Other Echoes
Page 32
“Thanks, but you didn’t need to get involved,” she said once they exited they cafeteria. “I can fight my own battles.”
“I noticed. You’re very…uh, combative.”
He was looking at her with an unreadable expression.
“What?” she asked.
“You have cheesecake on your face.”
Perfect. As if this situation were not embarrassing enough already. She used the backside of her hand to wipe it impatiently away.
She started walking, full of residual energy from the confrontation. Itching to burn off the edginess that had accumulated in her restless limbs, she started moving in the direction of her next class. Josh fell easily into step beside her.
“How much of that conversation did you hear?” she asked.
“Enough to know that you can be very unpleasant when you want to be.”
She stopped in her tracks. “Hold on. I was the unpleasant one? Why does everyone seem to think I’m the guilty party in this?”
“I guess I don’t know the whole story,” he admitted.
“Clearly not.”
They had arrived at her next class. It took her a moment to realize the obvious: this was Josh’s next class as well. They had French at 2:30.
She sat on the bench outside their classroom, but Josh remained standing.
“I didn’t mean to upset you,” he mumbled. “And it’s not as though I’m in any position to judge. I can be unpleasant, too.”
“I know it,” she said. “I think we all remember the Ivy Engler incident.”
“The what?”
She couldn’t believe Josh didn’t know what she was talking about. Perhaps he was mean to girls on a regular basis and couldn’t keep track of them all.
“Ivy Engler? The girl you shot down in seventh grade?” Emi said. “You called her ‘disgusting.’ And a few other things too, if I recall.”
His eyes lit with recognition. “Oh. That.”
“Uh-huh. That. And you think I’m the unpleasant one.”
“This time you don’t know the whole story,” he said.
“You’re telling me you had good reason to cuss out Ivy Engler?” she asked dubiously.
“Yes.”
She waited for him to go on. He looked down at his feet, then up at her face, then back down at his feet again. Finally, he said, “If you must know, one time my sister – Iris -- One time Iris and I went to McDonalds for milkshakes. She was maybe six years old, and she wanted to go in the playpen. You know that thing? The place with all the colored balls?”
Emi nodded.
“So Iris was in there, jumping around, and this other girl eating McNuggets came over with her small brother. And they saw Iris playing. They came up close to the net to watch her. And the girl with the McNuggets, she – I’ll never forget it – she said, ‘Ew. Look. There’s a thing in there.’”
“A thing?”
“Yes. That’s what she said. She called Iris a ‘thing’ right to her face, like Iris didn’t have ears or was too stupid to understand,” he said. “And the girl kept saying, ‘Yuck. Ew. Gross. Is it even human?’”
Emi furrowed her brow. “Wow.”
“So the next year, I’m new at Staley, and who do you think is in my homeroom?”
“I’m guessing McNugget girl was Ivy Engler?”
“Bingo.”
“You’re sure of it?”
“Dead sure. I would have recognized her anywhere. She made me so mad.”
Emi chewed her lip thoughtfully. “Okay, so that puts things in a different light.”
“It probably doesn’t excuse what I said to Ivy,” he confessed. “But when she asked me to the dance, it took me off guard.”
“Why didn’t you tell her the truth?” Emi asked. “You could’ve said, ‘you insulted my little sister’?”
“I…” He swallowed hard and abruptly stopped speaking.
“What?”
He shook his head. “Nothing. What about you? What was all that about?”
“You mean in the cafeteria?” Emi threw up her hands in exasperation. “Who knows? Kainoa cheated on me with my best friend, and for some reason they’re the ones giving me the cold shoulder.”
“But why was Natalie crying?” Josh asked.
“I don’t know. She seems to think I was a ‘bad friend.’”
He sat down on the wall next to Emi, several inches away. “Maybe she feels guilty.”
“She’d better!” Emi said. “Good and guilty.”
He looked at her appreciatively. “You don’t suffer fools gladly, I see.”
“Yeah, well, it’s probably a good thing you stopped me in the caf. I would’ve made a bigger fool of myself and gotten into trouble. So… thank you.”
“I owed you one for writing the French report. And for going to Iris’ dance show. You have no idea how much that meant to her. She wouldn’t stop talking about it the whole way home.”
Emi hadn’t realized he had even seen her at the mall on Sunday. Emi had tried waving, but Iris had been so excited, she hadn’t seemed to notice anyone.
“Look, I know I haven’t been very friendly to you lately,” Josh went on. “But if you ever want to hang out…” His voice trailed off, as if he were embarrassed, or even a little bit shy.
Emi looked at him in wonder. He was so hot and cold, it was hard to predict what he’d do next. But this was a good development as far as The Plan went, so she gladly took it.
“Sure,” she said casually. “Why not?”
She almost felt a twinge of guilt for feigning friendship with him. Josh the Jerk wasn’t so bad, once you got past his hard outer shell. In fact, it was kind of sweet of him to get so sentimental about his sister’s dance recital. What a softie! Who would have thought?
Chapter 9