Tadhg

"Do you wanna trade lunches with me, Caoi?" I ask her. By the time I make it through the line they are out of any decent lunchmeat. I threw together this sandwich but I'm not any more interested in it now than I was when I was making it. That said, Caoilainn loves this stuff which is why, maybe on some level, I made it in the first place.

"What do you have?" she asks me looking up from her own lunch tray. I can see a pack of sunflower seeds on it along with chicken strips and honey mustard dip.

"Fluffernutter sandwich. You want it?" I ask offering it to her.

"Mmm of course," she replies eagerly. "You know I love that. Here," she says handing me her chicken strips and the mustard. "trade me. I didn't even see this stuff when I was up in line." She then proceeds to eat the sandwich, closing her eyes likes she's just feasted on something decadent, and not a simple peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich. She moans with pleasure and then licks her bottom lip seductively.

I pause mid-dip with a strip and all thought leaves my head. Elvis, or in my case, Tadhg has left the building, folks*.

Kind of wishing I was that sandwich right about now.

Right. Ok, back to sanity.

I turn to my right as the weight on our lunch bench shifts. "What's up, Tadhg? How are you, Caoilainn?" It's Archer, and right behind him are Pete and Courtney. "Hey, girl," she calls out to Caoilainn.

"Hi, Courtney," Caoilainn responds. "What's going on, Archer? Pete?"

"You have practice later today, Tadhg?" Archer asks me.

"Yeah, why?" I reply. "What's up?"

"Nothing, just trying to see who'll be around after school and over the weekend. I was thinking about joining Pete and Courtney. They're going to the boardwalk this weekend and I was going to tag along. Always nice to have some other people with us, though, you know? No third wheel situation goin' on then, know what I mean?"

I look at Courtney who's giving Pete the evil eye. Hmm...trouble in paradise?

"But Courtney doesn't mind, right Court? You're cool with Archer or anyone else joining us, aren't you?" Pete asks her.

There's a slight hesitation in Courtney's response and she looks up at Caoilainn quickly before answering Pete with a fake, weak smile. "What do you think?"

"Ok, cool. I knew you'd agree," Pete says, turning back to all of us. "See? It's all good. Do you guys wanna join us?"

Caoilainn's the first to speak up. "Sorry, guys. I'm out. I have to teach this weekend."

I dip my nugget in the mustard and then bring it to my lips and lick the excess from the sides. I catch Caoilainn's eye in the process. She looks like she's in a trance. She's just staring at me. I wipe my chin. Did I drip some mustard on it?

"Caoi, is something wrong? Did I miss my mouth with the mustard or something?" I ask her.

Caoilainn shakes her head 'no' too quickly. "No, ah, no, no, it's nothing. I-nevermind."

Caoilainn turns back to face Courtney and they exchange another look. This time Courtney is trying to hide a smile under her chin. When I look back at Caoilainn she's widening her eyes and looking away. I can see a red blush on her cheeks. O...k-a-y...

"What about you, Tadhg?" I hear Pete say. Turning to him, I shake my head. "No can do, Pete. I'm tending bar at the club this weekend. It's too late to find a replacement and I know Ruari has something personal going on so he can't cover for me."

Caoilainn looks up at me. "He does?"

"Yeah, nevermind, it's nothing important," I explain. "Just something he wants to do. Don't worry about it."

Caoilainn purses her lips and shakes her head in acceptance.

"Hey, Caoilainn," Courtney says standing up. "I gotta go to the bathroom. Walk with me?"

Caoilainn gets up to go and I tell her I'll catch up with her later. At the same time Archer announces he needs to grab something from his locker before next period and heads out. Pete and I are left sitting at the table alone.

A few minutes goes by before Pete turns to me. "You think Courtney's really ok with Archer joining us this weekend?"

I look over to him and pop the last chicken nugget in my mouth. Swallowing, I reach for my water bottle and gulp some down before answering. "I don't know, Pete. She didn't say yes when you asked her if she minded."

"What do you mean?" he replies surprised. "You heard her. She said it was ok."

"No," I tell him. "What she said was, 'What do you think?' That's very different from saying, 'yes'."

"Yeah, but," Pete starts to say, and is cut off when Brody sits down.

"What I miss?" he says popping the top off his Gatorade before taking a chug.

"Tadhg thinks I messed up with Courtney," Pete responds rubbing the back of his neck.

"There you go again," I tell him. "Putting words in my mouth." I turn to Brody. "Back me up here. If you ask a girl a question and she answers you with another question what does that mean?"

Brody shoves some of the fries from the plate in front of him into his mouth before answering. Then he leans forward. "Dude, it means she's trying not to answer your question. Like, maybe you're not going to want to hear what she has to say."

Brody picks up a long, wrinkled fry and waves it at Pete. "But you'd better find out what she's avoiding, Pete. Otherwise if you don't find out you're gonna be in a heepload of trouble with her."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, man," Brody says between bites.

"Shit," Pete curses. "I gotta go. I'll see you guys later."

Pete stands up and jogs out of the cafeteria presumably to find Courtney. I just laugh. "Poor Pete."

"What're you laughing at, Tadhg?" Brody says to me looking off across the cafeteria. "Not like you're any better."

I stop smiling and turn towards Brody seriously. "What's that supposed to mean, Brody?"

He puts his hands up in the air, and noticing some ketschup on his index finger, grabs a napkin to wipe it off before responding. "Nothing, man, nothing."

"Bullshit," I say. "What are you talking about? I have girls eating out of the palm of my hand in this school."

Brody just starts laughing. "Yeah, I can see that." We both look up at Corrine as she walks by giggling and staring with her friends.

"Ok, so what's my problem, then?"

"You can't see the nose in front of your face, Tadhg," he teases, laughing. "You have all these girls hanging on your every whim and none of them know the real you. You keep them at arm's length. All accept one person."

"What?"

"Come on, man. Caoilainn," he says, standing up to go dump his trash and leave. "The one girl you want but are clueless at seeing in front of you."

I don't even respond before he continues on.

"First of all, the girl's in love with you-"

"No. She isn't, Brody," I say, interrupting him. "Caoilainn's in love with someone-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he mimicks me. "Some other dude. I know. You've told us all that 100 times but, hello, Tadhg, get a clue. There is no other guy, man. It's you."

"There's plenty of times when she's said things to you. And just like with Pete and Courtney she's probably even answered a lot of your questions with her own questions. You just haven't been paying attention."

"No, Caoilainn doesn't do that," I defend her standing up too. "Caoilainn isn't like that. When she has something to say she tells me. She doesn't play games with me like that."

"Listen, what if Coailainn wrote that Yule note about you? Ever think about that? You never even asked her.

And another thing, are you telling me there's never been a time when Caoilainn didn't tell you something?" Brody looks at me with a raised eyebrow and I want to punch the smirk right off his face.

"No, shithead. She's always honest with me," I reply and then ramble quietly under my breath. "Sometimes a little too honest..."

I wrack my brain to think back on anything I might have missed. "She's never-"

I sit back down on the bench with a thump stunned.

Oh, shit.

Caoilainn-

She-

Oh shit!

"Uh-huh," Brody responds, turning away to leave. "See what I mean?"

No freakin' way. It can't be. She doesn't still think? Oh, damn.

I am so much stupider than Pete.

___________________________

*"Elvis has left the building" is a quote first used in 1956 by Al Dvorin.

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