Countdown (on hold)

Two years, twelve months, three weeks, five days, fourteen hours before

James was still in town and it didn’t seem like he was going to leave anytime soon. His school in his new city was on break, and mine wasn’t. He, like usual, won over Mom again as soon as they saw each other again. Mom was worried that James had changed since moving away. I tried to tell her that he was the same person he was before but she wouldn’t listen to me. Of course when he came over to check on me and my poor wrist, as he put it, Mom almost fainted from how sweet he was being.

Caleb hadn’t met James until they both showed up to walk me to school. Mom had asked James to, and Caleb showed up like usual. James had showed up about five minutes before Caleb did, and by the time I was ready and down from my bedroom, James and Caleb were glaring at each other from opposite sides of the family room. Caleb was closer to where the staircase was, and rushed over to help me carry my text books since I still had a broken wrist. James came over after Caleb did, glaring at the back of his head the whole time.

I spoke to Caleb first. “Thanks for taking my books.”                         

He smiled at me, but not before sneaking a smirk over to James. “You're welcome, like always.”

As Caleb and I walked past James and over to the front door, Mom asked me why wasn’t he coming with us. I was confused at first, but then remembered that she told me that James was walking me to school also. “Oh, come on James, I don’t want to be late.”

“More like you can’t risk being late again.” Caleb snickered. I nudged my shoulder into Caleb’s arm, and he nudged me back. We started walking to school nudging each other’s arms and not paying attention to James until he cleared his throat.

“Your mom asked me to walk you to school Shay, not him.” James came swooping over in between Caleb and me, and wrapping his arm around me again. Caleb nodded solemnly and started walking faster than we were before. I surely wasn’t going to say anything to James for pushing Caleb away, and James wasn’t in a good mood, so the rest of the walk to the school building was silent except for the occasional yell of another child to another on their way to school.

Caleb was waiting at the entrance for me. “Here are your books.” he said as he slid my books back into my arms. James’ arm was still around my shoulders, but his eyes were on Caleb’s fingers lingering on my arm.

“Shouldn’t you be getting to class?” James squawked at Caleb, sounding very much like Mrs. Mutters, our old and withering school librarian.

“He walks me to class, James. Are you coming back to the house after school lets out?” I sighed, hoping he would say ‘no’.

James grinned instead, “Only if you want me to, but you really should be getting to class. See you later.” I thought he was going to just give me a quick hug and be on his way, but instead he gave me a quick peck on the cheek, much to my surprise. When he pulled away from my face, I saw that his eyes were locked on Caleb’s face, waiting to see his reaction. He wasn’t even paying attention to me; he was trying to make Caleb jealous by acting as if we were together.

I pushed James away from me, “Leave, and don’t bother coming to my house this afternoon if you were expecting to see me; I’m not going to be there.” I wrapped my bad arm around Caleb’s arm and started walking away from James.