I didn’t have any time to work out my plan of attack during English because our teacher had decided that we needed to write a timed essay. She gave us a topic and started the timer, and I quickly learned that no one should ever write for two hours straight. By the time I left English for lunch, my hand was cramping and covered in ink.
I walked quickly to my spot by the library after stopping off to tell Nate that I’d be calling Karen in a few short minutes. David was there in my usual spot with a laptop in front of him, typing away furiously. I cleared my throat to try to break the intense look of concentration on his features. His face instantly brightened when he saw me, and he quickly put the laptop away.
“Homework,” he said simply with a nod toward his backpack, where the computer now resided.
I sat down and told him everything that had happened during break and what my current plan was as I pulled out my cell phone, which was pale blue today.
“Wow,” he said simply, as I grabbed Nate’s fact sheet to retrieve Karen’s number. “Is your work always this crazy?” he asked me, though after watching me for a year I was sure he knew.
“Never,” I answered. “It’s weird for me to stumble across people who actually care for each other, let alone people who care for each other but can’t be together because of things that are, for the most part, out of their control. I just really want to help them.” David smiled at me warmly.
“And that’s why I like you so much. You’re a good person.” I smiled back at him but looked down at the phone, not used to receiving genuine compliments that didn’t revolve around my good looks. “Even if your typical day involves destroying innocent boys’ lives,” he added with a grin.
“I knew it was coming,” I said with a shake of my head and a smirk.
Punching in the number Karen had given me, I rehearsed what I would say to her one more time.
“Hello?” came a familiar but weak voice on the other end.
“Karen?” I asked, even though I knew it was her.
“Hi, Amelia,” she said quietly. I was surprised that she recognized my voice or possibly my number, but I continued on without any pause.
“How are you feeling? I heard you actually got sick.” I knew I sounded guilty even though her real illness had nothing to do with me.
“I’m all right. It’s just a small flu, but I should be fine in a few days.” I heard a cough on the other end, and then she resumed her thoughts. “Did you talk to Nate yet?” I knew this was coming. In fact, it was the only reason I had called her, but I still felt unprepared to answer that question.
“So here’s the thing, Karen. I talked to Nate but he wanted nothing to do with me because he’s so in love with you.” I paused for a moment but got only silence on the other end, so I took that as a sign to keep going. “So he ended up figuring out that you had sent me just to break up with him, and then he explained why you were doing it in the first place.” Still silence. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought that Nate and Karen had the most boring, silent relationship ever. “So anyway… I didn’t break you guys up. I’ll give you your money back and everything, but I have something I want to talk to you about.”
“What is it?” she asked with a yawn.
“I want you to let Nate talk to your mom about you two.”
“No,” she said instantly, and with such authority I couldn’t believe it had come from little, fragile Karen.
“What do you mean ‘no’?” I asked.
“If he talks to my mom she’ll know about us, and she’ll take me away from the school and away from him,” she whispered, and I suspected her mom was nearby.
“You don’t know that,” I responded, hoping I sounded more convincing than I felt.
“Yes, I do. She’s so afraid I’ll get sick just from being at school, she’d never let me near him.” I thought this over for a moment, trying to find some sort of compromise.
“Well, maybe Nate could talk to her and you guys could set some rules. He already told me how careful you are. Surely that will show your mom how serious you both are about staying safe.” I heard a choked sound on the other end of the line that sounded like a sob. “Or what if you went back to being homeschooled and Nate could still be your boyfriend? That way you’d be away from the threat of hundreds of kids and trade that in for just one boy.” I thought it sounded like a reasonable proposal. After all, Nate had told me that Karen’s friends were all homeschooled, and he was the only one she knew at the school anyway. If it meant getting to keep Nate in her life, I couldn’t see why she wouldn’t want to just stop going to a public school. It’s not like she would miss the cafeteria food.
There was a long moment of silence in which I wondered if Karen had hung up or fallen asleep. After a minute or so of the silent hum of ambient noise, Karen’s voice sounded on the other line. “It’s worth a shot,” she said finally, instantly bringing a smile to my face.
“Perfect,” I said, a bit more enthusiastically than was necessary. David gave me an odd look, but I ignored it and continued. “I’ll see if Nate can drop by your house tomorrow to talk to her. Don’t worry, Karen. This is going to work. I just know it.” We ended our conversation after a few more reassurances. I knew I shouldn’t make promises to her if I couldn’t definitely keep them, but I was just so sure that this whole plan would succeed that I couldn’t see any other outcome.
“So everything’s all right, I take it?” David asked beside me.
“I think it is. Nate’s going to talk to Karen’s mom tomorrow. He’s going to ask if she can go back to being homeschooled in exchange for the freedom to date him. Personally I don’t see how her mother can refuse. Trading in 3,000 kids for just one potential threat has to be a pretty appealing offer,” I said confidently.
“Unless she feels that Nate poses a greater threat than those 3,000 kids,” David replied with a sigh. “From what I’ve seen of her, Karen wouldn’t be the type to go around kissing 3,000 students, just passing them in the hallways, not even making physical contact.” As much as I hated how grim his outlook on my plan was, I couldn’t deny that it was a legitimate argument, and one I’d have to be prepared for. “And there’s always the possibility that she’ll agree to the terms and then go back on the offer once she has her daughter out of school,” he continued, quite unnecessarily.
“You certainly have a glum outlook on human nature,” I said in annoyance.
“I was trying to catch a con artist for a year, so I had to start thinking of every possibility,” he replied with a cheeky grin.
“I’m not a con artist,” I corrected with indignation. “I’m a breakup artist.”
Chapter Sixteen
After school that day David was waiting for me by my car. I walked, a bit faster than normal, to meet him and instantly dropped my backpack on the ground once I was close enough to throw my arms around him. He laughed at my enthusiasm but I buried my face in the small space where his shoulder and neck came together. His wonderful smell was strongest there, and I considered never moving again. I kissed his neck softly, which made him shiver beneath me.
“Well, if I really am just a job, then you’re pulling out all the stops,” he said with a laugh. I leaned back slightly with my arms still around his neck so that I could get a better look at him. I had been thinking about David all through biology and had come to the conclusion that I didn’t get to spend enough time with him today. Ever since we’d started officially dating, we hadn’t really had time to ourselves to just be alone and talk. I didn’t know nearly enough about him and everything he knew about me he had found out from a distance. That was no way to start a relationship.