The Rift, Page 2

“A double date?”

  That’s what he’d been so excited to tell her about? Vero snapped the padlock shut on her locker and stomped toward the parking lot.

  “It’s for a friend of mine, maybe my best friend.” Pieter walked backward in front of her, his green eyes locked on hers. Pieter happened to call a lot of people his best friend. “Neil. You remember Neil, right?”

  Yes, she did. A plump Asian friend of Pieter’s with round glasses and round cheeks. She’d met him just a couple times. The name brought a vague unease. That’s right, video games. The guy couldn’t talk about anything else.

  “How could I forget him?”

  A small group of guys walking by waved to Pieter. He nodded back. Vero, who came up about to Pieter’s shoulders, curved an arm around his waist and tugged him along. They walked together out into the gentle fall sunlight.

  “Come on, he’s not that bad,” Pieter said. “Look, it’s just one night. The guy’s never had a girlfriend. Barely a date, even. I wanted to, you know, help him out.”

  Twenty-eight days together. Her happiest month in a long time. It seemed a bit soon for this kind of thing. They passed under the old oak, a tree that outdated South Obispo High by a couple centuries. Yellow, grassy hills rolled in the distance, and the rocky crag of Bishop’s Peak towered just a couple miles away.

  “We can hang out after, if it’s a train wreck,” Pieter said. “The worst dates always make the best stories anyways.”

  She laughed. “Yeah, sorry. Been a long week. Did you know Kristin broke up, again?”

  Pieter sighed and shook his head, waving back and forth the little gelled spikes of his brown hair. “Didn’t even know she was with someone.”

  “Yeah, it was a short one. Been texting her all week. You know how she gets.”

  “You’re a good friend for her.”

  He tugged her arm, and they sat in the grass with their backs against the old oak. The grass scratched against her legs. She swiped her hair over the front of her body to keep the dirt out. The new brown highlights were a little too light against her natural black.

  Pieter slipped his arm around her shoulder. His fingertips brushed her skin. “Let’s just hang out, okay? And we have today, right?”

  A couple girls came by and waved to Pieter; he waved back. Vero leaned a little closer. Sometimes the sheer number of people he knew got a bit overwhelming.

  “So… do I have to find someone for him?”

  He sounded offended. “You think I’d have any trouble with that?”

  “Who’s the lucky girl?”

  “Gloria. Gloria Stone. You know her?”

  “Name sounds familiar.”

  “She’s lived here about as long as I have. Nicest girl I’ve ever met… but not dated, that is. She’s had a really rough life. She needs someone, too.”

  Gloria sounded as desperate a case as Neil. “Can’t really say no to that, can I?”