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I met Ariel and Jasmine outside of my apartment. Every morning, we took the subway to school together. Taking the subway alone sucked. It was only two stops, but they lasted forever and I always got stuck sitting next to the person who smelled like dirty socks or who fell asleep on my shoulder.
Gotta love New York, right?
When I approached them, Ariel and Jasmine were already hovering over Ariel’s phone, deep in conversation.
Ariel threw her arms around me from the front.
“Oh my god, Bella. You look great!”
Jasmine hung back and smiled.
“New boyfriend, new look, huh?” she asked.
I groaned. “You know?”
“Are you kidding?” Jasmine asked. “Everyone knows! You are the new queen of St. Mary’s Academy right now. Boy, is Dana going to be jealous.”
I rolled my eyes and started walking toward the subway.
“I don’t think so.” No matter what I wore, I was no Dana Rich. Still, the comparison was nice.
“I’m serious! Dana and Jake were like Romeo and Juliet, sans the death. And now you have risen from the unwashed masses to take Jake out from under her nose. Bold move, girl.”
She gave me a high-five. I half-heartedly returned it.
“I didn’t actually take him,” I corrected her. “They were broken up. He kissed me and asked me to be his girlfriend. I’d be stupid to say no.” It wasn’t a complete lie. More of a three-quarter truth, really.
“Just be careful,” Ariel said. “I mean, we’ll be watching your back, but still. Keep an eye out for Dana, and for Regina.”
“Maybe we should start carrying around switch blades and walkie-talkies,” Jasmine said. “Just in case they corner you or something.”
I chuckled. “I’m not going to carry around a weapon! I’ll be fine.”
Jasmine put one hand on my shoulder. “Would you consider a whistle?”
“Definitely not!”
“Just a thought.”
“Honestly, you two are being a tad dramatic, don’t you think?”
Jasmine frowned. “I like to think of myself as a planner.”
“Speaking of me,” Ariel chimed in. “Did you see my text this morning?”
I shook my head.
“What text?”
“Eric has been texting me all night.”
My heart flipped in my chest.
“That’s ... that’s great, right?”
“Um ... yeah it is! I mean, I knew that we had stuff in common, but talking to him as me, and not as Gelda the Witch, is amazing. We’re talking about meeting up this weekend. Maybe by the Sea Port or something.”
Ariel’s face turned euphoric. She was happy. Really and truly happy. And just like that, my worries about being Jake’s fake girlfriend faded away. To see the look of pure joy on Ariel’s face was all the validation I needed. I could do this.
“Sounds like you two are a match made in heaven,” Jasmine said. She sighed. “My best friends are in love and climbing the social ladder, and here I am, alone and lonely.”
“What happened to Michael, the boy that went to St. John’s University?” I asked. Jasmine had a thing for older college guys. I still wasn’t sure if her parents knew or not.
She waved her hand. “He was a smoker. Ugh. I dropped him like a bad habit.” She sighed. “I’m sure that my boy toy is somewhere out there. I just have to find him.”
I placed my hand on Jasmine’s sagging shoulder. I knew what it was like to feel left out. I never wanted Jasmine to feel that way. Maybe Jake had another older friend that Jasmine would be interested in. I’d have to remember to ask him.
“Come on,” she said. “Let’s hurry up before we miss our train.”
The three of us set off to the train station in the November sunshine. It was cooler than yesterday, and my thin coat did nothing for the chill.
The streets were nearly empty. Sidewalks twinkled in the sunrise. Light reflected off the skyscraper windows. Blue sky stretched between gigantic buildings. The smell of coffee and bacon drifted from the bodegas that we passed. The city was beautiful. Not country beautiful, like my grandfather’s farm was, but beautiful in a cramped, corporate, raw sort of way. I loved it. I’d miss it if I had to leave.
Please, God, don’t let me leave.
“So,” Jasmine said. Her voice had a lyrical accent that made me jealous. It gave her an exoticness that I could never possess. “You and Jake going out tonight?”
I inwardly groaned. Was Jake expecting me to go out with him after school hours, other than on the dinner date he mentioned? Hopefully not. It amazed me how fast my opinion of him changed. Ten minutes with him and I was irreparably turned off.
“Maybe. We haven’t made any solid plans.”
Those green specked, chocolate eyes gazed at me as if they knew secrets I didn’t know I had. Her mouth pulled down into a frown and she shrugged.
I crossed my arms. “What?”
She shrugged. “I would have thought that you’d be more excited. I mean, you’ve been talking about this guy for nearly three years, and now you have him. Why aren’t you happy?”
My arms dropped. Was it that obvious?
“I’m happy,” I lied.
“You don’t look happy,” Jasmine said.
“That’s because I’m tired. Besides, people in relationships aren’t happy all of the time.”
“Yes, but I don’t think the honeymoon phase has a twenty-four hour expiration date.”
I waved her away, trying to inject some faux happiness in to my face.
Ariel turned back to Jasmine, a warm smile on her face.
“Leave her alone. She’s probably just nervous.”
“Shouldn’t she be glowing? She’s not glowing.”
Ariel laughed. “She’s not pregnant!”
“Not that kind of glow. The glow of a woman who’s found love.”
“You read too many romance novels,” Ariel said with a snort.
Jasmine clasped her hands together, a serene smile on her face. “I call them instructional manuals,” Jasmine said, her voice dreamy.
“Instructions on what?” I asked. “How to throw yourself dramatically on a bed and sob?”
“If necessary,” Jasmine replied with a smile.
“You two are crazy,” Ariel said. “You should be more like me.”
“Hoarders?” Jasmine asked.
Ariel shook her head. “No. Practical. And I told you that my things are collector’s items.”
Jasmine caught my eye, giving me a yeah right look. Ariel’s room was filled with old cork screws, smoking pipes, and intricately designed forks. She was one candlestick away from a televised intervention.
“Beanie babies are collector’s items,” Jasmine argued. “You are more like an unpaid recycling center.”
“As opposed to the animal rescue center that you live in?” Ariel said. “With your millions of birds and your crazy giant, biting cat that hates me.”
“I only have twenty-three birds,” Jasmine corrected. “And my cat does not bite. She nibbles.”
“My tetanus shot says different,” Ariel said.
We walked down the stairs to the subway. The smell of urine and steam immediately assaulted my senses.
“That settles it,” I said, trying not to gag on the strong smell. Ariel and Jasmine didn’t seem to notice it. “We are going to meet at my house tonight to study. No recyclables-”
“Collectors’ items.” Ariel said.
“And no petting zoos.”
“A Savannah F-1 cat and enough birds to feed said cat.”
“So, that’s why you keep so many birds!” Ariel cried.
Jasmine shrugged. “He’s huge! What else are we supposed to feed him? Kibbles and bits?”
“You two,” I laughed, “are impossible.”
“So says the new Queen of St. Mary’s Academy,” Jasmine said as we stood on the train platform. She gave me a fake bow. “All hail the queen.”
We all giggled, nearly falling over as we stepped on to the train.
I wondered what school would be like today. Jake didn’t text me to tell me what the plan was, and I didn’t text him either. Now that I thought about it, we didn’t have each other’s phone numbers, so texting was impossible. This wasn’t a well thought out plan. It was a web of lies that we were going to get caught in.
Jasmine had already sensed that something was off. Would she question Jake? If he thought I wasn’t playing the role, would he tell Ariel what I’d had done? Why did I agree to play this game of his?
Jasmine gave a conspirator’s grin to Ariel. She gave it back.
“Since no one else has the guts to, I’m just going to ask it,” she said. “Are the rumors true? Is he an amazing kisser?”
I wasn’t exactly a kissing connoisseur. I’d only kissed two boys in my life.
I looked down at my shoes. “It was okay. Kind of short, but okay.”
“Just okay?” Ariel pressed.
I made a face. “It was only our first kiss, and I was nervous.”
“That bad, huh?” Jasmine asked, taking my hand. “You know, I hear it takes a while for a couple to get used to each other. To see what each other likes and to work on it. Maybe that’s what’s going on with you and Jake?”
I raised an eyebrow. “Did you read that in one of your romance novels?”
She shrugged. “Romance. Dr. Phil. Does it matter?” She put her hand on my shoulder and pinned me with a serious expression, like she was a wise old grandmother or something. “The point is that it’s good advice. Keep working on it, and it will get better.”
I chuckled and rolled my eyes, my cheeks growing hot. I had no plans to work on kissing Jake.
The train roared in to the station, blessedly halting our conversation. The truth was, Jake was handsome and a decent kisser, but he was also rude and condescending. Plus, our relationship wasn’t real. There was nothing to work on. Nothing to perfect. I doubt he’d even kiss me again, and I was one hundred percent okay with that.
The three of us stepped on to the train and squeezed in to a seat that was only big enough for two people. We giggled as we tried and failed to maneuver our way into a position that was close to comfort.
To my left, a dark head wrapped in an even darker zip up hoodie caught my eye.
Cole.
What was he doing on this train? I always assumed he drove to school with his brother and sister.
“Don’t stare,” Jasmine whispered in to my ear. I turned to her grinning face, my cheeks heating up again.
“I’m not staring,” I argued.
“You were,” she said with a knowing look.
I rolled my eyes. Cole was my nemesis. I would only stare at him if I had laser beams instead of eyeballs and could set him on fire.
The train came to a stop and we maneuvered out of the too tight seat in the most hilarious ways possible. Finally free, we stood, smoothed down our clothes, and walked out of the subway car.
“We’re going to get bagels,” Jasmine said. “You want one?”
I shook my head. I had a half-eaten apple in my bag already. Besides, with my father losing his job, I’d have to watch every penny.
“No thanks. You go ahead.”
They nodded, moving against the crowd to a breakfast stand toward the end of the platform.
I stood a little away from the wall, waiting for them.
Across the tracks, a heap of darkly colored clothes moved. At first, I thought it was a trash bag, but, on further inspection, it was a person. I couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman, but I did notice the white of its eyes, and the two fingers that it held up.
The peace sign.
The person was as still as a statue, fingers in the air, not moving.
What was that person’s life like? I wondered. What path had they taken to end up living in a subway? Was this where mine and my father’s lives were heading?
I shook the thought from my head. I would not think about Daddy and his lost jobs today.
A flash of black rushed past me.
“Cole?”
He stopped his march toward the outside and turned to look at me.
“What?!”
The look he gave me made my heart speed up and my stomach clench. It was hostile and furious.
I took a step back.
“Nothing.”
He glared at me for a moment more before he took off again, jogging up the stairs in to the sunshine.
What happened to Cole since yesterday? Why did he look at me as if he wanted me to burst into flames? The teasing was one thing, but this was something else. Something darker. We’d been frustrated and irritated with each other, but never openly hostile. What was his problem?
I put my hand over my heart to stop its reckless beating.
“That looked intense,” Ariel said, chewing on a small piece of bagel. “What did he want?”
I shrugged, hoping the movement would seem nonchalant.
“Just saying hi. Or not saying hi, I guess.”
I shook my head. If anyone was furious, it should have been me. Cole had been the one who teased and prodded me all day. What did I ever do to him?
“Are you guys still studying at your place tonight?” Ariel asked.
“Yeah. I think so.”
If he didn’t kill me with an axe first.
Ariel nodded thoughtfully. “Okay. Call me if you need me to come over if, you know, whatever.”
“Whatever?” I asked. “So, you’re going to fight him off if he attacks me or something?”
“I’ll hit him with a right and a left, New York style.” She smiled at me.
I smiled back.
Jasmine jogged up to me, one tea and one coffee in her hands. She handed me the coffee. I hadn’t asked for it, but it was exactly what I needed. Jasmine was awesome like that.
“Hurry up. We’re going to be late!” she called, her backpack bouncing against her back as she fled toward the stairs.
Ariel and I looked at each other, and ran to catch up.