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"Layken"

She pauses when she gets to the door, but doesn’t turn around to face hts," I say "I always get a sitter for Thursdays since I go to the slams Just send Kel over before you leave You know, before your date"

She doesn’t turn around She doesn’t yell She doesn’t throw anything at h I’le one of those names she just yelled in my classroom

After fourth period, I sit atwhat the hell has gotten into e for lunch, but I know I can’t eat right now My sto about the last two hours Actually, the last twenty-four hours

Why would I say that to her? I know her poe I’ve ever felt It was a er, hurt, and heartache But that wasn’t enough for her--she had to go and add jealousy on top of all that If there’s one thing I’ve learned about today, it’s that I don’t handle jealousy well At all

I know I thought the best way to help her get over me was to make sure she hated me, but I just can’t do it If I want to keep my own sanity, I can’t let her hate h, either Shit! This is so screwed up How the hell aht?

WHEN I REACH their table in the lunchroo place around her She’s staring down at her tray, oblivious to the world Oblivious to et her attention When she finally snaps out of her trance and looks up at me, the color runs from her face She slowly rises from the table and follows me to the classroom When we’re safely inside I close the door and walk past her to my desk

"We need to talk," I say My head is spinning and I have no idea what I even want to say to her I knoant to apologize for the way I reacted earlier in class, but the words aren’t co fourteen-year-old boy

"Then talk," she snaps She’s standing across the roo at me Her current attitude coupled with the fact that she just agreed to go out on a date with another guy right in front ofabout our situation isto help it

"Dammit, Lake!" I spin away froh my hair and take a deep breath, then turn back to face her "I’ ht before her eyes fill with fury "Stop hating you?" she says, rushing toward ht, you toldyou? You tell me you don’t want me to wait on you, yet you act like an io out with Nick! You want me to act like I don’t know you, but then you pull ot this whole façade between us, like we’re different people all the ti! I never knohen you’re Will or Mr Cooper and I really don’t knohen I’m supposed to be Layken or Lake"

She throws herself into a chair and folds her ar out a rush of frustrated breath She’s eyeingThere isn’t anything to say I can’t refute a single word she just said, because it’s the truth The fact that I haven’t been able to keep e to her than I ever iined

I sloalk around her desk and sit in the seat behind her I’ined it would turn into this If I had the slightest clue that the decision to keep my job over her would have this kind of effect onon with Julia I should have picked her I still should pick her

I lean forward until I’m close to her ear "I didn’t think it would be this hard," I whisper And that’s the truth Never in aas trivial as a first date could turn into so so incredibly complicated "I’m sorry I said that to you earlier, about Thursday," I say "I was being sincere--for the most part I know you’ll need sonment But I shouldn’t have reacted like that That’s why I asked you to coain, I swear"

I hear her sniff, which onlythis worse for her when all I want to do is fix it I lift my hand to stroke the back of her hair in reassurance when the door to my classroom opens I immediately pull uilt Eddie is standing in the doorway to the classroolances ather head away fro down Lake’s cheeks The tears I put there

Eddie sets the backpack in a desk and holds her pal out of the doorway "My bad Continue," she says

As soon as the door is closed behind her, I begin to panic Whatever Eddie just witnessed, it obviously wasn’t a conversation between a teacher and his student I’ve just added yet another shit-tastic thing to reat," I in to fix all of this?

Lake rises out of her seat and begins walking toward the door "Let it go, Will If she asks me about it, I’ll just tell her you were upset because I said asshole And jackass And dickhead And bastar--"

"I get your point," I say, interrupting her before she can finish her stream of insults She picks up her backpack and reaches the door

"Layken?" I say cautiously "I also want to say I’ht"

She slowly turns toward me The tears have stopped but the residual effects of her mood are still written across her face "Are you sorry it happened? Or sorry about the way you stopped it?"

I don’t really understand what the difference is I shrug my shoulders "All of it It never should have happened"

She turns her back to me and opens the door "Bastard"