The Improbability of Forever (Kismet #2) ✓

12. Yet Another French Project

A/N: For anyone asking, the good-looking guy up there is Wade Poezyn, who in his younger years could definitely pass for Cody.

Twelve

Yet Another French Project

There were no words to describe the degree of awkwardness I was forced to endure during Monday morning's Chemistry class. For one, Cody acted as if I didn't even exist, stooping to ask Elisabeth for her opinion on the lab instead of me. Secondly, Elisabeth responded to this treatment with so many high-pitched giggles that I wanted to tear out my eardrums by the time the period was over.

I should have been used to the way Cody treated me when we were arguing. While we'd civilly resolved most of our conflicts while we'd been dating, the period of time between friendship and dating have been fraught with many a fight. He was a pro at the silent treatment, at acting like he didn't care even when he did, and I had simply no way of telling how he actually felt.

Naturally, then, I did what any reasonable ex-girlfriend would do: I went to his best friend.

I found Sam standing my Julia's locker and talking to her right before lunch. Both of them were grinning so widely that I thought their teeth would pop out; Julia was also blushing a very distinct shade of red.

"What's gotten into you lovebirds?" I asked, stopping beside them to drop my textbooks from my morning classes into my locker.

Julia blushed even more but Sam said, "I was actually just checking to see if Julia wanted to go to dinner with me tomorrow night."

"Riveting."

He ignored my tone and continued, "She agreed, which is great. Isn't it, Julia?"

She responded by smiling and demurely tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. Rolling my eyes, I grabbed Sam by the sleeve of his polo and yanked him towards me. "Can you do me a favor?"

"If it relates to Cody, then probably not."

"Come on!" I protested, clutching his shirt tighter. "I just need you to talk to him for me! On what degree does he hate me? Is it like, 'I just don't want to talk to her' or 'I never want to see her face again and I wish she would move to Mars'?"

He wrinkled his nose. "Um, neither? He actually misses you."

"He sure doesn't act like it."

Julia sidled up beside us and smoothed back my hair. "That's probably because he doesn't want to seem wishy-washy," she pointed out. "The more time he spends around you, the more he'll regret breaking up with you."

"There's a simple solution to that," I said. "It's called taking me back."

School had been particularly difficult today. Usually Cody stopped by my locker in the morning to talk and we'd walk to Chemistry together—if Mr. Townsend wasn't lurking he'd curl an arm around my waist and I'd lean into him. Today he'd walked right past me without a word, not even glancing at me. It was like I was invisible to him, and this silent treatment was worse than him yelling at me.

"He obviously doesn't want to take you back," said Sam.

I glared at him. "Do me a favor and learn to break the news to people a little more softly, will you?"

He looked like he wanted to fight back, but glanced at Julia and thought the better of it. "I'll do what I can," he said, hitching his backpack higher on his shoulder. "But no guarantees."