Day Ten

Sitting in class, I couldn't keep my head from spinning around the events that had transpired the past few days. There were too many loose ends to tie up, so many things left unresolved, and many conversations that needed to happen to organize my thoughts once again.

In English, Mark and Gwyn had been more lovey-dovey than usual, hardly paying me much attention other than saying hello and goodbye. Gwyn shot me a look at the beginning of class, reminding me of our conversation last night, but otherwise, I'd barely seen or heard a peep.

Even more strange--Mark had completely ignored Damon and the return of his camera equipment--solely focused on the smiling, hair-flipping blonde in front of him. If only he'd heard our talk yesterday.

If I wanted to have a serious conversation with him, I needed to wait until we could be one-on-one. Maybe at lunch, if Gwyn could take her perfectly-manicured fingers off of him.

Gathering my things, I headed out of the building only to be held up by Damon's thundering voice behind me.

"Zoe," he called, and I turned to face him. "Do you have a minute?"

"Hi, um," I looked down at my phone to check the time. I only had a few minutes until my next class started, but I could always ask a couple of friends to cover for me. "Yeah, what's up?"

He tilted his head to the side and I nodded, following him around a corner out of sight from the exodus of peers leaving our English class. Mark's voice stood out among all of the others as he laughed with Gwyn, slowly fading into the mix as they walked farther away.

Once we were out of earshot, Damon lowered his camera and double-checked the area before turning back to me.

"How're you?" He cleared his throat, eyes glancing anywhere but me.

"Much better, thank you." I said, anticipating more from this shifty secret conversation than small talk. "How are you?"

"Been better." he said, furrowing his pierced eyebrows together. "Tell me, how good are you with a camera?"

I cocked my head at him, glancing down at the mass of technology in his gargantuan hands. "I mean, I'm not the best-"

"Can you press an on and off button?"

I nodded, letting out a laugh. "Yeah, I think I could manage that. Why do you ask?"

He shifted on his feet, glancing around again before his dark eyes met mine. "I need your help with something."

I squinted up at the giant, whose expression was a mixture of apprehension and determination as the silence waved between us.

"Hmm," I pursed my lips. "Okay, go on."

"Sounds weird, but I wouldn't ask if I could do it myself." he sighed, "Something sketchy is definitely going on with Gwynn Ryann Harris. I know you guys are friends, so I was hoping you could do some digging. You know, girl talk, or whatever."

I blinked up at the giant, right then and there making the decision to play dumb. Maybe she wasn't my top priority compared to Mark, but she definitely ranked higher on the list than Damon.

I shook my head, "I don't get it. Why are you asking about Gwyn?" There had to be another explanation. "Do you have a thing for her, or something?"

"Don't be daft." he scoffed, but I could tell it made him uncomfortable as his eyes fleeted away. "It's not like that."

"Oh, sure." I teased, rolling my eyes at him. "Why else would you be asking me about Gwyn?"

"Gorveau asked me." he sighed in exasperation. "He wants to know what the deal is with her and Lisp's relationship. You can take it or leave it, but I'm telling you, the chick's not my type."

I tried to wrap my head around why Mr. Gorveau was asking Damon about Mark's relationship. Even if there was something strange going on, it really wasn't his business--especially because this had nothing to do with the chemistry test--he had no good reason.

"Gorveau put you up to this?" I crossed my arms, shaking my head. "Why would he do that?"

"Why does Gorveau do anything?" Damon laughed, shrugging his massive shoulders. "I didn't ask. Long as I get paid at the end of the day, s'all that matters."

Of course Damon was getting paid.

As much as I wanted to know more about the guy's salary, I shelved the thought. It was a conversation for another time.

"So, why am I being involved in this? Why can't you just ask Gwyn yourself?"

"Because she trusts you." Damon said, as if it were obvious. "I barely know the girl. If I tried to talk to her, it'd be weird as hell."

"So you want me to do it." I pursed my lips. "I don't know how comfortable I feel gossiping about my best friend's girlfriend. Especially since my teacher is the one asking."

"Don't call it gossip. Call it," he paused, looking to the side and back at me. "Helping a guy out. Helping a friend out."

Well, I wouldn't go that far.

"I don't know, Damon. I don't feel good about this." I took a step back, shaking my head. "Maybe you should ask someone else."

"Wait," he huffed, exhaling loud. I stopped in my tracks, looking up at him as he shifted from foot to foot. "There's something in it for you."

"Okay." I tilted my head. "Like what?"

"If you can find something on Gwyn, I'll persuade Gorveau to let Mark back into the play."

"Really?" I raised my eyebrows. "You'd be able to do that?"

"He owes me a solid." he said, nodding. "It'd only be fair."

More than anything, I wanted Mark in the play. We'd been working on it together since the beginning of the semester, and he needed it to distract him from falling back into his old, less productive habits. Especially with everything going on in his home life.

"He does make a great Mercutio." I smiled, a little bit of hope creeping up inside. If I could get Mark back into the play, it might be worth it to share one of Gwyn's tiny little secrets.

Maybe not about her 'friend date' at Kyoto's last night, but something else.

The bell rang, echoing throughout the quiet halls as everyone settled into their next classrooms. I was already a few minutes' walk from my next class, so we needed to wrap this up before I was marked absent.

Understanding the urgency, Damon slung his backpack off his shoulder and unzipped it, handing over a pocket-sized camera.

I spun the black box in my hands, familiarizing myself with the Nikon label on the front and the various buttons around the frame. It was embarrassing, but I had no idea how to use it.

"Listen, all's you gotta do is get some kinda proof that Gwyn's up to something. Doesn't matter if it's a pic, or a video, or a recording. Don't care." he said hurriedly, zipping up his bag and shouldering it.

It was a strange notion to film one of my friends, but hopefully, with Gwyn's utter lack of awareness whatsoever, it wouldn't be too tough to get away with it.

"When do you need this back?"

"Sooner rather than later." he said. "Tomorrow would be good."

I shrugged, blowing out a big exhale. "Okay, I'll try my best."

"Godspeed." he smirked, turning away and looking back at me over his shoulder. "But, seriously, thanks."

I gave him a close-lipped smile and he disappeared around the corner, leaving me with a device I'd have to google the instructions for and a clump of mixed emotions tangled in my stomach.

----

My attention was shot for the rest of the day. The only thing on my mind was brainstorming what kind of information I could get about Gwyn, or from Gwyn, in order to get Mark back into the play.

Although she was among the most popular girls at WBHS, she kept her cards close to her chest when it came to anything personal. Eve if I were to ask around, I'd barely scratch the surface.

I needed something small enough that wouldn't upset her if Damon knew, but big enough to use as leverage against Gorveau. If I could avoid reading into her 'friend date' last night, I would. I didn't want to exploit Gwyn--she was my friend, after all. At the end of the day, my loyalties were with her over Damon.

The lunchroom was crowded and noisy as I made my way through the line, grabbing a quick salad before heading over to my usual table.

Mark and Gwyn were chatting amongst themselves until I sat down. Gwyn snapped up and gave me a full, red-lipped smile.

"Hi, girlie." she chirped.

"Hey, guys." I smiled at them, opening my plastic salad container. A few moments went by and silence remained between the three of us as we ate our lunches.

I glanced up at Mark, who gave me a tight-lipped smile. I raised my eyebrows, asking him to break through the tension, but he kissed his teeth and looked down at his food.

Something was off.

In an attempt to distract myself, I looked around the cafeteria and caught Zak's blue gaze from across the room. He was flocked by Melanie and Andrea, who were chatting away, but his eyes remained on mine as he gave me a wide smile that brought tightness to my chest. I smiled and looked down at my lettuce, stabbing it indignantly. Maybe I should have sat with him, instead.

"So, how's that project going?" Mark finally broke the silence, looking over at Gwyn. "Spanish, right?"

"Mucho bien-o," Gwyn laughed, her green eyes darting over at me for a fleeting moment before snapping back up to look at Mark. "I can't speak Spanish, but it's going really great, actually. I just have to finish the final touches on it after school, and then it'll be marvelous-o."

"But we made plans, remember?" Mark put his fork down, cocking an eyebrow at the blonde. "We were supposed to have a picnic at North Park."

"Oh," she puckered her lips, tilting her head at him, "But, I thought you had rehearsal after school."

Mark's eyes fell as he exhaled a deep breath. "Um, yeah, about that," His eyes looked up at me then over at Gwyn. "I'm not in the play anymore."

Gwyn seemed genuinely surprised as she reached over to rub his back. "What? Babe, what happened?"

"It doesn't matter." he smiled, shaking his head.

I wanted to tell him that it was going to be okay, but it would defeat the whole purpose of my mission. I gave him a sympathetic smile and squeezed his arm instead.

"Mark, I'm so sorry." I said. "That really sucks."

"Yup," he said, popping the 'p'. "I'll be fine, though. Really." He looked over at Gwyn. "I'm just bummed that we can't go on our date now."

She looked between his eyes and brought a hand to his cheek, giving him a genuine smile. "Well, we don't have to cancel. I'll just finish the project super quick and we can have our little picnic party, okay?"

Mark nodded, "Okay." Gwyn threw her arms around him and he shot me a look, one that I couldn't entirely decipher. I didn't want to read it into too much, but it almost seemed like he knew something was going on with his girlfriend.

I really hoped there wasn't.