Read Online Project Pallid by Christopher Hoskins - Free Book Online Page A

around, I made sure to
store it in my cell phone, where it would be smudge-proof. She recited it over
and over to me as she opened our locker and resorted her things from its top to
its bottom.
    She
spoke slowly and annunciated each syllable loudly: “FOUR …… TWEN-TY-SIX ……
TWELVE.” And even though I put my phone away and she saw me type it inalready, she kept going: “FOUR …… TWEN-TY-SIX …… TWELVE ………… FOUR ……
TWEN-TY-SIX …… TWELVE ………… FOUR TWEN-TY SIX …… TWELVE!” Until she turned and
sang out … “FOURRRR! TWENTYYY-SIX! TWELLLLLLVVVVVE!!!!!” in Cabaret style, at
the top of her lungs, and with a couple high-kicks thrown in, like she was
auditioning to host the Tony’s. And with arms stretched overhead and fingers
fluttering, she concluded her locker combination, Madison High debut.
    I
felt my eyebrows raise and my eyes grow big before I nonchalantly responded to
her outburst: “I give it 3 out of 4 stars.”
    Catee
pantomimed like I’d just staked her in the heart. “Just 3!?”
    “Yup.
3.” My response to her theatrics was intentionally unenthusiastic, but on the
inside, she was totally cracking me up. I was amazed by how such a stunning
girl could be such a goof at the same time.
    “Ohhhhhh
… I’m insulted,” Catee faked a pout. “But, I’ll get 4 stars out of you soon
enough. You just wait, Mr. Lawson.”
    “I’m
sure you will,” I smiled and agreed.
    A
pause of silence swooped in as the two of us stood, eyes locked, and in an
oddly new, but already comfortable silence. The hurried crowd rolled around us,
but we were somehow alone.
    “So,
are you moving in or not?” Catee stepped to the side and revealed the emptied
upper shelf, breaking the magnetic silence we’d built.
    “If
I can reach,” I half joked, with a look up high.
    “I’m
sure you’ll manage. I’ve seen you on the floor enough already. It’s time we get
you up and into the air.”
    “You’re
too good to me.”
    “I
do what I can,” she said, as she crouched and unzipped my backpack.
    “Hey,
don’t—
    Catee
looked up to me, eyes wide and innocent. Angelic, it stopped me before I could
go any further. “What?” she asked, and passed my English book my way.
    “Oh
… Um …… Nothing. Nothing at all.”
    Her
smile stretched across the cold, gray hall, radiating light to its dark
recesses.
    I
returned the exchange to the best of my ability and, without further complaint
or interruption, allowed her to finish rummaging through my bag.   Fishing out books, she passed them up to
me, one by one.
    “And
we’ll just keep this one in here,” she referred to the geometry book that she
withdrew, but tucked safely away. “Got to make sure you get your homework done,
Mr. Lawson.”
    “That’s
the second time you’ve called me by my last name. Did you forget my first?” I
played.
    “Never, Damian . I just like how “Mr. Lawson” fits on you. It gives you an air of
sophistication. Makes you sound important.”
    “So
what, now I’m short and unimportant?”
    “Have
I ever called you either of those things?”
    “Not
in so many words, no.”
    “Well,
have I ever implied any of those things to you, Damian?”
    “No.
I guess not.”
    “So,
chill out. Relax. Stop trying to read what everyone else is thinking.”
    “I
don’t do that. I was just—
    “No
explanation necessary, Damian . From what I can tell so far, you’re a
good guy. Not like the rest of the meatheads I’ve run into this week. Be chill,
and we’ll get long just fine.”
    At
this, she was back on her feet to hand me a backpack that’d become twenty
pounds lighter.
    “Thanks.”
    “It’s
my treat,” she spoke genuinely. “Listen, I’ve got to get going, though. My
dad’s picking me up, and he’s probably waiting. I don’t want to make him mad.”
    “OK.
No problem. Are you heading out the front? I can walk with you if you want.”
    “Yeah,
I am. That’d be nice. Thanks.”
    “No
problem.