Avalon High by Meg Cabot Page B

didn’t strike me as the type to sit by yourself in the woods listening to”—I looked down at the iPod screen—“ Courtiers, Kings, and Troubadours .”
    “Yeah, well,” Will said, growing suddenly sober and reaching out to gently tug his iPod from my hands, “I never thought I was, either.”
    As he said it, I saw the shadow I’d noticed that day atmy pool pass across his face again. And I knew I’d said exactly the wrong thing.
    But since I wasn’t sure what the right thing to say was—except that I was pretty certain he wouldn’t appreciate my speech about how everyone in the Middle Ages had lice and bad teeth—I just kind of sat there.
    Besides, I had a good idea that whatever lecturing there was to do on the subject of Will sitting in the woods listening to medieval music, Lance and Jennifer had already covered that day I saw them in the arboretum with him.
    Still, I got the feeling that Will’s gloomy expression didn’t have a lot to do with having been busted listening to lame music. I mean, I have been known upon occasion to crack out my dad’s Bee Gees collection when I was feeling completely nihilistic or whatever. But no amount of teasing on the part of my brother Geoff had ever made me look as…well, hopeless as Will did just then.
    Which made me realize: Will shutting down like that wasn’t about my having caught him listening to lame music. It was about something much, much worse.
    Wondering what it could be—and hoping it wouldn’t be something that might end up making it difficult for him to take me to the prom, if he and Jennifer broke up or whatever—I took a deep breath and plunged. “Look. This isn’t any of my business. But are you okay?” I asked him.
    The shadow had disappeared from his face by then. He seemed surprised by the question.
    “Yeah,” he said. “Why?”
    “Uh. Let me see.” I ticked off the points on my fingers. “Senior class president. Quarterback of the football team. Valedictorian?”
    “Probably.” He grinned. My heart lurched again.
    “Valedictorian,” I added to my list. “Going out with the prettiest, most popular girl in school. Likes to sit by himself in the woods listening to medieval love ballads. You see the whole one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-other part?”
    His grin grew broader.
    “You don’t beat around the bush much, do you?” he asked, his blue eyes twinkling in a manner that I couldn’t help feeling was very bad for my well-being. “Is that a Minnesota thing, or just an Elle Harrison thing?”
    I don’t know how I replied. I know I must have said something, but I don’t have any idea what it might have been. What did it matter, anyway? He’d said it again. Elle. Elle.
    I felt reassured by his flippant response to my question. No, he hadn’t really answered it. But if he could joke around, he obviously wasn’t thinking about ending it all, or whatever. Maybe that look on his face hadn’t meant anything. Maybe he was just a guy who liked sitting alone, listening to medieval music. Maybe he didn’t have a pool, and so that’s what he had to do to float…you know, mentally.
    And here I came along, totally busting in where I wasn’t needed. Or wanted.
    Feeling stupid, I tried to extract myself as quickly aspossible from the situation.
    “Okay,” I said, starting to get up. “Well, see you around.”
    But I was stopped by a strong set of fingers that wrapped around my wrist.
    “Wait a sec.” Will looked up at me curiously. “Where are you going?”
    “Um,” I said, trying to be casual about the fact that he was touching me. He was touching me. No boy—other than my brother and Tommy Meadows, who asked me to couples-skate during a class trip to Western Skateland—had ever touched me before. “Home.”
    “What’s the rush?” he wanted to know.
    “Uh,” I said. Maybe I hadn’t heard him right. Did he actually want me to stick around? “No rush. I just figured you wanted to be alone. And my dad’s