The Future of Us (16 page)

And there she is, at the far end of the hall, talking to . . .

Good for her, I guess. Cody’s a conceited dick, but whatever makes her happy.

CODY SMILES AT ME.

He’s wearing a dark blue T-shirt with DUKE written across the chest. Everyone in track knows he was accepted there with a full athletic scholarship. As usual, he looks relaxed with his spiky blond hair, pale blue eyes, and a faint shadow on his jawline.

“How’s it going?” he asks.

My hands start to tremble. Kellan thinks I hold Cody up on a pedestal, but he totally deserves to be there.

“Great.” I shift my books from one hip to the other. “So . . . what’s your next class?”

“Photography,” he says.

“That sounds fun.” I fidget with the
E
on my necklace. “I’ve got World History.”

There’s a brief silence. I remind myself that one day I will have a respected career and a life-saving husband. Even though Cody’s presence turns my brain into mush, I attempt to channel the confidence I will someday have.

“Are you going to track later?” I ask. “I missed it yesterday.”

He nods. “So that’s why I saw you running in the park.”

“You saw me?”

I went running soon after Josh left. I couldn’t stand sitting in my room with the computer right there, not being able to check Facebook because I promised Josh I wouldn’t. It turned out to be a kick-ass loop. I did my best time yet, and even sprinted for a half-mile.

“You looked great,” Cody says, combing his hands through his spiky hair. “I was working out on the nautilus course and you ran right by me. I called your name, but you must not have heard.”

“I was listening to my Discman,” I say, unable to control a grin.
Cody
said I looked great!

“What were you listening to?” he asks.

“Yesterday? Mostly Dave Matthews. Hootie and the Blowfish. A little Green Day.”

“Green Day?” He nods approvingly. “‘Basket Case’ was the first song I learned on guitar.”

“You play guitar?”

Cody tells me about teaching himself to play, and I nod in all the appropriate places. I am so glad I ended things with Graham today.

“We should go running sometime,” he says. “Do you live near the park?”

I happen to know that Cody lives on the east side of the park, about ten minutes from my house. To be more precise, he lives in a one-story house with purple lilac bushes and a striped mailbox.

“I live near the playground,” I say.

“Great. I’m over by the baseball field,” he says.

“I used to play Little League there.”

“Me too,” Cody says. “Hey, if you like Dave Matthews, you should come over sometime. I have a live bootleg tape from a show in Vermont.”

“Okay,” I say. “I’d like that.”

Cody touches my shoulder and smiles. “Well, okay then.”

As I watch him walk down the hall, I realize this is yet another ripple brought on by Facebook. If Josh hadn’t ditched me yesterday to babysit his phone, I wouldn’t have gone for a run and Cody would never have seen me, prompting him to approach me today. And not just approach me . . .
invite me to his house!
I wonder if this ripple affects my future with Kevin, a man I don’t even know yet.

For Cody, I might be okay with that.

TYSON AND KELLAN are already at the lunch tree. I try not to read into this, but they hardly ever arrive before me. It’s been even longer since they got here first
together
.

“Hey, guys,” I say.

Kellan drops a ketchup-soaked french fry into her mouth.

“How’s it going?” I ask, removing my first peanut butter and jelly sandwich from my bag.

Tyson smiles at me. “Groovy.”

The only time Tyson says “groovy” is when he’s feeling abnormally awesome, like when he nails a kickflip on his skateboard. But I still refuse to read into this. If Tyson and Kellan are getting back together, they’ll tell me when they want me to know. But when Emma shows up, they’d better be more subtle or she’ll flip.

“Well, that’s groovy,” I say, laughing as I bite into my sandwich.

According to Emma, Kellan fell way too hard for Tyson, which is why the breakup nearly wrecked her. I think that’s just Kellan’s personality, but Emma warned her to be more careful about love from then on.

Kellan drags another fry through the ketchup. “Anyone want to hear some gossip?”

“Sure,” Tyson says. “But you need to eat more than just fries.” He removes the top piece of bread from his sandwich, peels off a slice of ham, and offers it to Kellan. “Here, have some of my meat.”

Still not reading into this.

“I haven’t seen Emma to confirm this,” Kellan says, folding the ham in half before putting it in her mouth, “but apparently, in band this morning, she dumped Graham.”

What?
Why didn’t I hear about this?

Tyson takes a huge bite of his sandwich. “Good for her,” he says while chewing. “That guy’s smarmy. Did you see how he shaved his head?”

“‘Smarmy’?” Kellan swats his arm. “Where are you coming up with these words?”

This morning, when Emma and I were talking about relationships, she never said she was going to dump Graham today. If she did this because of something she saw on Facebook, there’s no telling what ripples she just caused. We’re supposed to talk to each other about this stuff!

“I don’t know if this is true,” Tyson says, “but some people think Graham and those other guys shaving their heads together was some sort of gay pact. Did you hear about that, Josh?”

A lump of bread catches in my throat. Why does he think
I’d
know about a gay pact? My eyes begin to water, and Kellan shoves her Sprite at me. Have people known my brother was gay but never told me about it? While I start coughing and gagging, Tyson laughs so hard he puts his hand against the ground for support.

“Are you okay?” Kellan asks, leaning close to me. “Nod your head if you need me to give you the Heimlich.”

I wipe the tears from my eyes. “I’m fine.”

Kellan glares at Tyson. “That is the stupidest thing you’ve said all day. What on earth does shaving your head have to do with being gay? Are
you
gay because you and Greg tried to light your farts on fire?”

“You remember that?” Tyson cracks up. “Oh, man! Do you still have that tape, Josh?”

“I don’t know. Somewhere.” It’s hard to believe David might be gay. I mean, he must be gay because I don’t know any straight men in relationships with guys named Phillip. But now I have to rethink so many things I thought I knew about my brother. We never did meet that girl he spent so much time with after school. Was Jessica really a dude? He had Mom and Dad so worried about how much time they spent together. They even told him they weren’t ready to become grandparents yet.

“Graham isn’t gay,” I say. It’s still hard to say his name without seeing his hand up Emma’s shirt.

Kellan throws a fry at Tyson’s face. Amazingly, he catches it in his mouth.

“Anyway,” she says, “I don’t see why it matters to you who’s gay or not.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Tyson says, biting off more sandwich. “My dad thinks Ellen DeGeneres is gay, and we love
Ellen
!”

“Are you kidding? She’s not gay,” Kellan says.

“Who’s not gay?” Emma asks, walking up to our group.

Kellan clasps her hands and smiles at Emma. “So is it true? You’re no longer with what’s-his-name?”

Emma looks right at me. “Did you—?”

“Did I what?” I ask. And then I laugh. She thinks I told them about getting rid of Jordan Jones Jr. “She’s talking about Graham. We heard you broke up with him.”

Emma pulls out her lunch, a clear Tupperware with steamed broccoli, carrots, and cubes of orange cheese. “It was time,” she says.

Kellan offers Emma a fry. “If you want advice on finding a new romance,” she says, “you should ask Mr. Templeton over there.”

Emma and I look at each other, puzzled.

“Don’t act so innocent,” Kellan says. “I’ve seen you chatting up girls all over school today.”

Tyson slaps me a high five. “My man!”

Emma opens a bag of pretzels and laughs. “Oh, I’m not so sure Josh has romance all figured out.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask. Is she talking about Sydney, and how I don’t know what to do next? She’d better not be joking about rejecting me herself.

“You know what it means,” Emma says.

“You guys are always teasing me, saying I’m clueless about romantic stuff,” I say to Emma and Kellan, “but maybe I know more than you think.”

“That’s what you’re hoping,” Emma says. “But I don’t think you have any idea what you’re doing.”

“Really?” I say. “Well, if you ever need advice on how to make a real relationship work, I’m right next door.”

Tyson and Kellan glance at each other but don’t say a word.

PEER ISSUES IS ALMOST OVER and I still haven’t said a word to Sydney. Tapping my pen against the desktop, I casually look over my shoulder. She smiles when she sees me, and I smile back.

“Josh Templeton?”

I turn around and Mrs. Tuttle is looking at me. Standing beside her is Thomas Wu, a student aide from the front office. Mrs. Tuttle points me out, and then Thomas walks up my aisle.

He places a blue slip of paper on my desk. “You need to go to the front office right after class.”

I look at the clock above the whiteboard. There are three minutes until the end of class. Three minutes until my first chance to speak with Sydney all day. And now I’m going to miss it!

I stuff my binder into my backpack and then zip it shut. When the bell rings, I pull my backpack over my shoulders. Behind me, I hear a sheet of paper being torn. Glancing back at Sydney, I wish I could mouth
Call me again
, but I can’t do that without looking pathetic.

But then Sydney reaches forward and passes me a folded piece of paper. Our fingertips touch and I get a shock of energy through my entire body. She smiles and breezes past me, leaving me gaping at the paper in my hand.

On my way down the hall, I spot Thomas Wu at his locker.

“Do you know why they called me to the office?” I ask him.

“Your parents want you to come by their work after school,” he says, turning his locker combination. “But I’m not supposed to listen in on the phone calls, so I didn’t tell you that.”

This must have to do with being late to school. Well, I really don’t care. Because I’m holding a note—written specifically to me—by Sydney Mills.

In the front office, I sign in and take a seat in an orange plastic chair. I unfold Sydney’s note and see the words “my cell phone” and then a line of beautiful numbers scribbled across the fold.

“You’re Josh, right?” a girl asks, sliding into the chair beside me. She’s a foreign exchange student from Brazil. She’s pretty, with long black hair and tiny freckles across her nose.

“I am,” I say.

“I’ve seen some of your drawings on my friends’ binders,” she says. “You’re very talented.”

I smile at her. “I’m going to be a graphic designer someday.”

“You’ll be very good at that,” she says.

Maybe it wasn’t the worst thing in the world to get called to the office.

AFTER THE FINAL BELL RINGS, I’m walking down the stairs on my way to my locker when Kellan barrels past me. She stops on the landing below, shakes her hips, and belts out, “
Cel-e-brate good times, COME ON!
”

“What are you celebrating?” I ask.

Kellan keeps on singing, whipping her hair around her shoulders. “
We’re gonna celebrate and have a good time!
”

I’ve been friends with Kellan long enough to know I’ll be standing here until the entire song is out of her system. While she swivels and sings, I take this chance to look for a baby bump. She’s wearing a black cotton skirt and a white T-shirt, and her belly looks as flat as ever. Then again, even if she’s already pregnant, she probably wouldn’t be showing yet.

When she’s finally done singing, I ask again, “What are you celebrating?”

“You!” She follows me down the stairs. “Breaking up with Graham. I didn’t have a chance to properly applaud you at lunch. So are you ready to celebrate and have a good time?”

I wish I could muster her level of enthusiasm. Yes, I’m relieved it’s over with Graham. And I’m excited about Cody. But Josh’s attitude at lunch bothered me. It’s like the discovery of his future is changing him
now
.

“Can you skip track today?” Kellan asks.

“I probably shouldn’t,” I say. “I skipped yesterday, so—”

Kellan knocks her hip into me. “You just want to see Cody’s gorgeous body doing sit-ups and getting sweaty and—”

I clap my hand over her mouth. Then I lean in close and say, “Cody talked to me in the hall today.
He
came up to
me
.”