September, Week 2, Thursday, 2012

Ben tapped the back of his hand on the doorframe before strolling into the classroom. Carter glanced up over the rubric he was tinkering with. He tossed back a handful of the peanuts that were serving as his lunch, then extended the pack to Ben. The younger man declined and took a seat closest to the desk.

“You talked to Siob recently?”

Carter made a show of focusing on his work. “Not since we got into an argument last week, and she told me to go to hell.”

Ben made a thoughtful noise. “So I guess you haven’t heard.”

“Heard what?”

“Mac griped to Molly, who called Alicia, who cornered me, to find out if it was true Siob broke up with McGillicutty.”

Carter’s hand froze over the paper. Ben made another thoughtful noise. The older coach took a controlled breath.

“Why don’t you go ask him?”

“Figured you’d be more interested.”

“Why would you think that?”

Ben crossed his arms on the back of the chair. “Alright, look. We all kind of had our heads up our asses in high school. But nobody who can explain the laws of thermodynamics to a bunch of twelfth graders could possibly be that stupid. You know exactly why I’m here.”

Carter tapped his pen on the desk and stared the other man down. “And?”

“You going to do something about it?”

He was absolutely going to do something about it. What, he didn’t know. As soon as the announcement left Ben’s mouth, memories of her spread across his desk swamped him. The last few days had been torture, waiting to see what she would do.

“Maybe.”

Ben rolled his eyes. Carter sighed.

“How much do you know anyway?” he demanded. The whole everybody knowing more than him thing was beginning to grate. “Because I didn’t have a goddamn clue until—”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. You didn’t know?”

“No! She never said a word. How the hell was I supposed to—”

“Dude, a woman shouldn’t have to slap you across the face with a love letter. But she pretty much did. Did you see how short her skirts were sophomore year? What about the fact she traded favors with people until she could get a locker near yours? Or all those Tuesdays she conveniently missed the bus? Do you think she made herself the third wheel so much because she was dying to hang out with Mac? You cannot possibly be that stupid,” he repeated.

After a moment of silence, Ben closed his eyes and shook his head. “Unbelievable. Granted, without you around to impress, I’d hazard she had a much better junior and senior year. As did a lot of the guys.”

Carter glowered at him.

“Right. So are you going to ask her out or not?”

“Get out of my classroom, Casey.”

“Excellent. I’ll let Alicia know.”