“You’re beautiful. So smile
like you’re beautiful. So sing like you’re beautiful. So dance –”
“—like you’re beautiful?” I
supplied, interrupting Carmen. She had a tendency to make up her own songs and
sing them all around campus in her flighty soprano voice.
“Exactly!” She walked backwards
in front of me, bouncing on her toes with every step.
“You’ll run over someone like
that;” thankfully, most people walked around her, some glaring.
“Why not sing with me? You
aren’t half bad, yourself.”
“No, thanks. Remember, I’m the
one who will only do karaoke if you pull me up on stage with you.”
“That was only once and no one
complained.”
“Hey, Carmen, Gisele,” Baron
called from across the quad, catching my eye. His name was Barnaby, but
everyone called him Baron. Carmen beamed brighter than a spotlight while we
waited for him to join us.
“Hey, Baron. What’s up?” I
asked when he was close enough I didn’t have to yell.
“Nothing much. Heading to
lunch?”
“Baron, tell her she should
sing more. She really isn’t that bad,” Carmen pouted.
He wrapped an arm around her
shoulders, pulling her close to mumble something cutesy into her ear that made
her face light up again. To me he said, “You really do have a great voice,
Gisele. It wouldn’t hurt to join a group or something.”
“Will you drag her to auditions
this week for me?”
Baron raised his eyebrows at me
as though asking my opinion.
“I’m not auditioning,” I said,
not for the first time. Auditioning was something I didn’t do. Kind of like
being on stage wasn’t something I did. “And you know that, Carmen.”
Baron shrugged and returned his
attention to Carmen. “She was always exempt from in-class presentations.”
“Your stage fright is
fictitious,” she said, shrugging off Baron’s arm and walking backwards again. Then,
as was commonly Carmen, she randomly burst into song; “It’s all in your head,
my darling girl. You can do so much more than you give yourself credit for…”
“You can ignore her,” Baron
whispered, grinning.
“I always do. Carmen, watch—”
Carmen fell over a guy who had wound
up behind her; the two of them landed in a tangled mess of limbs on the
sidewalk.
“I am so sorry,” Carmen fussed as
Baron helped her to her feet. She shoved her golden locks over her shoulder
before turning back to the guy on the ground. He picked himself up slowly,
almost like he was distracted, running a hand through his shaggy auburn hair. His
blue-green eyes met hers for a second as she gushed apologies before sweeping
over Baron and landing on me for the longest two seconds of my life.
“It’s fine,” he said, dusting
the seat of his pants. He then reached out a hand; “I’m Johnathan.”
“Carmen,” she said, shaking his
hand. “My beau, Baron, and my best girl, Gisele. Nice to meet you, John.”
“Johnathan;” there was a slight
edge to his voice.
“You don’t shorten it at all?”
I asked, cocking my head to the side.
“No. Do you shorten yours?” The
look he gave me was so intense I had to divert my gaze. Part of me wanted to
run even. Something about the way he regarded me was different from when he
looked at Baron or Carmen and it made my skin crawl.
“Baron does.” Then, glancing at
my phone, I added, “I’m going to grab something to eat before the food court
closes.”
“May I join you?” Johnathan asked.
“No,” I said a little too
quickly. “I mean, I have a class in a little bit. It’s just to hold me over.”
“Gisele—”
“I’ll catch you later, Carmen,”
I cut her off. I didn’t want him to know I was lying. I just wanted to be away
from him and whatever it was he saw in me.
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