Nina

Monday morning at school, I was surprised to find Cole waiting by my locker. “Hey, Cole. What’s up?”

“I wanted to thank you for introducing me to Vicky. She’s great.”

“I’m glad you two hit it off.” And I meant it. He was a good guy, despite the fact that he didn’t understand the Harry Potter fandom.

“Since you and West are the reason we met, Vicky thinks we should go on a double date.”

“She does?” Because that was kind of odd. Why would she want to double with her ex? “I’ll mention it to him.”

He nodded like he’d accomplished his mission and then walked off.

“You’re dating West?” A girl two lockers down who was a known gossip moved closer to me with a sly look on her face. Great. News of my non-relationship was going to make the rounds of Greenbrier High before the end of the day.

“It’s nothing official,” I said, trying to throw her off the scent. “No big deal.”

“Don’t you live next door to him?” she asked, like it was some sort of conspiracy.

“I do.”
“So are you like neighbors with benefits?” the girl asked.

Seriously? “No. No we are not. He asked me to the Valentine’s Dance. That’s it. No benefits involved at this point in time.”

The bell rang, and I headed to homeroom, making a mental note to find West as soon as possible to make sure he understood that the neighbors with benefits story, while entertaining, was not to be encouraged.

I sat near Lisa in first hour and filled her in on my strange morning.

“Why would Vicky want to go on a double date?” Lisa asked. “Unless she’s being passive-aggressive. And the neighbors thing? That’s ridiculous.”

“Agreed.”
…

By lunch, enough people had given me the side-eye that I wanted to track the gossiping girl down and strangle her with the strap of her neon pink backpack. Not that I gave a crap what people thought, most of the time, but lies really ticked me off.

Lisa and I sat at our normal table in the smart girl/ bookworm section of the cafeteria. West usually sat a few tables away, bordering the cool kid section, but today he walked past his table and came to sit with me.

“Not that I mind, but what prompted this lunchtime visit?”

He smiled. “I’m going to go out on a limb and guess you’re not the one telling people we’ve been sleeping together since you moved in next door and that’s why Vicky and I broke up.”

“What?” I ripped open my bag of Cheez-Its with a little too much force, and they went flying in all directions. Why are people so stupid? “Nope. Wasn’t me.” I gathered up the Cheez-Its that landed on my sandwich and my napkin and put them back in the bag. The ones that had landed on the table were now suspect, so I shoved them in a pile off to the side.

“Did you tell anyone anything?” he asked. “Because I don’t think Vicky would start that kind of rumor.”

“I mentioned to someone that we were neighbors.”

“Maybe she thought you were speaking in code,” Lisa teased.

“Not funny.” I flicked one of the contaminated Cheez- Its at her. “Speaking of Vicky, did you hear she wants us to go on a double date with her and Cole?”

“No way,” he said. “I broke up with her, which means I don’t have to deal with her anymore.” He pointed at me and then back at himself. “And we are not dating.”

“Did you really think you needed to clarify who you were talking about with a gesture? There are only three of us here, and I love Lisa, but not in a let’s-shack-up-and- raise-poodles sort of way.”

“I just wanted to be clear.” He pushed his chair away from the table.

“We’re still going to the dance,” I told him.
“No. We’re not,” he said.
“Yes we are, because otherwise I lied when I agreedwith you,” I said.

“So?”

“I don’t lie,” I said.
“Never?”
“No. I think you should always tell the truth, no matter how painful it is.”

West looked at me like he didn’t believe me. He checked out the people at surrounding tables. “See that girl over my shoulder who looks like she put on her makeup with a spatula?”

I nodded. “What about her?”

“If she asked how you liked her new makeup, what would you say?”

“I’d say her lipstick is a pretty color and then suggest she might want to wear a little less eye makeup during the day.”

“Which means you’d avoid telling her the truth,” West said. “Which is the same as lying.”

“No. It’s not. We’re going to the dance. End of story.”

“Why?” He scooted his chair back toward the table. “Seriously. Why do you want to go to the Valentine’s Dance with me?”

I didn’t. Not really. “Whether I want to go with you or not, doesn’t matter.”

“So you don’t want to go with me?” He tilted his head and studied me.

“It’s not you that I don’t want to go with.”

He closed his eyes like he was trying to figure something out. “Does what you’re saying actually make sense to you?”

“Of course it does. It’s not that I don’t want to go with you. I don’t want to go with anyone. Valentine’s Day is a stupid tradition. Valentine’s Day dances doubly so.”

“If it’s stupid, then why are you insisting we go?”

“Karma, truth, justice, and the American way. Take your pick. You said we were going, so we’re going.”

“Isn’t there some guy out there with a huge library you’d rather spend your time with?”

“Awww.” I patted him on the shoulder. “Are you insecure about the size of your library? I’m sure it’s fine.”

West glared at me. And then he stood up and walked over to where he normally sat.

“Well, that was entertaining,” Lisa said. “What do you think the odds are of him taking you to the dance?”

“Who knows?” While I was sure I wasn’t his dream date, I wasn’t a troll. There were worse things than going to the Valentine’s Dance with your stubborn, argumentative, bookworm neighbor. I’d do my best to convince him of that. If it came down to a battle of wills, I was pretty sure I could out-debate him and outlast him in the stubbornness department.