Chapter 55

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Chapter 55

As the fates may have it I found her in the library while I was looking for a book on Shakespearean sonnets. She was sitting in front of a large coffee table doing homework when the librarian called for her to tell her that she had found the books she had requested. 

She was so beautiful, I thought to myself: Tan skin, big gray eyes, dirty blonde hair. I walked up to a shelf nearby her and took a book off to see through it.

"Who are we spying on?" A voice whispered in my ear. I almost dropped the book.

I turned around to see Lana grinning at me. She shoved me to the side, her blonde hair whipping my arm, and peered in between the books.

"Oh, Gabrielle Hauzer?" She asked, confused.

"Boring. I thought it was a hot guy. Why are we spying on her?"

"I'm not spying on her," I lied, my cheeks turning red.

She gave me an incredulous look, "Lia, you suck at lying."

I put the book back and ignored her.

"How do you even know about her? She's not the most social. Her family is really religious," She asked.

"Why are you at the library?" I asked furrowing my brows. 

"I saw you through the window on my way to lunch. So why the mystery with Gabrielle?"

Lana and I played a staring game, and I finally broke.

"I think Robbie might be in love with her," I admitted.

"Okay." She said slowly trying to understand. "That's the last thing I expected you to say." She said, laughing.

"Hmm." She took the book out of its place on the shelf and peered at her again. "Yeah, I don't think so," She said, placing the book back in its place.

"Gabrielle is not the sharpest. I think he tutored her for physics because she was at risk of failing. He hooked up with her, and then she spread some bitchy rumor about Abigail, and he ended things," she explained. 

"Her family are also like the snobbiest people you will ever meet. They think they're better than everyone."

It never ceased to amaze me how Lana knew everything about everyone. Well, I guess not about everyone; she certainly had no idea about what Robbie and I had recently been up to. If she did, she would have indeed said something.

"Huh," I said as she hooked her arm through mine and led me out of the library.

"The real question is, why are you spying on someone that Robbie is potentially in love with?"

"Nothing. I was just curious."

Lana narrowed her aqua-colored eyes at me.

"He told me he was in love with someone, and he seemed so heartbroken, I was curious."

A small smile appeared on her lips, and she paused our stroll to fix my shirt collar. She was being motherly and strange.

"What?"

"Nothing. Just, he's not in love with Gabrielle Hauzer. I'm sure of it. I think he has more of a thing for brunettes," She said flattening the collar of my shirt.

"Did you work on the English paper?" I asked, changing the subject.

"No, not yet. Our Gala was pushed from next week to three weeks from now. Maria is flipping out, so I spent all day yesterday and will probably spend this entire weekend trying to move all of our caterers and hosts to the first week of December," she said with a groan.

"Why did it get moved?"

"The location we had secured received an emergency request from some politician."

"That stinks; if you want, I can help you guys this weekend."

"PLEASE!" Maria shouted, running up next to us. She hugged me from behind and fell in step with Lana and me.

We walked silently; Maria and Lana were texting some friends on their phones when Lana smiled and broke the silence.

"Do you remember Gareth from Maria's party? The boy you danced with?"

"Yeah." I said, "Kind of."

"He asked me about you."

"No way, Gareth is so nice!" Maria said, "It would be cute if you guys dated." In the time I had known Maria, I noticed that there were few things she loved more than matchmaking.

"Gareth? Really? I mean, he was nice." I said, taken aback by the sudden enthusiasm for this boy. 

"He's very nice and speaking of the devil," Lana smiled, pointing at a boy wearing a football jacket and eating a sandwich.

"Oh. No, it's okay," I said, my eyes widening; this was happening way too fast. I felt myself dig my heels into the cobblestone walkway that led to the lunch courtyard.

Lana was already heading towards the table he was sitting in, and Maria dragged me along with her.

"Hi Gareth," Lana said, placing her purse on the table.

"Hey, Lana. Oh, hi, Lia." He said, blushing. Huh, she wasn't lying.

"Hey, we were just talking about Maria's party and how you and Lia had a good time together."

I gave them both a tight smile and dug my elbow into Lana's side.

"Yeah, I've been meaning to talk to you again," He said, running his hand through his dark brown hair.

Gareth was what you would imagine when you pictured an all-American football player. Big and bulky. His cheeks were always pink as if he had just run a mile. The resemblance to an all-American Jock was only physical. When he opened his mouth, he was shy and had a lisp.

It was kind of endearing. We didn't talk much at the party, but he was a decent dancer, and he was known to be a genuinely nice guy. Apparently, he had been in a long-term relationship with a girl from another school, and they broke up when she moved away.

"Oh, really, why's that?" I asked mostly to be polite.

"Oh, I mean. I thought you were beautiful, but then I saw you solve that problem in math class, and I thought to myself, she will never be interested in me," He said nervously. 

"What why?" I suddenly felt terrible for him.

"Because you're so smart. I don't know what I could say to impress you."

"You don't have to try to imp—" I started.

"Say come with me to the ballet this Saturday," Maria interrupted me.

"What?" Gareth and I both asked at the same time.

"I don't know... that's really short notice," I said, shooting daggers her way.

"Good seats are usually taken by now," Gareth said, being sympathetic to my distress.

"That's not an issue. My family buys tickets for the year. We aren't using them this weekend. It would be a shame for them to go to waste. I can give Lia two." Maria said convincingly. 

She was good at getting people to do what she wanted. Always had a backup plan ready and knew exactly what tone to use to get you to trust her. Most of the time, her reasons were pretty innocent, kind even. Right now, I wasn't so sure what was going on. I was starting to suspect that all the texting her and Lana were doing on the way here was to each other. This was a setup.

"Alright, Lia. Come with me to the Ballet this Saturday," He said shyly.

I looked at Maria, and she was sharing a look with Lana. I looked back at Gareth. I felt terrible to reject him like this. His friends were behind us, pretending not to listen. It wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to hang out with him. He was charming. At worst, it would be a fun night, and I made a new friend. He was also sweet. He had nice brown flippy hair, kind brown eyes, a friendly smile.

"Sure," I said, giving in.

My yes was something I regretted for the rest of the day. I didn't feel like going on a date. Not because I didn't want to see Gareth, but because I didn't really want to put in the effort to get ready for something that I wasn't excited about.

Hanging out with Maria and Lana and planning the party seemed like a lot more fun than a boring night at the ballet.  I also had his weird sinking feeling of guilt in my stomach. 

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