I gasped. ‘Et loo, Caesar?’
They all exploded with laughter and Liam began choking on the popcorn.
‘What’s so funny?’
‘You got that so wrong,’ Olly said, knocking Liam on the back. ‘It’s “Et tu, Brute?”’
I snatched the bowl of popcorn from Liam. ‘I didnotstrut.’
‘Whatever you say, Shakespeare.’ Olly grinned, reaching for a handful of popcorn and pressing play on the controller.
I didn’t miss Ella but I sort of missed the other person who was still not talking to me. As Cal was older, he wasn’t in any of my classes and he mostly kept himself to himself during break times. One afternoon after school, I had been on an errand for Mum, taking some files to Audrey’s office and Cal was leaning on the reception desk reading, I assumed waiting for his dad. I took a deep breath and went over to him.
‘Hey.’
‘Hey.’ He looked back down at his book.
Uh-oh. I hadn’t thought about what I was going to say after ‘hey’. I had no idea where to go from there. Why hadn’t I thought this through?
‘Did you know butterflies taste things through their feet?’
OK, not the most winning line but I decided to go with it.
‘Yeah, I did.’
‘Oh. Good. Interesting, right? I was watchingPlanet Earthrepeats the other day.’
He didn’t reply so I decided I should probably call it a day. Butterfly facts? Really? That’s the best I could do? I turned away, disgusted with myself, when he spoke.
‘I heard about Grace. Telling Ella off in front of everyone.’
‘It was pretty cool.’
‘And hotheaded. You must be rubbing off on her.’
‘I’ll take that as a compliment.’
‘Whatever you want.’
I paused, watching him turn the page of his book. ‘You know, Cal, I really am sorry. About what I said at the party.’
‘It’s cool,’ he replied, not looking up. ‘I get it.’
‘Get what?’
‘That you were trying to impress whatever his name is. The vlogger.’
‘I wasn’t trying to impress him. I just –’
‘I don’t know why you worship that guy anyway,’ Cal snorted, turning another page.
OK, no one reads that fast, not even nerds like Cal. He was totally doing the page-flicking thing to make me think he didn’t care and to rile me up. And it was not working. Not one little bit.
‘Would you STOP turning the pages like that. It’s so annoying.’
(Fine, it was sort of working.)
‘My page-turning is annoying you?’ Cal finally looked up with this stupid bemused look on his face. URGH he was the worst!
