Starcrossed by Brenda Hiatt Page A

to walk you home and it pissed me off. At him , I mean, so I was a real jerk to take it out on you.”  
    He said it in a rush, his eyes pleading for forgiveness—not that there was anything to forgive. But then I realized exactly what he’d said.
    “Wait. Sean said I asked him to walk me? That is so not true! He insisted, even after I told him not to.”
    Rigel started to glower, so I kept talking before my rosy vision of the future crumbled completely.
    “It’s just because the O’Garas are all about me having to be protected and stuff. Really. It wasn’t like, ‘walk a girl home,’ or anything like that.”  
    I believed that, didn’t I? I willed Rigel to believe it, too—and his frown eased a little bit.
    “Okay. I didn’t really think you’d asked him. I should have known he just said it to needle me. But . . . why would he do that if he doesn’t like you?”
    I shrugged. “I don’t know what’s going on in his head. But honestly, he hasn’t come on to me at all, I swear.”
    Finally, Rigel smiled. “I guess I can let him live, then. Though sometimes I wonder if you’d notice if a guy did come on to you.”
    I smiled back, my insides finally warming the way they normally did when I was with Rigel. “If I don’t notice, does it really matter?”
    He gave my hand a squeeze and I reveled in the wonderful rush it gave me— so much better than that stupid tingle I got from Sean.  
    “I guess not. C’mon,” he said, still smiling, “let’s get to class.”

    Now that I’d smoothed things over, I was able to relax and enjoy Rigel’s nearness during my next two classes. It was clear Rigel still didn’t like Sean, but maybe my fantasy of us eventually hanging out with him and Molly wasn’t completely impossible. It would just take a little more peacemaking on my part. Maybe I could get Molly to help, too.
    I headed to lunch hand in hand with Rigel with that goal in mind, but we hadn’t even entered the lunch line when Sean came up to us, a tense look on his face. Molly was hovering nervously behind him.
    “Hey. Rigel,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about what you said this morning and I think we need to talk. Any chance we go someplace more private?”
    Rigel shot me a quick, concerned frown then nodded. “Sure. Courtyard?”
    “That’ll be fine. See you there in five.” Sean stalked off toward an empty table but Molly, trailing behind him, gave us a backward, worried glance. Which of course started me worrying.
    “What was that about?” I demanded. “What did you and Sean talk about this morning? Is this just about him walking me home or is something else going on?”
    “I’m not sure.” Rigel sent a glare Sean’s way. “But it’s probably time we settled things.”
    “What, like, ‘let’s settle this outside?’ No way. You two are not going to—”
    Rigel patted my arm reassuringly, which didn’t reassure me at all. “Don’t worry, M. I’m sure we can keep things . . . civilized. I just need to make it clear to him how things stand, that’s all.”  
    He grabbed a tuna sandwich and a carton of chocolate milk and I did the same, except skim milk instead of chocolate. I kept glancing over to where Sean and Molly were sitting, just the two of them, trying to hear what she was saying to him. She looked really earnest about whatever it was, but they were speaking too softly for me to pick their words out of the rest of the cafeteria noise.
    Rigel and I went to our usual table, but he barely nodded at the others, just wolfed down his lunch and stood back up less than two minutes later.  
    “I’ll let you know how it goes,” he said to me.
    Ignoring Bri and Deb’s questioning looks, I watched him head for the door, then saw Sean get up a second later to follow him out. Molly immediately came over to our table, still looking worried.  
    “What’s going on with Rigel?” Bri asked just as Molly got there.  
    I was trying to decipher the same thing from Molly’s