I got up to my dorm room and was immediately attacked by the girls who were waiting for me to hear what had happened. I would have preferred some alone time to process it all, but being a Rosewood meant I had a ton of friend love and support—whether I wanted it or not.
Though when I sat down and told the girls what had happened, I realized no matter how smothered I felt sometimes, they were absolutely the best friends anyone could ask for. Every single one of them had my back and were thrilled about the possibility of my getting back into the kitchen. Of course, at the same time, they were all totally pissed about what Shane had done.
Brooklyn asked the question everyone (including me) had to be wondering about. “So what does that mean if you do get to go back to your CSA?”
“I have no idea,” I said. “I guess it depends what the dean does.”
“So how did the dean agree to even let you back into the kitchen?” Chelly asked, probably a little confused because I’d been sketchy about the details that involved James—I still didn’t want all the girls knowing about him because the last thing I (or he) needed was them teasing me about having a cute nerd for a tutor.
“My tutor convinced her,” I said with a casual shrug, hoping that would be the end of it. “She hasn’t decided for sure though.”
“You’d better thank your tutor,” Kaylee said.
I looked at her, thankful that she didn’t mention James’ name even though she was giving me a very pointed look. She was right; I totally owed him a huge thanks for what he’d done, which I was pretty sure went above and beyond his job description as a tutor. It had ruined things with Shane, but it was Shane’s fault and better to find out now that he was a selfish douche than later. Especially if it would have meant him keeping me out of the kitchen.
“I will,” I said to Kaylee. “In a bit.” Because I couldn’t exactly text him while my friends were all there.
“So I guess this makes your decision about the dance that much easier, huh?” Chelly said.
“Yeah, I guess that’s true,” I said, surprised that I hadn’t even realized Shane’s douchiness solved my decision problem. I hadn’t even really been thinking about the dance with all this kitchen drama going on.
“Well,” Brooklyn said, pushing away from the wall and getting up off my bed. “I need to change and get a start on my homework. I’m glad it’s working out for you, Celia,” she said. “See you girls at dinner.”
Emmie went with her and then Chelly left too, after she rummaged around in my drawer for some gummi bears.
That left Kaylee and me. I got up to change out of my school uniform.
“So I can’t believe your tutor did that,” she said.
I looked at her over my shoulder as I shrugged out of my blazer and draped it over a hanger. “Right? I had no idea. I mean, we actually got in this huge fight this morning.”
She frowned. “A fight? When? About what?”
“After my swim when I was in the rec center. You were still asleep.” I turned back toward my closet, hooking the hanger over the bar. “And about what? Me being a brat, I guess.”
She didn’t say anything, so I turned around. “This is when you say, ‘Celia, you’re never a brat!’”
She just smirked which made me smirk, too. I hated that sometimes I was a brat, but that I could own it made it a little better, right?
I turned toward the closet again and started undoing my blouse when my phone buzzed. A feeling of impending doom washed over me. “Ugh, what do you want to bet that’s Shane?” I said.
Kaylee leaned over and craned her neck toward my phone on my desk. “Nope. James.”
I stepped over and picked up my phone to read his text: How did it go with the dean?
Like he didn’t know. I sent back: Really well and I have you to thank for it. For everything you said.
You’re welcome. But I didn’t tell her anything that wasn’t true.
That warmed my belly like a long sip of good hot chocolate.
Well thanks. And for getting her to consider letting me back in the kitchen.
I watched the three dots as he typed for a long time and then: What do you mean ‘consider?’ Didn’t she do it?
I sighed. It’s complicated.
He started typing back but then my computer rang. I gave Kaylee an eye roll. She smirked back. I sat down at my desk and answered James’s call.
“What do you mean, complicated?” he asked when his screen popped up. He had on his signature hoodie and dark-rimmed glasses, but his hair looked messier than usual and I had the sudden urge to straighten it, because the way it looked didn’t fit with his normal stick-up-the-butt, every-hair-in-place style.
But I put thoughts about his hair out of my head because he was waiting for an answer. How am I supposed to say this? I wondered and then sighed before I just went ahead and confessed. “I was sort of dating the kitchen supervisor. That’s how it was complicated.”
There was a long pause and I cringed. Awkward.
He lifted his left eyebrow. “Is this the friend who tried to get you to bail on your studying?”
Good memory. But now it was awkwarder. “Yes.”
Another long pause. I wondered if he’d say the same things my friends had about Shane: that he was a lying douche, that he didn’t deserve me, that he deserved whatever the dean was going to give him and more.
But all he said was: “Well, I’m sure Dean Haywood will get it figured out. If you were serious about pursuing it as a career, more experience is a good thing. And since you enjoy it, it’s a no-brainer and you can...wait...did you say you were dating the supervisor?”
It took me a second to follow that he’d completely changed gears in the middle of a sentence. “What?”
“You were dating him. So you’re not now?”
What did that matter? “No,” I said and suddenly, the sun hit that perfect spot in the window when it came beaming in on my face. I stood up and reached out toward the window behind my desk to close the blinds. “Sorry,” I said as I sat back down. And then as I was looking at him, his face went red. Really red. So red that I suddenly thought there was something wrong with my screen. “You okay?” I asked.
“Uh...” he swallowed, his Adam’s apple going up and down in his neck, the movement weirdly distracting.
“James?”
“Nothing...just...uh, when you stood up and leaned forward...your webcam...I...got a...view of your...”
“View of my wha...”
Kaylee barked out a loud laugh, making me whip my head toward her. She had her hand over her mouth, but she was barely containing herself as she nodded at my blouse. I glanced down and sure enough, it was gaping open.
“Oh my God,” I said as I grabbed my blouse and held it together. My own face felt like it was getting as red as James’s. No, more red.
“I am hanging up now,” I said and heard him mutter “Good thing,” before I closed my laptop and turned toward my roommate.
“I’m so sorry,” she said between her gaspy laughs, clutching her belly. “But that was seriously the best thing I’ve seen in a long time...omigod, that was...hilarious.”
I stared at her for half a second, disbelieving and a little angry, if I’m being honest. Then I remembered the very red, very embarrassed look on his normally very serious face and I realized she was right—it was totally hilarious. I snickered and then when that seemed to set her off even more, I giggled. Then I got completely caught up and doubled over in my chair as we squeaked and honked like rabid donkeys.
Finally, after a few failed attempts to stop laughing, we were able to wipe our eyes and look at each other without losing it.
“Omigod,” Kaylee said. “I feel bad for him, but his face—”
“Don’t!” I warned and turned away when it looked like she was going to start again, because that jittery feeling in my chest told me I could go at any second.
“Sorry,” she said, holding up her palm and looking away from me too. “I’m good, I’m good. But that was priceless.”
I grinned. “It sort of was, wasn’t it? I mean, I’ve been trying to loosen him up, but...”
“Well, mission accomplished. I mean, you just made him virtually motorboat you,” Kaylee said with a snort, but then her face straightened out. “But...”
“But what?”
She screwed up her face.
“What is it, Kaylee?” I demanded, because she was being weird and serious all of a sudden.
“I don’t think I should tell you.”
Okay, now I was getting freaked out; she always told me everything. “Tell me what?”
She blinked a few times and then exhaled, her shoulders dropping in defeat as though my few questions had been some sort of long interrogation. “Fine. Looking at him...especially after what just happened? I think he likes you.”
All I could do was stare at her.
She nodded. “I’m serious.”
“No. Not possible.”
Her eyebrows went up. “You believe that Shane and Jenks like you. Why not him?”
Didn’t she get it? “James is a super-smart guy. He’s a total brainiac. And he knows firsthand how dumb I am.”
Her expression softened. “Celia, you’re far from dumb.”
Now it was my turn to give her the eyebrows-up face. “Uh, I just failed three exams after studying like crazy.”
She sighed. “That doesn’t mean you’re dumb and he doesn’t think you are, either. You told me what he said to the dean. You’re smart in so many ways and he knows that. Plus, you’re cute and sporty and a great cook. What more could a nerd want?”
I still didn’t believe it. “He just got an eyeful of boob, that’s all. That would make any guy get googly-eyes.”
She shook her head. “His googly-eyes were different.”
“Oh and you are an authority on googly-eyes?”
“His? Yes. He saw me completely naked, remember?”
I’d forgotten about that. But...no...there was no way. “You’re cracked,” I said. “James doesn’t like me like that.”
She looked at me for a long moment before she finally said, “You’re probably right.”
I knew I was. I had to be. Right?