Read Online Dev Dreams, Volume One by Ruth Madison - Free Book Online Page B

was
bleeding onto my shirt. What are you supposed to do about that? I
can’t just go home and change.”
    “By this time I would think you’d put spare
clothes in your locker.”
    “Look, you live your way and I’ll live mine.
Do you even have lunch now? What are you doing here?”
    “Free period. Lucy is meeting me here.”
    “Oh.” Sophie stopped abruptly. “Is that going
to be weird?”
    He didn’t answer and his eyes drifted past
Sophie. She turned around to see Lucy coming into the
lunchroom.
    Jake reached down and pulled a cane out from
under the table. He stood shakily, leaning on it.
    “See you around, Sophie,” he said, “I’ll get
my jacket from you tomorrow.” She heard a tightening in his
voice.
    Sophie watched Lucy’s face as Jake walked
unevenly toward her. Lucy wasn’t watching him. She was leaning on
the doorframe, looking bored, and scanning the cafeteria to see who
was around. To her, Sophie didn’t even register: she was just
another piece of furniture.
    Jake followed Lucy into the hall. She stopped
in front of a locker, but her eyes darted to the people walking by.
He waited for her attention.
    “People are staring at us,” she hissed.
    “They’re curious, what do you expect?”
    “Is there somewhere we can be alone?” she
said.
    “I don’t want to walk that far,” he said and
watched the red spots of embarrassment spread along Lucy’s
neck.
    “Jake,” she said, “Please. This is hard for
me.”
    “That’s funny, it’s been easy for me.”
    “Don’t be a jerk. It affects me too.”
    “Can you put that on hold for a minute? Just
forget about yourself for a tiny moment?”
    “This is really heavy. This is more than I
can deal with.”
    “Is heavy in again? Are we using that word
now?”
    “See, how can we get through this when you
can’t even talk about a serious subject?”
    Jake sighed. “You are no fun to talk to,
Lucy.”
    “Well, lucky for you, you won’t have to talk
with me anymore.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder and walked
away.
    He had planned to break up with her anyway,
but he preferred that it be done in his own time. What kind of girl
breaks up with her boyfriend right after he’s been diagnosed with a
progressive neurological disorder? Wasn’t there a required waiting
period?
    He turned around and went back to the
cafeteria. His brother was sitting with the usual two cohorts.
Sophie was still wearing his jacket. He smiled at the way all three
spoke so enthusiastically to each other. Jake's friendships were so
much about appearances and not saying the wrong thing, he could
never be as free as that.
    He walked over to the table and said, “Hey,
guys, can I join you?”
    They all turned around and looked behind
them, trying to figure out who he was talking to.
    “That's funny,” Jake said. Alex pulled over
another chair and Jake sat down. There was a pizza in the middle of
the table. “Where did that come from?” Jake asked.
    Alex snuck out and got it during his study
hall,” Sophie said.
    Jake looked over at her plate and raised an
eyebrow. She had picked each element of the pizza off and had them
all arranged separately on her plate.
    “What are you doing?” he asked.
    “This is how I eat pizza,” Sophie said,
crossing her arms in front of her defensively.
    “Seriously?”
    “Don't make fun of me! Just because Alex lets
you control his life, doesn’t mean you have any business telling me
how to live!”
    Alex looked away, but there was a smirk on
his face and Paul caught his eye and started laughing. “Just let
her eat her pizza,” Alex said.
    ***
    The next morning Jake was watching the back
of Lucy's head in calculus class. She was sitting in the front,
pretending he didn't exist. Jake sat on the side, not even
pretending to listen to the teacher. He just let his eyes bore into
her. She could feel it, he knew she did. And she was listening in
her head to all her justifications over and over and over.
    When the bell rang Lucy