"Come on. Something's got to be happening. What about a boyfriend? You got a boyfriend?" I wrinkled my nose, "No."
"Anything close to a boyfriend?" Nick's face appeared in my head, that half-smile. "Nope."
"Well, I have a girlfriend. Her name is Stella." I laughed, "Stella!" I yelled, imitating a character from 50's movie A Streetcar Named Desire. He groaned, "I haven't heard that one before." I laughed, "What's she like?"
"She's so beautiful. Tall, red-head, perfect body. She looks kinda like you, Rem."
"Weeeeeirrrd." He laughed, "Ok, well, not that much. Her hair does, at least." I smiled as I finished painting my left foot's toe nails. Harrison cleared his throat, "So," he said, and I geared myself up for something bad, "How's... um... how's the nibbling?" I stopped mid-painting and stared at my stubby fingernails. "It's stopped. For the most part." I could hear Harrison's sigh of relief through the phone and I furrowed my eyebrows. "Well," he said, "I'll talk to you tomorrow." I nodded, putting the cap back on my nail polish, "Yea. Bye."
"Bye, sis." Harrison hung up and I once again looked at my fingernails. They were starting to grow out a tiny bit. Thought I could plainly see the stunted growth of my middle finger on my left hand and my index finger on my right, as I had slipped up and bit off the top layer of both finger nails. None of nails were over the top of my fingers yet, but now those two were not even close. I sighed and glanced at the clock. 4:57. Mom should be home soon.
"Juan called me," Lindsay said giddily as she ran up to Gabrielle and me during lunch period. "Who?" Gabby asked, wrinkling her nose. "Juan! You know! That dreamy guy I met at camp?" I laughed, "Oh right," I said in a mocking tone, "that dreamy guy met at bible camp." Gabby laughed and Lindsay rolled her eyes, "That is so not the point." Gabby said, "So what is the point?" and Lindsay started talking about how Juan had called her, but I didn't quite catch everything they said because as I looked up from examining my nails, stopping just before biting one, I saw Nick. He was walking with his head ducked, as usual, through the hallway. He looked up just in time to make eye contact with me, and I almost expected him to half-smile, but I wouldn't know even if he did, because he immediately ducked his head again and walked past me. I turned my head for a second, watching him walk away, then quickly turned back, hoping Lindsay hadn't seen. She had, of course, as she walking backwards in front of us, droaning on about Juan. She looked over my shoulder to see what I had been looking at. I knew the only person in that part of the hallway was Nick. Still, I hoped that someone would step out and make it look like I was glancing at them, instead. Because I knew if Lindsay saw that I had looked at Nick, she would never shut up about it. But, surprising me completely, Lindsay looked over my shoulder, most likely seeing Nick, glanced at me for a split second, (in which time my cheeks burned so much I felt like they might fall from my face to the ground in a pile of ash,) and then turned back to Gabby and continued on with her story about Juan. Gabby noticed this exchange and looked over her shoulder, but just as she did a crowd of people stepped out of the quad, intercepting her view of Nick. She let it rest and turned back to Lindsay, and I listened to Lindsay's story carefully but was not able to process a single thing she said, so in shock was I that she hadn't commented on my glance at Nick at all.
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