitting is at nine tomorrow,” she said. “Which means we need to be finished eating by eight forty-five so she has a full twelve hours to de-bloat.”
“Well, we feel disgusting and want to take a shower,” I replied. “So you can either wait for me, or I can meet you guys there.” I knew she wouldn’t offer to wait.
“Whatever,” she said, grabbing my Gemini from my hand. “It’s Thaiphoon on Drake Street.” With uncanny speed, she added the restaurant to my planner and pinned the location on my map. “Here.” She handed the handheld back to me and sauntered out.
I switched my location status to private, then quickly showered and changed into my one pair of semi-expensive jeans (a going-away present from my stepmom) and a silk T-shirt I found at my favorite thrift store in Seattle. It was a little low-cut, so I switched my mom’s pendant to a longer chain that would lay heavy on my collar, keeping me from flashing my decidedly unsexy bra every time I leaned forward. I’d seen Hershey wear a hoodie as though it was a blazer, so I tried that, cuffing the sleeves and letting it hang open, the hood tucked inside the back collar. Twenty minutes and two impatient texts from Hershey later, I was on my way out the door. The sun had dipped below the mountains, so I opted for the street route this time, passing through the imposing campus gates before turning onto Academy Drive, a straight shot to the west end of downtown.
The restaurant was a block north of Café Paradiso, which meant unless I wanted to take some crazy back-alley route behind it, I’d have to walk past the café’s entrance. As I approached the propped open door, butterflies nipped at my chest. “You’re being ridiculous,” I muttered under my breath. Still, I kept my head down as I passed by the café, pretending to be absorbed in a text. Really I was just typing the words ridiculous ridiculous ridiculous over and over in my notepad.
“Hey.”
I choked on my gum then tripped on nothing. North caught me by the elbow as my Gemini clattered onto the sidewalk, bouncing a little on its rubber corners. My gum was stuck to the cement.
“Easy there,” he said. He bent to pick up my handheld. Heat flooded my cheeks as I saw him glance at my screen. “I think adorable is a better fit,” he said, handing it back to me. He smelled like bar soap and Earl Grey tea. “Cool hoodie.”
“I’m on my way to dinner,” I blurted out. My eyelids were firing like a camera shutter, blink blink blink blink blink. The scent, his nearness, these things had come out of nowhere. It was taking me a second to recover. I put my hands in my pockets and tried to look blasé. “Thaiphoon.” I pointed at the sign ahead, as if he might not believe me. “I should probably—” Go was the word that came next, but it got caught in my throat somewhere as our eyes met. There it was again. That feeling of familiarity. Like I knew him better than I did.
“Do you really want to eat overpriced, small-portioned vegan Thai food right now?” he asked.
“I sense you have a better idea,” I said wryly. He smiled.
“I do. An underpriced, oversized, Italian meatball sub.”
“The boy who drinks matcha and uses stevia eats meatball subs?”
“Hell, yeah,” North replied. “And because you have a skeptical look on your face, your acceptance of my offer just became mandatory.” He lifted my Gemini from my hand. “What’s your password?” he asked.
“I’m not telling you my password!”
“Fine. Enter it yourself then.” He handed it back to me.
“And why am I doing this?” I asked as I punched out the numbers.
“Necessary precautions,” he said when I handed it back to him. “We can’t have all your throngs of Forum followers finding out about Theden’s best-kept secret. Giovanni might raise his prices on us.” He blinked in surprise. “Your handheld’s already in private mode.”
“Why is that so astounding?”
“Because you’re a Forum girl,” he replied. “The whole point of the platform is to facilitate the constant narration of your all-important life. What will your followers think if they don’t know where you are at all times? How will you possibly stay relevant?”
I made a face. “Are you always this cynical?”
“Yes.” He handed my Gemini back to me. “Why’d you go private?”
“My roommate was bugging me. Why is your laptop ginormous?” I pointed at his messenger bag. It wouldn’t close, his computer was so big.
“It’s an antique,” he replied. “I was actually on my way to a repair shop a few blocks down. You mind coming with, then we’ll get the subs?”
I was already sending Hershey a text. Not feeling well. :( Gonna skip dinner.
“Your roommate?” North asked with a nod at my screen. I nodded back.
“The girl with me the day we met,” I said, toggling the vibrate switch to off before slipping my Gemini into my back pocket. I preferred to save my butt from the text storm that was sure to ensue. “Yeah, I remember her. She’s pretty hard to forget.” North was looking the other way, readjusting his shoulder strap, so I couldn’t see his face. “We should get going,” he said then. “Shop closes at seven.”
I nodded, suddenly self-conscious. Memorable was something I was not. I was the girl who blended into the background, easy to forget.
The repair shop was tucked into an alley, its entrance hidden behind a nondescript brick wall, and wasn’t the fancy electronics shop I was expecting. It was cramped and crowded with dated gadgets and gizmos and some random jewelry that appeared to be for sale but didn’t have price tags.
“Hey, NP,” the girl behind the counter said, looking up from the Gemini in her hands. She was my age, maybe younger, and punk pretty, with hot-pink bobbed hair and a platinum-studded button nose.
“Noelle, this is Rory,” North said. “She goes to the Academy. Rory, this is Noelle. Her grandfather owns this place.”
“Hi,” I said.
“Wow, you go to Theden?” Noelle asked. “That’s so cool. I just started my application. Any tips?”
“I’m still surprised they let me in,” I admitted. “I’m sure you’ll get in too,” I told her, because that’s what people say, when really I was thinking that whoever did her psych eval would make something of her decision to dye her hair pink and put holes in her nose. Nobody at Theden looked like that.
“So what’s wrong with it?” she asked North, picking up his clunky silver laptop. The overhead light glinted off the surface of a gold locket in the glass cabinet below, drawing my eye. It was dove shaped with a tiny hinge on the left side. There was a tiny blue gem at the bird’s eye and silver etching at its wing. It looked so out of place among the other, bulkier pieces, so delicate and feminine amid the heap of gold watches and gray plastic video consoles.