Page 73 of Scarred Crown

“Oh,” she says and straightens in her chair. “Aren’t you partnering with Jules?”

“Julia isn’t here.” I shrug. “Yes or no?”

“Yes.” She scoots back and scoops up her things from her friends.

They all exchange smirks and raised eyebrows as though one debate class is going to lead to something more. I’m still dating Vicky, even if it’s more like, I’m still having sex with Vicky. Our conversations are superficial, but that’s fine with me. My heart’s under lock and key.

Bex settles in beside me, and the teacher starts writing names and assigning debate groups on the board just as Julia flies in the door.

She rushes over to me, tucking her long hair behind her ears. “Sorry I’m late.”

I lean back in my chair and tap my pen on my notebook. “It’s fine. I paired up with Bex.”

“With Bex?” Julia rocks back on her heels and confusion mars her features.

“You weren’t here.” I raise my hand. “Ms. Kurusanather, is there someone who needs a partner? Julia doesn’t have one.”

She gapes at me, but I’m not changing my plans because she couldn’t get here on time. Her last class of the day is literally two doors down. She had to actively dick around to be this late.

“Martin.” The teacher gestures to one of my soccer teammates in the corner who is about as bright as a bag of rocks. Great guy to drink with but a terrible debate partner. His parents must have forced him to take this club. Half the time I’m not even sure he knows what’s going on. As a general rule, he’s stoned after lunch. She’ll have to do all the work in that partnership. He’s dead weight.

Julia shoots me a dirty look, but she hefts her messenger bag onto her shoulder and trudges over to Martin.

“Did you catch that, Nick?” Bex turns from the front of the room to me.

I’ve been busy watching Julia get settled with Martin, and I have no idea what Bex wishes I heard.

“Nope,” I admit.

“We’re against assisted suicide.” She opens her laptop and connects to the school Wi-Fi. “We definitely got the harder side of this one.”

I check the board and see we’ve been paired with Julia and Martin on the opposite side. Awesome. I rub my head and get down to work. We’ve got twenty minutes to construct our opening speeches, come up with questions to dismantle the opposition, and decide who’s leading between the two of us.

When our time is up, Bex and I move over to the table where Julia and Martin are situated.

Julia gives her opening speech, and I write a flurry of notes to poke holes in her argument. All the groups are presenting at the same time since this is just practice, and the club is really only valuable toward the end of the school year when we travel to America and the UK for competitions. Until then, most of the debates are half-hearted.

When it’s my turn to cross-examine her, instead of throwing her a few soft balls, I go after her, systematically dismantling her argument. It’s an asshole move, and I can tell from Bex’s tense silence and Julia’s glare that I might have gone too far.

If she came late and then didn’t prepare well enough for her opponents, that’s not my fault.

At the end of the club period, Martin declares Bex and me the winners. Even he realizes his partner got crucified, and he wasn’t much of an opponent in the first place. Satisfied, I toss everything into my bag and head for the exit without waiting for Julia.

“Nick,” she calls from behind me, and her shoes flap against the hallway floor. “Wait up. Geez. Where’s the fire?”

“I have practice,” I toss over my shoulder.

“Come on. You can talk to me for five minutes. You flayed me in there. What was that about?”

“You weren’t prepared. Not my fault.” I don’t stop walking, and I don’t slow down.

She latches on to my arm and digs in her heels, making me slow to a stop.

“I’m going to be late.” I don’t hide my annoyance.

“So what?” Julia’s face is tight with frustration.

“Unlike you, I can’t always think of only myself. I understand that other people’s time is just as valuable as mine.”