Chapter 75 - Picture Show

                                    

                                          
Molly
"So, what exactly is the deal with Ronja?" I ask Paisley when we enter our English classroom.
Yes, I'm sick of wondering and speculating. I just want to know now and get it over with, but she is giving me a suspicious look. Great, this is exactly what I was hoping to get in answer.
Come on! Give me a break!
"Why?" she asks, tilting her head in that cheeky way she has and feeling uncomfortable, I turn my focus to the students poring into the classroom, milling about before finding their seats.
Why indeed...
"I'm just wondering if the snow princess might think that I'm trying to come between her and her man. I don't want to cause ructions." That is at least partially true.
Paisley's level of suspicion is steadily growing; it now includes a mocking grin. Instead of going to her side of the room, she plops herself down at the desk next to mine, Bob's desk. I see him enter the classroom, pause and blink in surprise, and then he resigns himself to taking a seat at her desk instead. I don't think it makes much difference to him where he sits.
Besides, people don't generally cross Paisley. I now know that if he had a problem with switching desks, she would probably just sit at her assigned seat without giving him grief about it.
I don't think Bob knows that.
"Tan is not her man... I've reserved her for Jake," she tells me, giving me a look as if she thinks I'm a first-class idiot... or a dope-smoking junky that's having a bad trip.
"What?" I laugh. Paisley is making so much sense again. "Do they know that?"
She gives a throaty laugh and shakes her head at me as if I asked the dumbest question in the history of questions. Yes, we're back to me being an idiot junky.
"Why do they need to know?"
I just blink my eyes at her, making her laugh even more until I'm chuckling too. She really is incorrigible.
"Well, this morning when I saw them in the parking lot, she and Tanner seemed... uhm... close..." I admit, feeling my cheeks flare up in answer to the discomfort I'm feeling right now. I'm alarmed when Paisley stops laughing, her eyes suddenly shying away from mine.
Oh, no!
"They're helping each other out with... an issue, that's all," she says, clearly unwilling to go into any detail. "She's strictly meant for Jake... and Tan... Tan's a mess, Molly. You should be careful."
"What do you mean?" That was not reassuring at all! "Will he do something to me?"
"No, of course not!" she snorts, giving me a horrified look. "Tan is an awesome guy! It's just..." She falls silent, chewing on her bottom lip, trying to decide what she should tell me, and I can understand that she wouldn't want to break her cousin's confidence and spill all his secrets. "He won't know love if it bit him in the ass, and you're too good for him... at least, that's what he'll be thinking because he doesn't value himself at all. Just do what you do, Betty, be kind to my cousin, but be careful."
"I am careful," I sigh, feeling a little depressed now. No, scrap that; I'm feeling very depressed now. "I know he'll never look twice at someone like me. He is always hanging out with busty bean poles."
Grunting, Paisley frowns a frown so deep, she could catch flies in it if she tried. "What are you talking about?!" she growls. "Those girls hang out with him; he doesn't hang out with them."
Oh, yes, that is completely different...
"And he is looking at you twice, more than twice! I just don't think he knows it, and if he does, he'll probably just shoot it down and run away, so it is better that he doesn't realise it... yet."