‘Three minutes, Duncannon.’ Tasmin Major swanned past, a friendly smile on her Nordic face, tapping her watch. ‘Geography waits for no one.’
‘I’ll be there, ‘ Marc threw after her, trailing Beth around behind the water fountains, tension rich in his deep voice. She ducked between the back wall of the library complex and some badly pruned shrubs into a rubble-filled clearing she’d never visited before. The place others came to do their smoking. Their deep-and-meaningful conversations. Their making-out.
The location got Marc’s attention completely. His steps slowed.
‘Beth?’
Her pulse beat thick and fast, high in her throat, reducing even further the space for her breath. She sucked in a few mouthfuls of air and forced them down as she turned to face him in the privacy of the little space.
‘What are we doing, Beth?’ His face was cautious. Closed. She curled her fingers into a ball behind her. ‘Does your boyfriend know you’re here?’
She stared at him, forcing air past her lips, hating how he’d taken to saying the word boyfriend. ‘Damien’s in fifth period.’
‘Where we should be. Or do grades mean less to you now that you hang with the beautiful people?’
Her eyes fell to the dirt he scuffed at his feet, heat invading her cheeks. ‘I needed to see you.’
‘You see me every day.’
In passing. ‘I needed to speak with you. ‘ She lifted her focus. ‘In private.’
A grey tinge came over him. His body straightened even more. Not for the first time, Beth noticed how broad he was getting. Those shoulders that had made the swim team captain seek him out a few months back. The way his jaw was squaring off. As if a switch had flipped on his sixteenth birthday and a man had started breaking out of the scrawny exoskeleton she knew as Marc. Maybe she’d left this too late …
Her stomach tightened.
‘You have to hide out to talk to me these days?’
She could have pretended to misunderstand but Marc knew her too well. ‘I don’t want to make trouble with you and Damien.’
‘I’m pretty sure McKinley’s already aware that we’re friends, Beth. I’ve known you since fourth grade.’
‘I don’t want … He might read into it.’
‘Then you might want to choose another location for this conversation. You do know what The Pit gets used for, right?’
Beth swallowed hard, her eyes dropping to his lips for a second. She forced them up. ‘I just wanted privacy.’
The second bell rang and urgent footsteps sprinting into classrooms petered out. Everything around them fell silent. Marc widened his feet and crossed his arms across his chest. ‘You got it. Every other student at Pyrmont High is now in class.’
‘I’m changing streams,’ she blurted before she lost her nerve. ‘I’m switching to B.’
Marc stared at her, his nostrils flaring. ‘You’re changing out of the classes we’ve been taking all year? Into McKinley’s stream?’
‘Not because of Damien—’
‘Right.’
‘I want less science. More arts.’
‘Since when?’
‘Since now.’
‘B-stream is soft, Beth.’
‘It has Literature and Philosophy in it. They’re unientrance subjects.’
‘You’re switching to avoid me.’
The rock in her gut doubled in size. ‘No.’
Yes.
‘Why?’
A throbbing started up behind her eyes. ‘This has nothing to do with you—’
‘Bull. You’ve been backing off from me since term started. What’s going on? No room for a mate in your busy new social schedule, Ms Popularity?’
‘Marc—’
‘I may not be as smart as you, Beth, but I can see which way the wind is blowing. Is McKinley threatened by me?’
She shook her head. Damien’s field of vision was far too narrow for him to notice how Marc was filling out, growing up. He had way too much going on in his life, in his world, to worry about what some science geek was up to. It never occurred to him that Beth would see Marc as anything other than a buddy. An old buddy. The expendable buddy she’d had until he came along.
And now Damien just expected that she’d switch camps. Just like she switched streams. But since that fed right into what she knew she had to do …
‘So that’s it, huh? That’s what you wanted to tell me—that you’re switching classes?’
Beth struggled to take in a breath. He made it sound so minor. But still so ugly. Her words grew tight. ‘It means we’re only going to have one class together.’
‘I know. The best thing about B is that it means only seeing McKinley once a week.’ He glared at her. ‘You’re that desperate to get away from me?’
She would like nothing more than to have Marc Duncannon in her life for ever. But, as it turned out, that wasn’t going to work. Guilt tore at her insides and thick shields shot up into place. ‘The world revolves around the sun, Marc, not you.’
His face paled and the guilt turned inward, digging into the flesh around her heart. The truth was Marc Duncannon revolved around Beth Hughes and always had. Or, more rightly, the two of them rotated in a complicated, connected orbit. Something both their parents felt was unhealthy.
For him.
If it was just his nut-job mother who thought it, Beth wouldn’t have given it another thought. But her own mother agreed and so did her father. And Russell Hughes was never, ever wrong. After a long and tearful conversation, Beth gave him her word that she’d cool things down with Marc for a while. See what happened. And she’d never broken her word yet.
‘If you’re not doing it to be closer to McKinley and you’re not doing it to be away from me then why are you doing it?’
‘Why can’t I just be doing it for me? Because I want to?’
‘Because you don’t make decisions like that, Beth. You never have. You plan stuff. You commit.’
‘So I’ve changed my mind. It happens.’
Not to you. It was written loud and clear all over his face. Could he tell she was lying?
‘What about uni? Biology?’
A fist squeezed deep in her chest. Damn him for not just letting her go. Why was he pushing this so hard? Forcing her to hurt him more. ‘That was your dream, not mine.’
He blinked, then stared. ‘After all this time? You’ve been on board with that for three years.’
She shrugged, faking ambivalence she absolutely did not feel. ‘Seemed like a good enough idea at the time.’
‘Until something better came along? Or should I say someone?’
‘This is not about Damien. I told you.’ He stepped closer and Beth retreated towards the library wall. When had he grown that big?
‘I know what you told me. I just don’t believe it.’ He towered over her. ‘We’ve been friends for eight years, Beth. Half our lifetimes.