The Perfect Storm

“Anthony hide me,” I whimpered, trying to hide myself behind his back.

I could sense rather than see him rolling his eyes as he complied. We were walking across the parking lot, Anthony casually and me trying to act casual and failing miserably. I had never actually made it to ninth period English. Instead I had called Anthony from the janitor’s closet and explained to him that Kasey wanted to drive me home. He had thought it was a bad idea just as much as I had, so now he was trying to hide me from Kasey as we headed towards his car.

“Is he looking?” I whispered.

“He’s looking around the parking lot but he hasn’t looked over here yet.” Anthony replied. “And relax, we’re almost at my car.”

I sighed in relief.

“Ah, shit.” Anthony said.

“What?” I demanded sharply.

“He just saw me.” he replied. “Get in the car, quick.”

I glanced over Anthony’s shoulder and saw Kasey striding across the parking lot towards us. I hurriedly tried to make the last few feet before Kasey caught up to us but it was in vain. Kasey’s long legs swiftly carried him up to Anthony, who stopped Kasey before he could get any closer to me.

“We have to work on our project.” Kasey said, completely ignoring Anthony even though he was holding Kasey back by his shoulder.

“Sorry, I can’t today.” I said nervously, reaching out to open Anthony’s car door.

Kasey rolled his eyes. “Bullshit.” he said. “Just come with me.”

“Okay, you wanna know the real reason I won’t get in your car?” I asked, getting slowly angrier at him as I stepped away from Anthony’s car. “It’s because you’re the juvenile delinquent I know nothing about other than the fact that you hate me and I have no idea why.”

Kasey seemed slightly surprised. “I’m not a juvenile delinquent.” he said.

“Yeah, you’re too old to be one, right?” Anthony snarled sarcastically. “I’ll drive her home and you can meet her there.”

“But that would be a waste of your precious gas.” Kasey said, feigning concern.

Anthony rolled his eyes.

Kasey glanced at me. “I already told your sisters,” he said. “They’re expecting you to come home with me.” I didn’t miss that smug look on his face.

I glared at him before sighing.

“Anthony, move.” I said in defeat.

Anthony turned to face me in disbelief. “Syd?” he asked.

“Look, if I don’t call you later, call the police and tell them what happened.” I said, and even I didn’t know if I was joking.

Anthony glared at Kasey before stepping aside. Kasey gave him one last smirk before walking over towards what I assumed to be his car, not even looking back to see if I was following. I gave Anthony a smile that I hoped said I wasn’t worried before turning back to Kasey.

He didn’t look convinced.

*

“Sydney, I insist that you stay for dinner.” Mrs. Long said.

I smiled nervously. “I’m not sure, I think Elaina’s cooking tonight.” I lied quickly.

“Nonsense, dear, I’ve already invited your sisters and your father too.” she said kindly. “Elaina said to ask you but that you would most likely say yes.”

I was sitting with Kasey in the same study that we had worked in three days ago. Mrs. Long had come in to check on us after an hour’s work to invite me to dinner. I groaned internally while trying to keep the fake smile plastered on my face so as not to hurt her feelings.

“Alright,” I said. “That sounds great.”

Mrs. Long beamed. “They should be here in about an hour, so you can still get some more work done.”

I smiled at her weakly as she left the room but it quickly turned into a scowl. I turned to Kasey and glared at him.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he said sullenly. “It wasn’t my idea to have you over for dinner.”

I rolled my eyes.

“I’d be more concerned if it had been.” I said dryly.

Kasey rolled his eyes too.

I turned back to the piece of paper I held in my hand. It was the interview I had just finished with Kasey and I was trying to translate them into Spanish without using an online translator. Mrs. Rodriguez had an annoying habit of knowing when somebody used an online translator, something I had found out the hard way on our first assignment.

“Just because you concentrate on it really, really hard isn’t gonna make the words go from English to Spanish.” Kasey said sarcastically.

“Shut up.” I said, running a hand through my hair in frustration. “I give up.” I said after a few moments of silence, throwing the paper down on the desk and leaning back in my chair.

Kasey rolled his eyes yet again.

“Fine, be lazy.” he said, grabbing my piece of paper.

“What are you doing?” I demanded.

“I’m not about to fail this project because you’re not smart enough to figure out the translations on your own, now just shut up.” he said.

I scowled at him.

This dinner would be interesting.