Indiana, Invincible - Chapter 4, Part 2

by Maryam in A Land Of Desert And Sun

(Indiana's POV)
The Next Morning, First Period

The next time I see Liam Rheston, it's the first period, and he comes in, flanked on either side by anxious-looking LR's, who are rapidly questioning him. He sits down, not really looking at them, and for a moment toys with something on his desk. I exchange looks with Enoch, and when I look back to Rheston, he's meeting my eyes, and the very expression on his face and in his eyes are stormy. When it gets to his head that he's actually swapping gazes with me, it takes him a second, but he quickly sneers and looks the other way.
This is Liam Rheston. Cool. Calm. Even if it IS Liam Rheston, who I consider to be completely unpredictable, this is weird behavior.
But what do I care, right?
Right.

Several Periods Later

OK. Now I am very intrigued. And it's hard for me to admit that. Really.

Instead of raising his hand like he normally does and answering with smugness, whenever a teacher asks him something, he jumps up, says something exceptionally loud and clear, but in a snarl and with an expression that would make a pit bull back off. Then, he sits down again, and the poor teacher is only left to wonder why in heaven their dear Mr. Rheston is behaving in such a strange way, and, rather belatedly, mutter something about him being excused to sit down.
I can hardly keep myself from scrutinizing him, and that, I may assure you, is also a pretty diffucult thing to admit. But hey, curiousness is a human virtue! Or vice. Whichever way it goes, but I am perfectly aware that, in this case, it signifies the latter.
Enoch and Jenny are walking along with me, and we're discussing this strange behavior of Rheston's:
'He's mental,' Enoch says, shaking his head, 'it finally got to him.'
'Well, there's one good thing about it,' Jenny ventures hesitantly, 'at least he won't bother you anymore.' I grin appreciatively at her, and shrug. 'You're right,' I say, 'but it's just too odd! You've known him since he was a little kid' - 'well, you could say that,' Enoch interjects grimly, 'and you know this isn't his normal behavior? Or is it?'
'My dear Indiana, if I knew that, there would be no way I'd be calling him mental in front of' -
'HiIi!'
Enoch breaks off abruptly as this voice that sounds like it's the patented one of a Barbie commercial interrupts him. All three of us turn, and are face-to-face with Susmi Razz.
Oh, God, help, I think to myself, it's HER. I've never had the pleasure of really speaking to her, but she's another Gina prototype. Y'know, the kind that AH-DORES Liam Rheston and show it oh-so-subtly. She doesn't beling to the LR, though, rather to Jamila's group - it's why I've never spoken to her.
'Hi,' I answer back, and she grins. Actually, to be technical, her smile spreads, because those pearly whites were visible long before I turned around.
'Do you mind if I talk to you - personally?'
She squints her dark-brown almond-shaped eyes, flips back her long hair (it's in a ponytail, but a low one, so she can flip it back any time she wants) that looks like it's made of black silk threads, and fixes me with a questioning stare. I shrug, only now noticing the slight, pale boy behind her. She notices where I look and turns, and then she turns back to me, her smile even wider.
'Oh, this is my boyfriend, Milo!'
He smiles bashfully and puts up his hand in the semblance of a wave. I wave a semblance of one back.
'SoOo!' she turns back to me (with another hair-flip), 'Could we possibly, like, go somewhere to you know, somewhere private?'

'Look, Indiana,' she says confidentially, in the library, where we've gone, 'I've always liked you.' 'Really?' 'Of COURSE!' Another Miley-Cyrus-esque smile; another flip. 'But there's just one teeny problem.'
She demonstrates with her fingers the size of this 'teeny'.
'You and the adorable, gorgeous, if I do say so myself,' another grin, 'Liam Rheston.'
'Well, what about me and him?'
I don't mention the existence of the boyfriend, who's waiting outside.
Poor guy.
'It's just, you know...'
Her voice trails off, and she looks at me, again a bit inquisitively, when a song of Chad Michael Murray's begins blasting out; Susmi looks at me apologetically, fishes her red flip-up out of her bag, and smoothly puts it to her ear.
'Hello?'
'Well, no.'
'You're not SERIOUS, man!'
'OK, OK. Be right there!'
She hangs up and looks at me. 'Indiana, I'm so sorry, but I've really got to run! Social life; so hectic, isn't it?'
Susmi does not wait for my reply.
'Talk to you tommorow, OK?' she says, turning her head to look at me, smile, and wave one more time before disappearing.
I sigh, slowly get up, and prepare to exit, when my eye meets something peculiar.
It's Liam Rheston. Sitting. At a library table. Scowling, and whether this scowl is meant for the book in front of him or Gina next to him, I can't tell. In any case, as I watch, he slams the book shut and stalks out of the library, leaving poor hapless Gina to run out after him.
OK. I admit it. I'm curious.
And seeing he's left that book on the table he was sitting at, why not look at it?