Breaking Her Rules

Chapter 32

I can already tell our major assignment for Advanced English class is going to be big, so a few of us head to the library after school one day to do some group research. Kate and a couple of the other girls start pulling books from the shelves, so Watson and I head over to one of the computers to look through online databases for information. Watson and I still haven't had a proper conversation since he kissed me at the party, but he seems to have pushed the thoughts from his mind. I even overheard from someone that he was going on a date with a year eleven girl on the weekend.

I look over the task sheet for our assignment and give Watson some key words to look up. He starts searching and browsing through journal articles for a while, with me looking over his shoulder. When my legs get tired I pull up a chair to sit next to him, and it's then he turns to me and says, 'So what were you doing the other day?'

'Hmm?' I ask, not looking up from a journal article we're skimming through.

'I was talking to Dan,' Watson says. 'I just happened to mention that I put my car in because I backed it into a pole in a car park.'

'Oh really?' I say. 'That's unlucky.'

'Yeah, made a huge dent in it,' Watson says. 'It's going to cost me a few hundred dollars, which is annoying.'

'Yeah, your poor car,' I say. I pull open my notebook and start jotting down some notes from the article we're reading.

'Yeah,' Watson says. 'You know what's weird though?'

I look up at him. 'What?'

'Dan seems to think I picked you up the other day and we went for a drive,' he says.

'Huh?'

'Well that's what Dan said; you went out after school and you told him I was picking you up.'

'Oh, yeah,' I say, tapping my pen against my notebook.

'But I didn't pick you up,' Watson says. 'The only reason Dan even mentioned it is because I told him I'd put my car in to get the dent out. He didn't think you would have lied to him, though.'

'Yeah, he must have been confused,' I say quickly. 'Julian came to pick me up. He's been feeling pretty miserable about this whole thing with Lexington. You know, so he just wanted to hang out a bit more and go for a drive to clear his head.'

'Right,' Watson says quietly. He grabs the mouse from me and scrolls through the article as if he's looking for something. He highlights a meaningless sentence. 'I actually asked Julian about it. I figured maybe Dan had it wrong and you'd told him Jules was picking you up. But Jules didn't know anything about it.'

I frown at Watson. 'What, you think I'm hiding something from you?'

'I don't know, Em, are you?' Watson asks.

'This is ridiculous,' I say. 'Do you know how crazy you sound? You're asking all my friends to check where I am at all times of the day?'

'You're being awfully defensive about this,' Watson says, raising his eyebrows.

'I had a date,' I say. 'I just didn't want Dan to know. And honestly, I didn't want you to know either, okay? I'm sorry.' I lower my voice and glance back at the other students in the library.

Watson leans back in his chair. 'Knew it. It's fine, Em. I'm not upset or anything; you don't have to hide it from me. So who was the date?'

'Oh, you don't know him,' I say, and I look down at my notebook to avoid looking into Watson's eyes. I wrack my brain, trying to think of a believable date. The last thing I want Watson to know is that I was hanging out with Lucas.