Waterways Read Online Free Page B

Jenny’s older sister’s best friend,” Sal said, stretching his lanky form and curling his tail up behind him. “So what did she say?”
    Kory dropped into his seat. “She said she didn’t understand why I didn’t write poems like that to her.”
    “That’s all? That’s weak.”
    “That and Chris Stafford asked her to the prom and she said yes.”
    “Stafford?!”
    “Yeah.”
    Sal shook his head, unable to muster any more words. “Freakin’ Stafford,” he said.
    “Yeah.” Kory saw one of his Warcraft buddies come in and waved to him across the room. Jason waved back and went to sit with Dev. The two of them were hardcore gamers, and though he enjoyed playing with them, they didn’t consider him dedicated. He sometimes hung out with them; they were nice enough in small doses.
    “Hey, Sal,” he said into the silence. “Say I bumped into a girl at the pool, and she… slipped and banged her knee. If I bought her coffee after, and then asked for her phone number, you think she’d think I was hitting on her?”
    His friend turned to him with a grin. “Did you get the phone number?”
    “Uh… yeah.”
    Sal punched him on the shoulder. “Back on the horse already!”
    “Ow.” Kory grinned. “C’mon, would she think I was hitting on her?”
    “Heck, yeah,” Sal said. “But if she gave you her number, she didn’t mind. You didn’t call her yet, did you?”
    “No. But what if she thought I was just being friendly, like I said she should give me her number so I could check up on her knee?”
    Sal laughed. “She wasn’t, like, thirteen, was she?”
    “No!”
    “Then she knew and she didn’t mind. So here’s what you do. Call her tomorrow night. Not tonight, that’s still too soon. See if she’s free Friday night. Me and Debbie will go to the park with you. What species is she? Otter?”
    “Uh, fox.” Too slow to think of another lie.
    Sal cocked his head. “Fox? At the pool? It’s not Sharisse, is it? Please tell me it’s not Sharisse.”
    “It’s not Sharisse.”
    “Good. So who is it? Gina’s dating that tod from Westgate, Ellen’s seeing Jim Brush, and Tanya Torick is dating that foreign exchange student, the fennec. Not one of them, right?”
    “No, she, uh, goes to Hilltown P.S.”
    Sal raised his eyebrows. “She was at Caspian?”
    “No. I went to the municipal pool. Just to get away.”
    Geoff Hill, a large raccoon, stepped into the room and ambled back to them. “Oh, great,” Sal muttered. “Just ignore him.”
    “I know,” Kory muttered back.
    “Hey, Rainbow,” Geoff said in a falsetto, and the class tittered. “I got a pome for ya. ‘Roses are red, violets are blue, who’s the biggest wuss in school? it’s you!’ Har har!” He dropped into his seat behind the two of them, still laughing at himself.
    The sad part, Kory thought, was that several of the rest of the class were chuckling along with him. He sank down in his seat.
    “Asshole,” Sal muttered. Kory shrugged. “Don’t worry. They’ll forget it pretty soon.”
    “Not while Deffenbauer has it posted in the hallway cabinet.” 
    “We could bust it…” Sal shut his mouth as their teacher walked in, and opened his math textbook. “So… did you do the homework?”
    They talked about school while Kory thought about what Sal had said. So Samaki had been hitting on him—and by giving him his phone number, Kory had effectively said, “Sure, stud, let’s get it on.” Well, it was nothing a phone call wouldn’t clear up, he was sure. The fox was friendly enough, and once he heard it was all a misunderstanding, he’d happily go on his way. Maybe they could even stay friends. Samaki didn’t seem as obnoxious or predatory as most of the gay people he’d heard about.
    That night, though, when he called up the fox’s entry on his cell phone, he was unaccountably nervous. What was he going to say? “Sorry, I’m not gay?” What if Samaki wasn’t gay? He paced back and forth in his room, and just