Being True (11 page)

It took a few days, but Claudia eventually forgave me for saying she was crazy for thinking Javi liked me, even though she still tried to convince me Javi’s interest in me was more than just friendship. Whenever she poked my side and pointed at his wide grin as he approached us, or cited the fact that we constantly hung out after school together, I shook my head. Javi and I were friends, and that was all we would be.

And it didn’t upset me at all.

Sure, I was still crazy attracted to him and jerked off daily in the shower while thinking about his devilish smile. Or the way we sometimes brushed against each other. Or that time he’d worn his baseball uniform. It would be foolish to deny how Javi set my heart and groin on fire.

But that was my damage to deal with. What mattered most was having Javi in my life however he was meant to be.

“What’s up, Tru?”

I turned in the direction of the unfamiliar voice. It was Selina Perez from my English class. She hung with the popular crew. Other less popular kids had taken to greeting me in the halls the past few weeks, which had been pretty damn strange, but now that someone like Selina was acknowledging me, I didn’t know how to act. She smiled and waved at me as she approached with a group of her gal pals, who also greeted me. They wore almost the same style of denim, low rise and bejeweled along the rear pockets, and the same shade of pink blouse. The only real difference was that Selina’s hair hung loose and long, while the other girls had their hair in ponytails.

“See you later, Tru,” they said in unison.

Had someone else named Tru transferred to this school? I glanced over my shoulder to check. Instead of finding a strange boy I’d never seen before, I locked eyes with Ruben Lopez, who sat across from me in physics and was rummaging through his locker. Although he wasn’t one of the cool kids, he wasn’t one of the outcasts either. He nodded hello.

What the hell was going on? I nodded back and then mumbled a reply to Selina, who smiled before leading her pack down the hall to class.

“Hey, Tru,” someone else said. This time it was Destiny Villarreal from precalc. She bounded toward me in her cheerleader outfit. “Did you finish all the homework for Mr. Rodriguez?”

“Um, yeah,” I stuttered. “Why?”

“Because I’ve not gotten a single good grade in his class all week. This imaginary number shit is kicking my ass.”

“It’s tough,” I agreed, not knowing what else to say.

“Well, I see you sometimes studying in the library after school. If I need help with whatever hell he has for us next week, can I stop by after cheer practice?”

Had I awoken in the
Twilight Zone
this morning? “Uh, sure.”

“Thanks,” she answered with a smile before walking away. “See you in class.”

“Uh-huh,” I said as her ponytailed head bobbed down the hall.

“There you are, dumbass.”

It was Claudia, but I feared if I turned around, she’d be wearing a rainbow shirt with a unicorn prancing across the front. Everyone else had gone crazy. Why not her too?

“Oh, don’t pretend you don’t hear me,” she grumbled from behind me. At least she still sounded like the Claudia I’d seen at school yesterday. When I slowly turned to her, no glittering sparkles or flying unicorns pranced across her black T-shirt. It was a zombie, reaching out for his next victim. The white block print next to the rotting corpse face said, “All my friends are undead.” I was glad some things didn’t change, like the scowl on Claudia’s face.

“Thank God,” I said in relief. “You’re still you.”

“Who else would I be?” she asked, staring at me through narrowed eyes. “Did you fall off your bike into Rance’s fist again?”

She grinned broadly at me while I stuck out my tongue. I had initially worried about the fallout once Rance was released from his in-school holding pen, but since returning, he’d made every effort to keep our paths from crossing. His eyes still shot daggers at me, and I had no doubt if we met in a dark alley, I’d never make it out alive, but Coach Moore had threatened to kick him off the team if he was caught fighting on campus one more time.

That had been incentive enough for Rance to back off a bit.

But it was more than just Rance. Even the Jock Brigade hadn’t been giving me trouble. They hadn’t suddenly become BFFs or anything. It was like some unseen cease-fire had been magically declared. Maybe it was because of Javi, or maybe it was because Rance wasn’t there to egg them on. Whatever it was, I was glad for the reprieve.

But now that people I passed in the hall were actually acknowledging me, I found the sudden recognition far too bizarre.

“Well, look who’s Mr. Popular all of a sudden,” Claudia said. She walked on my right toward precalc with a smug look on her face. Did she know something I didn’t?

“What’s going on?” I asked as I smiled at another “Hey, Tru” that floated down the hall. This time it was Enrique Fuentes, the senior class president, from history class.

“Are you kidding me right now?” she asked.

I glanced at Claudia, who practically huffed in derision.

“If you know what’s going on, I wish you’d tell me.”

She blew a strand of purplish-black hair out of her eyes as she reached into the big, clunky black bag she carried with her everywhere. “You’re like the worst journalist ever!” she said when she pulled out the school paper.

I still had no clue. I’d seen the paper. I did work for
The Harvest
now, so it wasn’t like I hadn’t already seen the mockup. “What’s the paper got to do with anything?”

When Claudia handed it to me, I glanced down at the picture I’d taken of Javi and me my first week of school. Claudia had decided not to use it for the article she ran back then. That had been a story on the new team returning to state. Now that we were spotlighting individual players with each new issue, she used one of the shots of me and Javi, where he looked at the camera instead of at me.

But in this shot, Javi’s arm was draped around my shoulder, and silly smiles were plastered on our faces. The story I’d written about Javi had made the front page. Was that all it took to get noticed around here?

“This still doesn’t make sense.” I folded up the paper and tucked it under my arm. “So what if I wrote the lead story?”

Claudia sighed loudly. Her disappointment in me clearly knew no bounds. “It’s not the article, you dumbass. It’s the photo.”

“What about it?” I asked as I unfolded the newspaper for another glance. There didn’t seem to be any reason others would find the picture so special. I sure as hell did. In fact, I’d hung in my bedroom the one where Javi was staring at me. Why did anyone else care?

“That photo,” she said, as she poked our faces on the paper, “basically announces to the entire school that you two are friends. And when you’re practically best buds with the most popular guy in school, well, others tend to take notice.”

Best buds? Is that what everyone now thought, and was that why I was no longer the pariah?

When we entered precalc, my classmates, who were already in their seats, didn’t grimace and turn away. Some smiled begrudgingly while others went out of their way to say hello as I passed.

I was thankful I made it to my seat without passing out. This sudden change was freaking me out. I had experience with scorn and derision. I could deal with that. But to suddenly be someone after a long stretch of being no one set my head spinning.

I
T
WAS
one of the craziest days I’d ever had at school. In each class, students who’d been ignoring me since day one were asking me questions about homework or my weekend as if we’d gone to middle school together. Even at lunch, Claudia and I had to contend with people asking to join us at the bench in the quad that had been exclusively ours the past few months.

Lunch had turned into musical chairs with new people constantly filling up the vacant spots. I’d never been more exhausted in my life.

Claudia hadn’t been pleased with the sudden introduction of new people. As a fellow outcast, she detested most of the classmates who talked to us. Probably because they were primarily conversing with me and excluding her.

“That was such a good article you wrote,” Alison Gutierrez said. She was one of the really popular girls, who counted Rance’s girlfriend, Lucy, as one of her best friends. And like most of the popular girls, Alison wore too much makeup to try and look older and blonde highlights in her hair. It was as much a uniform as a cheer skirt or a baseball jersey.

Alison purposely fanned open the paper in front of Claudia’s face. Only my reassuring hand on hers kept Claudia from tearing it from Alison’s grasp and leaping across the table. “You really got me excited about baseball season. When does it start again?”

I gently moved the paper out of Claudia’s way before responding. “I don’t remember. I’m not good at dates, but Claudia here has everything memorized.” I refused to play high school politics. Claudia was my friend, and I wasn’t going to exclude her from any conversation. The slight flicker of the hate-fueled inferno that burned in her gaze revealed Claudia appreciated the gesture, but she was only a few seconds away from turning into the girl in Stephen King’s
Firestarter
. “Do you remember?” I asked, hoping to delay the body count.

“March 2,” Claudia said through gritted teeth.

“That sucks,” Stephanie Gonzales said, jutting out her lower lip. Not as popular or as thin as Alison or Lucy, Stephanie was a lackey who did as she was told. That was why she was allowed to hang with the cool crowd. She had yet to be given permission to be a cool girl clone. Stephanie’s makeup was more moderate, and her dark hair was highlight free. “That’s too long to wait.”

“Well, baseball
is
a spring game,” Claudia said in a tone that bit deeper than the hungry zombie on her shirt.

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Alison replied. Her red lips gathered into a smirk.

“How much time do you have?” Claudia asked.

Stephanie glanced down at her watch. “Not too long. Lunch ends in about ten minutes.”

Alison glared at Stephanie, who clearly had no idea what she’d just done. Claudia, however, howled in laughter.

“What’s so funny?” someone asked behind us. I didn’t need to turn around to know who it was. Only one person on this planet was capable of making me feel like a helium-filled balloon.

“Javi!” Stephanie said. She grinned broadly like an idiot. She was obviously yet another girl who longed to sample Javi’s offerings. I couldn’t help but feel somewhat territorial. As if Javi belonged only to me and I should gouge out her eyes with the plastic spoon she ate her yogurt with.

“Let’s take a selfie!” Alison said as she stood. She crossed to Javi and wrapped her arms around his waist as she held her phone above them at a slight angle. She puckered her lips into a duck bill. Why was this look so popular with girls my age? It made them look silly, not sexy and sophisticated. “Facebook!” Alison announced as she headed back to her seat to upload the pic.

Javi squeezed in between Claudia and me on the bench. When his thigh rested against mine, I about rocketed to the moon.

“What are you doing here?” I asked. Javi ate during second lunch and was supposed to be in his English class right now.

“Bathroom break,” he replied. His trademark grin hitched up his lips.

“I think you took a wrong turn somewhere,” I said, nudging him. He leaned into me and laughed, and instead of pulling away, the entire right side of his body remained in contact with mine. Forget the moon, I was on my way out of the solar system.

“So what’s with Claudia?” he asked eyeing her suspiciously. She was still in the middle of her hyena routine, and Alison, who’d finished posting the picture to all her social media sites, had death in her eyes.

“Nothing,” Alison replied dryly.

Her response made Claudia almost laugh herself off the bench.

“You’re weird, you know that?” Javi asked before chuckling at Claudia.

“You have no idea,” Alison added with a nod. “Claudia Zamora is a freaky devil-worshipping, emo loser with more scars on her wrists than friends.”

My hackles rose. I’d never been one to stand up to others, mostly because I was usually the one being made fun of. But Alison’s comment about my friend turned the rocket I’d been flying on thanks to Javi’s warm touch into a missile.

And that missile headed straight for Alison Gutierrez.

“If Claudia really worshipped the devil,” I told Alison, “she’d be bowing before you, wouldn’t she?”

Stephanie gasped in horror, and Claudia’s laughter died almost instantaneously. Alison’s only reply was to cross her hands on the wooden tabletop and glare at me with arched eyebrows.

Javi’s sudden chuckling caught all our attention. “That was priceless,” he said as he wrapped his arm around my neck. He hadn’t done that since I’d taken the now famous photo. “Tru has some good comebacks and always cracks me up.”

What the hell was he talking about?

“It was pretty good,” Stephanie added with a nod. Her shock had been replaced by amusement.

Alison didn’t buy it. The slant of her eyebrows revealed she had no trouble discerning between a true insult and a playful jab. But Javi’s protective presence kept her poison at bay. “I’ll give you that one, Tru,” she said with a hesitant smile. “But everyone only gets one.”

I understood the warning. If I crossed Alison again in any way, she’d find some way to cut me off at the knees. Being friends with Javi apparently only went so far.

“What are you up to this weekend?” Javi asked. He no doubt desired a subject change.

“What else but party at Heather’s tomorrow night?” Stephanie answered. Heather Barnes was one of the richer students at Burbank. Her parents had a two-story house with a pool. I’d overheard Heather talking about her big house in economics class earlier in the week.

He nodded as if he’d forgotten about the gathering. “What time does it start?”

“Ten o’clock,” Alison answered. “You coming?”

Javi turned to me. “Are we?”

I not only became speechless but turned deaf too. After all, I couldn’t have heard Javi correctly. There was no way he was inviting me to a party filled with jocks and popular kids.