Uneasy Hearts Weigh The Most

Grayson asked me to go out with him on Saturday. Should I? A text message from Aubergine popped up onto my cell phone screen early the next week while I was sitting in Latin class.
Should’t you be asking Della or Amelia this? As temped as I was to say “absolutely not, under no conditions,” I was curious to know how she felt about him. She couldn’t possibly like already – they had barely met! But if she did, for some alien reason; well, then I would just have to talk her out of it by any means necessary.
Well I guess so, but I wanted to know what you thought.
Well, do you like him?
The minute I spent waiting for that next text message seemed to last for an eternity. My eyes were focused at the front of the room, where Dr. English was explaining a particularly confusing passage of The Aeneid, but my attention was really on my phone, which was getting sweaty as a result of my nervousness and death grip on it.
He’s sweet and cute, but I don’t want to rush into anything. I barely know him. My heart raced.
So you would be more comfortable with someone you’ve known longer?
Yes.
I had to contain my excitement inside my own little bubble, which was difficult to manage in a room crowed with over-observant teenagers and a teacher. I settled on taking my green pen, flipping to the back of my notebook, and drawing scribbles fast and hard onto the paper. It wasn’t especially effective, but it helped get rid of some of the giddiness I was sure I would be feeling for days.
Then just go out with him as friends, and see how you like it. But make sure you tell him that it’s as friends so he doesn’t try to put the moves on you.
I double and triple-checked what I wrote before sending it to make sure there was nothing hidden in there that encouraged her to actually date him. And there wasn’t.
Ok. Thanks Zac. Do you want to do something together Saturday after I go out with him?
My life doesn’t get any better – first, I talk my best friend out of dating a guy who is totally acceptable (he doesn’t seem to openly do drugs, is decent-looking, and appears to be nice) and convince her to just go out as friends. Would she end up liking him? I hoped not, because I needed to buy some time before asking her out myself, and maybe this would be the way to get it.
My happiness from this event did not go unnoticed.
“What’s with your uber-excited mood today, dude?” Derrick asked me as we made our way to the cafeteria that day.
“I got an A on my math test,” I said, which was in fact true, even though it wasn’t the reason I was so cheery.
“That doesn’t usually get you so hyped,” he commented.
“Oh, well, it does now,” I answered lamely, too lazy to come up with a better excuse – hasty lying is not one of my finer points, which I guess is good in the real world, but in situations like this, it makes it harder.
I busied myself to avoid any further questions by getting in the lunch line and snatching up a black plastic tray. I decided on a roast beef and cheese sandwich with chips and water as my nourishment, even though sometimes I feel like I’m going to choke on the roast beef when I swallow it after not chewing it enough. It’s the same kind of sensation if you swallow mozzarella sticks without thoroughly chewing the cheese.
Derrick had sat down at a table smack dab in the middle of the cafeteria, and who was sitting with him by Grayson. I had some doubts, but they quickly faded when I realized it wouldn’t kill me to be nice to him – and if it did, the rest of his life would be very sad because my ghost would seek revenge on him at every possible opportunity.
“Hey,” I said awkwardly as I pulled a chair out from the table before sitting in it.
Grayson nodded his head at me as he continued to eat his lunch, which looked like –
“Is that sushi?” I asked with my mouth full of sandwich.
“Yeah, why?” he responded, his mouth also full of food. We must have looked like a bunch of real charmers, talking with our mouths full. “Do you like it?”
“No, he hates it,” Derrick chimed in, allowing me to properly swallow my food.
“Why? Dude, it’s so good!” Grayson exclaimed.
“Well I had it once,” I said, my mouth now empty, “and I really liked it, but ended up puking it all over the middle of the hallway about twenty minutes later.”
“Oh,” was all he had to say in response.
I had to admit, it was probably a vividly disgusting picture, but sometimes when I say things I don’t really take into consideration whether or not what I’m saying will disgust people. It’s the guy thing; you know.
“Man, that’s nothing compared to the time –“ Derrick began before he was interrupted by Amelia slamming her lunch tray down onto the table in front of the seat next to him.
“I am so utterly pissed off!” she began, completely oblivious to the fact that there had just been a conversation going on around her.
“What happened?” Derrick sighed, and I could tell by his tone that he was thinking the same thing I was – Amelia’s rant could last a long time. When she gets mad, she really gets mad.
“Well, the question is really what didn’t happen, isn’t it?” in her frustration to demonstrate her frustration, she spilled water all over her shirt after opening a Poland Spring bottle with shaky hands. It instantly made her shirt cling to her body, and I gave a sideways glance at Grayson, who had a smirk on his face. I might like Aubergine, but I can’t deny that Amelia has nice boobs.
“Jamie Carrell graffitied Mrs. Land’s door and I got blamed for it! I’ve spent the last hour trying to prove to about three different people that I didn’t do it!”
“Well, who did then?” I asked.
“I don’t know, one of her other students, I guess,” Amelia postulated. “The only evidence they had for it being me was that the “I’s” were crossed just like I do mine.”
“What did it say?” Grayson asked, certainly getting a good day’s worth of excitement.
“’I can’t stand to listen to Mrs. Land,’” Amelia recited. “Which is true. I mean, her speeches on the importance of Darwin and Hutton bore me out of my mind, but I still would never do that!”
“So…?” Derrick spoke up.
“So they said they would revisit the situation if they couldn’t find any other more likely suspect. But I’m still ticked off. It shouldn’t have taken that long for them to finally maybe believe me. What happened to innocent before proven guilty?”
“That went out the window with in loco parentis,” Grayson said casually before taking a sip of Orange-Orange Vitamin Water.
“Ah, but see, my parents would actually listen to me if I told them I didn’t do something,” Amelia defended.
Grayson shrugged nonchalantly in response. Not his problem, I guess. Not my problem either, really, but I hate seeing any of my friends upset over something so trivial, especially when they didn’t even do it.
"Hey guys," Aubergine said as she dropped down into a chair at the head of the table.
"Hey," we all responded simultaneously, and I couldn't help hearing that Grayson's murmur was a little less enthusiastic than the rest of ours. Smiling inside my mind, I relished the thought that he would never have Aubergine before me.