Chapter 7: Trudy

On Wednesday morning, I got a text from my dad and found out that they wouldn’t arrive until after midnight. I was torn between feeling relieved about that and feeling nervous about it. I wished I could talk to Rob about it. He always made me feel better, but of course, I couldn’t. I’d have to wait until they were gone, and then I could deal with him.

Then when I got to my locker at school, I suddenly heard my name and Art’s in a buzz of conversation around me. The lockers at St. James are about twice as big as any other school, and the halls have huge, high ceilings, I think to make us feel like we weren’t really in high school. It also had a cathedral-like effect of making voices echo, which could be cool on any occasion other than this one.

What was going on?

I looked up and saw Rob standing about five feet away, staring at me. He looked terrible, his eyes red and his face grayish. “What happened with you and Art?” he said, directly. “In the kissing alcove? And afterward, in his dorm room?”

I flushed. Was that what the rumors were all about? He couldn’t believe that Art and I—but I had sworn I wouldn’t tell Rob about the experiment that had been the real reason Art and I had been talking. I didn’t want Rob involved in it, anyway. I didn’t want him to risk losing his luck for the sake of his friendship with Art.

“It’s not what you think,” I said.

“How do you know what I think?” said Rob. He looked around and saw all the people staring at us. They could hear our conversation in here just as well as we could hear theirs, and they were all eager to see an argument between the longest lasting couple at school.

Why should I stand here and listen to him accuse me of cheating on him with Art, in front of all these people? Didn’t he have more respect for me than to do that to me? And more to the point, how could he possibly believe that I would do something like that to him? After all we’d been through in the last year. How could he doubt that I loved him when I showed him every day? It made me furious.

“We have to go someplace else to talk,” said Rob.

“Why? Why don’t you just blurt it out to everyone? That seems to be what you want to do,” I said.

“Trudy, please,” said Rob. “Let’s have a little privacy.”

Fine. He wanted to dump me in private for something that wasn’t my fault? Let him. And when he was sorry about it, I would insist that he apologize to me in public. Over and over again.

“Where? The alcove?” I asked wickedly.

Rob flushed. “Outside,” he said. And even though it was cold and there was a fierce wind out there, I followed him out to the statues. At least there were no other kids standing around the front of the school to hear what we said, although there were plenty watching from the big windows in the commons. I tried to remind myself not to look angry. I just had to keep my arms at my sides.

“I told Jake, who told me about the rumors, that you and Art are just friends and you were probably just talking. As friends,” said Rob. He stared at my face as though reading it.

“So why did you have to bring me out here?” I asked. If he trusted me, then he trusted me.

“Why were you in the alcove with him?” said Rob. “And in his dorm room for two hours?”

“He’s trying to figure out something important. It was a long conversation,” I said.

“But I called you on the phone. While you were there. Don’t you remember?” said Rob.

I remembered.

“You didn’t say anything about being with Art in his dorm room. Why not?”

“Because it’s none of your business what I do with friends when you’re not around. Do you think I should report every minute of my life to you?”

Rob let out a frustrated breath.

He deserved to be frustrated, as far as I was concerned.

“I’m not talking about every minute. But Art is my friend, not yours. I would have thought that when you were with him, I would know about it.”

“Well, maybe he had something to talk to me about that he didn’t need you to hear,” I said. “Something private and important.”

“Private? Art?” said Rob. “I don’t think I’ve ever used those two words in the same sentence.”

“Well, maybe you don’t know Art as well as you think you do.”

“And you do?” said Rob. “When did this happen?”

This was getting stupider and stupider. “Look, I had to talk to him about something important. Something he’s asked me to keep secret. That’s it. Nothing happened between us other than that. Why can’t you believe me?”

“Actually, the problem is that I know Art better than you do. You might think it’s not personal, that he’s not interested in you. But that doesn’t mean it’s true.”

“You think I can’t tell when a guy is interested in me and I can’t?” I asked. That was just insulting.

“Well, with your luck, pretty much every guy at St. James is interested in you.”

I had gone way past angry now. “Fine. Why don’t you accuse me of going out with all of them behind your back then? Why Art?”

“Because—” Rob started, and then shrugged. “I’m an idiot, I guess,” he said.

“You guess?”

“I am definitely an idiot,” said Rob, and he held out a hand.

I put my hand in his hand for just a moment, to say that I was ready to forgive him.

“But why did you tell me not to go over to your dorm room? Why are you keeping secrets?” said Rob.

And then my hand dropped out of his.

It seemed that my letting my luck drop was having a significant effect on my relationship with Rob. A bad effect. All that time I thought that our love could stand anything, I had been wrong.

“Look, I don’t want to talk about it now. Try me again in a couple of days, Rob,” I said, and stalked back into the school.

I hoped things weren’t permanently ruined between us. If I got my luck back, I could probably patch them back up. If I wanted to. But that was the question, wasn’t it? Things looked differently with luck than without. I wondered how my parents had ever managed. But then again, they both had the same amount of bad luck, and Rob and I clearly didn’t.

I wondered if Art would actually like the idea of the rumors swirling about us. It seemed Art’s style, so long as it didn’t hurt his relationship with Rob.

I heard a lot more of the rumors the rest of Wednesday. A few guys were blatant enough about it to ask if they would have a chance with me when Art had dumped me. Classy, right? Well, if they thought I was the type to drop Rob for Art, what do you expect?

It wasn’t until I was headed to English that I ran into Rob’s ex, Laura Chevely. I was mad enough that I didn’t just slide away from her, either. Let her take a punch if she wanted. Everyone else had. I could handle it.

“Hey, Trudy,” she said, standing by the door to the academic floor, creating a semi-private corner for the two of us. Everyone else kept away. They knew as much about Laura’s reputation as I did. “I heard about those rumors. That’s horrible. It’s all a lie, isn’t it? You don’t seem the type to drop Rob for Art.”

“I would never drop Rob for Art,” I said fiercely. Just in case she was thinking she could slip back in while Rob and I were on the outs.

“So he’s OK with it? I was a little worried when I heard that he might go ballistic. Not give you a chance to explain or anything.”

Ballistic was one way to put it. Idiotic was my preference. But whatever. I wasn’t going to tell her that.

“No, it’s fine. He trusts me,” I said. “And he trusts Art.” I did not believe for a second that she was trying to be friendly to me. She was enjoying this. She might even have helped orchestrate all the rumors. Though the alcove had been Art’s idea.

“I’m so relieved. You know that I would never do anything to try to break you two up, right?” She smiled at me innocently.

Right, like I believed that. She might have gone easy on us before, but I had no doubt she was just waiting for the right moment to make our lives truly miserable.

“I know,” I said, smiling sweetly to her anyway. “You and Rob were never a good fit together, were you?” I could play this mean underneath the surface of niceness game just as well as she could.

“Maybe that was because of Art. He was part of the reason Rob and I broke up, in the end. Did anyone tell you about that? He started to have feelings for me.”

“What?” I had never heard that from either Rob or Art. I was actually startled into wondering if I’d been wrong about believing Art’s experiment. Had it all been a hoax? Had I read too much into what happened after I got electrocuted and after I touched the petri dish? I tried to calm myself down and tell myself not to listen to any of her lies, but I was worried.

“It wasn’t quite that obvious. He kept staring at me, and saying the strangest things to me. Asking me questions about things that I didn’t really know anything about. Pretending that my opinion really mattered to him, even though it seemed perfectly obvious to me that he was just trying to make sure that he had time to be alone with me. I think he had a crush for years before he let on.”

“Art?” That didn’t seem like the Art I knew.

The bell rang, and I was going to be late to class—again. This seemed the week for it.

“It was weird,” said Laura, shrugging. “I asked Rob about it and he said that I was making it all up. He was really insistent about it. So I quit talking about it. But I think he noticed it. I’ve always wondered if he thought I was doing something to encourage Art’s attention.”

“Did anything happen afterward? With you and Art?” I couldn’t believe I was asking this, of her, of all people. I had no idea if I could believe anything she said. Probably not.

“Ha!” said Laura. “He wouldn’t even talk to me then.”

I had a sick feeling at that. “Well, there’s nothing between me and Art.” I wanted her to believe it, so I could, too.

“Good. I’d hate to think it was replaying all over again with you and Rob and Art. Another love triangle or something.” She smiled broadly.

I’d done exactly the wrong thing with her, just like I had with Rob.

“It’s nothing to worry about, I’m sure. You and Rob are rock solid. And what happened with me and Rob yesterday means nothing.”

She knew just how to twist me so that I couldn’t help but ask for more. “Yesterday?” I said, knowing that one word was one word too many.

“Rob came to me. Yesterday. He asked me to talk to him privately,” said Laura.

“So?” I was trying not to panic about it.

“He wanted me to tell him about you. I felt really unsure about it. It seemed like an invasion of privacy. He wanted to know if I’d ever seen you with any other guy.”

“Why would he ask you that?” I said, giving up on trying not to ask. It was going to happen anyway. Might as well not fight it and get information while I could. It seemed that I wasn’t the only one who had done something a little questionable in terms of our relationship. Had Rob been more eager to accuse me of doing wrong with Art when he had done the same thing with Laura a few hours before?

“He just thought I would know. He said I got around.” Laura twisted her lips together. “I told him I hadn’t seen anything, in case you’re wondering. But I thought it was strange. You don’t think he was the one who saw you and Art together and started the rumors?”

“No, of course not,” I said. If Rob had seen us, wouldn’t he have just come right into the alcove and asked us what was up. He’d have seen for himself that nothing was going on then. Wouldn’t he?

I realized I wasn’t so sure of Rob anymore and it made me wonder if, like the first real physical pain I had felt, this was emotional pain that I had never had to deal with before because I was insulated by luck. I think I’d rather have the physical pain and learn from that. This was just too much.

“Right,” said Laura. “Well, in case you hear anything about me and Rob being back together, I thought you should know. It was completely innocent.”

“Yeah, thanks,” I said. It was only afterward that I realized how thoroughly Laura had won. I had thanked her for telling me what she had. That was victory times two, and they were both for her side.