By the time I walked out of the gym, I had just about decided to walk straight home without even looking toward the parking lot, but my worries were unnecessary. Fredward was waiting, leaning casually against the side of the gym, his breathtaking face untroubled now. As I walked to his side, I felt a peculiar sense of release.
"Hi," I breathed, smiling hugely.247
"Hello." His answering smile was brilliant, like a million megawatts floating over New York City. "How was Gym?"
My face fell a tiny bit. "Fine," I lied.
"Really?" He was unconvinced. His eyes shifted their focus slightly, looking over my shoulder and tightening. I glanced behind me to see Mike's back as he walked away.
"What?" I demanded.
His eyes slid back to mine, still tight, and he cracked his beautiful, spindly knuckles. "Newton's getting on my nerves."
"You were listening again?" I was horror-struck. All traces of my sudden good humor248 vanished.
"How's your head?" he asked innocently.
"You're unbelievable!" I turned, clomping away in the general direction of the parking lot.
He kept up with me easily, due to his vampiric celerity.
"You were the one who mentioned how I'd never seen you in Gym—it made me curious." He didn't sound repentant, so I ignored him.
We walked in silence—a furious and hotly embarrassed silence on my part—to his car. But I had to stop a few steps away—a crowd of people, all boys, were surrounding it.
247. In the manner that a huge person would.
248. Good Humor, manufacturers of fine frozen novelties and big smiles.