I shrugged. “Nah, I can handle embarrassment pretty well.”
“Lucky you.”
I smiled softly at him. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
He nodded and shifted his black knight to another square on the chessboard. “I’m used to it.”
“Yeah, but it was cool what David just did,” one of the other guys piped up, still laughing.
“Right. Today. But tomorrow he’ll just be a big jackass again like the rest of them.”
A bucket of realisation flooded over me like heat. “Really? He’s a bully?”
The boy glanced at David, then shook his head; not a no, but maybe more like he was shaking it at himself, then went back to his game, ignoring me.
David turned quickly away then, dropping his head, tension making a stiff line across his shoulders.
“Is that true?” I sat back down in my spot.
“Really, Ara,” Emily said. “He sits with the jocks, but he’s not like them at all. Anymore.”
Anymore? I searched his face for a second, but he kept his gaze on the table between his wrists. Ryan and Alana looked back at their food, making sideways glances at each other. “So what’s the big deal, then?” I shrugged and looked at Emily. “Why are you all acting strange?”
Emily took a breath to speak, but David cut in. “Because I was a jackass, Ara.” He turned to me, and a flicker, resembling disgrace, fluttered under his eyelids. “When I first came to the school, I used to do stuff like that all the time.”
“Oh, okay. Well…” I blinked, studying the side of his face. “I still don’t get it. You’re not like that now, so—”
“I had hoped it might be some time before you learned of this. You know what they say—about first impressions.” David looked at me with those big, green eyes, and all I could think was how unfair it is that guys have thicker, darker lashes than girls.
“I doubt Ara’s first impression of you is that you’re a jackass, David,” Emily said.
My eyes went from her to David again, humour-laced confusion making them smaller. “Wait, you were worried about my first impression—of you?”
David exhaled a breath through his nose.
I wanted to laugh. “Um. I’ve already decided who I think you are and, David?” I looked over at the chess club boy. “What you did for that kid—it was really nice. Jackass-jocks, they don’t do things like that.”
“And neither do fragile, very breakable young girls.” He grew taller in his seat, his tone sharp.
I inhaled a huff of insult through my open mouth. How dare he? Fragile? Breakable? “I can take care of myself, thank you,” I scolded. “How’d you even know I was gonna throw it back at them?”
“I could tell—from the way you charged forward, guns blazing.”
“Really, Ara. You should avoid revenge throws when it comes to fruit at this school,” Emily warned.
“Yeah,” Ryan added. “We’ve had kids hospitalised with lemons in places they don’t belong.”
I cringed, hiding my disgust. “Well, thanks, but I’m fine. I know how to hold my own.”
“Sure. Until you hit the wrong person in the head and they come after you,” Ryan said.
I doubted they’d come after a teacher’s daughter. “I’d be okay. I’ve done self-defence training.”
“Serious?” Emily sat taller.
“Yeah, well, kind of. My friend’s a cop, so he taught me how to fight off bad guys.”
“Cool. You should teach us some moves.” Emily motioned to herself and Alana.
“Won’t matter, Ara,” Ryan said. “If they know you’ve done self-defence, they’ll make a point of showing you how weak you really are. And you’re like—” he presented me with a flat palm, “—tiny. They’d pin you in two-point-one nanoseconds.”
David glowered at Ryan then looked back at me, turning his whole body to face mine. “Look, the fact is, they don’t care who you are or who you hang out with. If they get it in for you, you might as well leave the school.”
“Then I’d just leave.”
“Precisely why it was just better for all if I turned it into a game.”
“Well, I don’t need someone making those decisions for me. If I want to get myself in trouble, that’s my prerogative.” I folded my arms, sounding too Aussie on the last word.
After a second, David breathed out through his nose, his shoulders sinking. “You’re right. I’m sorry I stepped in; it was not my intention to offend you. I just didn’t want—” He swallowed hard.
“Didn’t want what?” I hated when people stopped talking mid-sentence.
His jaw went tight as his eyes narrowed, tracing every inch of my face like I was the most irritating person in the world.
“It’s an apple bomb,” I said. “Get over it.”
“It’s not the apple bomb issue I have a problem with.” He sat back a little, gaining distance. “It’s you and your altruistic need to get yourself marked as a target.”
Altruistic? Me? Boy, he so did not know me. I cleared my throat, half aware of all the eyes at our table baring down on David and I. “And why would that irritate you so much? You don’t even know me. I’m not your problem.”
My words only made him rub his brow; he took a long breath, turning the tension around the table into dense air. “Ara. You just don’t get it.”
“Don’t get it? Don’t get what?” I wanted to stand up so I could yell louder. “That you had no right to play white knight and step in when I was going to help someone. I am not a little girl. I can take care of myself.”
He opened his mouth then closed it quickly. “You know what, fine. Go ahead. Throw a damn apple at them and see what they do to you.”
“Fine.” I unfolded my arms, stood up and grabbed the apple off Alana’s plate.
“Whoa!” David had his hand on my wrist before I even drew it back by my side. “I was bluffing, Ara.”
A smirk formed laughter in the back of my throat, my shoulders shaking with the sound. “And I was calling your bluff.” I pointed at him, letting him take the apple. “You should see the look on your face.”
Emily and Ryan laughed too, but Alana just looked ultimately worried. David, however, drew a breath to support a probably very massive serving…