How To Salsa in a Sari (2 page)

Issa had made it a point to avoid Cat at all costs for the next year and a half. And succeeded. She and Cat traveled in totally different circles. Cat was always surrounded by her perfumed, feathered, rich friends and Issa hung with down-to-earth, out-of-place types.

Only a few months ago had Cat come back into Issa's life, now that they were both enrolled for the same English class. Issa made it a point to sit in the far back of the room, huddled into oversized sweatshirts in the corner, trying to be as invisible as possible.

Issa shivered, remembering Cat's words. By the time she reached the chemistry lab, she had a very bad case of dread squeezing at her stomach.

“Gigi! What's the emergency, girl?” Issa spotted her friend hunched over an array of tubes and beakers.

Gigi O'Neil held up a test tube filled with a suspiciously slimly green liquid. “Does this look right? Mr. Jonas said if I don't finish this lab by the end of the day, I'm totally failing the class.”

“Gigi—”

“I think I just made a bomb!”

“Gigi!”

“Wait, let me put the bomb down. I don't want to blow us up before you hear the news.”

Gigi set her bomb carefully into a beaker. She nervously pushed her goggles to the top of her wavy red hair and blinked her aquamarine eyes. “Just so you know, I could be wrong. If I'm right, I don't want you to hate me. I just thought you should know. Okay? So promise not to hate me?”

Issa restrained the urge to reach out and wrap her hands around Gigi's throat. It figured, her friend had to be a ditz at a moment like this.

“Girl, do not mess with me right now!” Issa snapped, curiosity building to the point of annoyance. Even though Gigi was often theatrical, this didn't sound like the usual round of stupid Monday-morning gossip.

“So, remember you said Adam was sick on Friday night and that was why he couldn't come see the movie with us and Ishaan?”

Issa nodded.

“There you guys are.” Ishaan Banerjee stormed the door of the lab, his handsome face not looking a least bit pleased. His heavy black eyebrows were drawn together in a fierce V and his usually full mouth was set in a horizontal line.

“Gigi, did you tell her? I swear, I'm gonna kill that guy.”

His fists were clenched and he looked ready to do some damage.

Ishaan was intense and passionate, but hardly violent. Something had brought out his protective edge. Issa wished someone would just tell her what the hell was going on. How was she always the last to know the news?

“Guys. What's going on?” Issa looked at her two closest friends. They each hesitated as they exchanged a look. “Is it that bad? Am I being kicked out of school?”

“Well,” Gigi started, “Matt told Ishaan he saw Adam at Cat Morena's house on Friday night. For one of her hot-tub parties.”

Issa's breath caught. Adam? No way. That was stupid. He'd been even sweeter than usual this morning. Adam would never do anything like this. He loved her and thought Cat and her friends were useless flakes.

“Future barefoot and pregnant housewives, Issa, that's all they are,” he always said to her. “They're jealous of you and your real future.”

This had to be some stupid rumor. Maybe there was someone who looked like Adam making the rounds. There had to be some other explanation.

Issa breathed a sigh of relief. Jeez, she expected these theatrics from Gigi, but Ishaan? He never repeated news from the Athena Gossip Mill.

That is, unless he knew it to be true.

No, not possible.

“I don't think so, guys. I mean, we know Adam. I think we're all just overreacting.” She forced a smile for her friends. What if it
was
true?

“That's not the worst part.” Ishaan cut her off. “Iz,
apparently
Adam was doing Jell-O shots off of Cat Morena's neck.”

“What!”

Suddenly Cat's words came back to Issa.

Your day's about to get a whole lot worse,
chica.

This had to be what that horrible witch had meant.

“She's hyperventilating. Get a chair,” Gigi ordered Ishaan.

“I am not—” Before she knew what was happening, Ishaan had grabbed a plastic chair that caught Issa's weight just before her knees gave out. “I am not—”

Adam? Party? Cat Morena's neck?

Issa counted to ten and hoped she was dreaming. “But—Oh. I feel dizzy.”

She replayed the events of the weekend over in her head. Adam calling her at 8:00 p.m. on Friday night to tell her he wasn't feeling too hot and wouldn't be able to join them at the movies. Did he sound sick then? Her mind was too foggy to remember. But then, after she'd gotten home, she'd dialed his cell phone to check on him. He hadn't answered.

But he was sick! He was probably asleep, nitwit,
her mind argued back.

“Okay, guys, let's think about this. Like logically.” Gigi interrupted her thoughts. “Ishaan got this news from the Athens Gossip Mill. Maybe it's a miscommunication type of thing. You know what happens when couples don't communicate, right? Remember in the
O.C.
when Marissa didn't tell Ryan about Trey attacking her? Then Ryan thought they were doing it and he got so pissed and—”

“Bottom line, Iz. Is this something Adam would do?” Ishaan, thankfully, cut Gigi off. “If it's true, I'll kill him.” Ishaan rolled up the sleeves of his button-down and slammed his left fist into his right hand. “He's dead. What would he want with that psycho bitch?”

Well, Issa knew what Adam would want from Cat. What every other guy in school wanted. Cat wasn't called “La Cuerpa” for no reason. If this rumor was even true, that is.

The real question was what Cat wanted with
Adam.
It wasn't enough that Cat had already had the Homecoming Princess title, an accent guys were gaga over, more money than Britney Spears could dream of and a body every girl in school would give up their trust funds for. But now she wanted Adam Mitchell? Nerdy, band-geek Adam.

Not possible.

This rumor was getting too stupid to even make the rounds. Issa was going to put an end to it immediately.

“I need to talk to him. He'll tell me the truth.” Issa stood up.

Ishaan muttered something and Gigi gave him a sharp look. “That's a good idea, Iz. I mean, if he wasn't there, then…”

Issa stopped listening. Adam! She saw his familiar silhouette close a locker door and pile his books up high in the hallway.

“There he is! Gotta go.” She dashed out of the classroom and into the crowded hallway. Her friends were still standing in the chem lab, concerned expressions on their faces.

Adam was going to be so pissed when he heard the rumor. Maybe it was time the two of them confronted Cat and told her to go to hell once and for all.

“Hey.” Issa wrapped her arms around Adam's bony back, ignoring her usual “no PDA” rule. It felt so good to hold him after her horrendous afternoon.

“Issa, hey. Uh, what's up?” He gave her a strange smile and pushed his tortoiseshell glasses up his nose.

“Argh.” She slipped her hand into his. “I had a crazy afternoon. What about you? How was the test? Do you feel better?”

“Yeah. Much.”

“Are you all recovered from your cold?”

“Uh, yeah. I got a lot of rest over the weekend, so…”

There it was. Adam probably lay around the whole weekend in his room nursing his cold and missing her. She should have stopped by. Poor baby.

Issa sidestepped a gothic freshman couple making out against the lockers and glanced away enviously. She and Adam used to be like that. Of course, not in a public hallway for the whole school to see, but they had gotten pretty hot and heavy in Adam's car after Homecoming earlier that year—till they were interrupted so rudely by passing headlights anyway. Issa smiled. That had been a good night. She couldn't wait till Prom to complete what they had started that night….

Lately, school had gotten so busy she felt like they'd started to take each other for granted. Felt like the only thing they got together to do anymore was study—actually study—not sneak kisses while Adam's mom was downstairs.

Issa sighed. They had to get back to being crazy and in love again. Like that morning. It had been ages since Adam had surprised her with flowers. She needed to just be honest with Adam and confess what was bothering her. It was the first step.

“Hey, listen. Thought you should know.” Issa hesitated. Should she even tell him? Oh, why not? They would get a good laugh about it and she could finally put it behind her. “There's this weird rumor going on about you and Cat Morena, and I, uh, wanted to ask you about it.”

She expected Adam to laugh and tell her he would never have anything to do with a ditz like Cat. Instead, he frowned.

“Iz, I really needed to talk to you about something on Friday, but I didn't get the chance.”

Why didn't he deny the rumor?

“Oh…okay.” Issa stopped. She wasn't sure she liked his tone.

“Hey, Adam.” A group of guys with broad football-player shoulders came by and clapped Adam on the back. “Going to Sunshine's party this weekend?”

“Uh, yeah…” The freckles popped out on Adam's nose. He nervously ran his fingers through his dirty blond hair.

The football-player crowd was actually taking the time to talk to Adam. Not to mention he was invited to one of Sunshine's parties. Sunshine Harris, Queen of the Nasty Cheerleaders. Cat Morena's best friend, Skipper twin number two. No…this wasn't possible.

Issa watched as Adam made small talk with the jocks. What
did
he have in common with them? It certainly wasn't a love of academia.

Issa and Adam were at the top of their class, always competing for the coveted number-one spot that all Ivy League colleges looked at. They'd started off as study buddies during their freshman year and soon were spending every waking hour together, cramming biology and trigonometry into their heads, leaving no time for a social life. So when Adam had asked her to go to their freshman year Homecoming dance as his date, Issa was thrilled. With a roundish body, ragged hair and acne-prone skin, Issa knew she was no grand beauty and was happy just to be asked.

That was the night she realized that skinny, shy Adam cleaned up very nicely and her heart actually sped up when he held her in his arms for a slow dance. She wasn't surprised when he kissed her at her door that night. It just seemed so right.

And it had been that way for the past two years. Until now. Issa looked hard at her boyfriend. He was going to parties and not bothering to mention it to her. What next?

“So, uh, you're going to Sunshine's this weekend?” Issa felt the dread start to rise again as they walked away from the football players. “Were you at a party last weekend by any chance?”

Suddenly she didn't want to know. She wished she could take the words back and live in her dreamworld for just a bit longer.

“Actually, that's what I wanted to talk to you about. Look.” He stopped and pulled her into a quiet corner as a flood of band students paraded by with their tubas and trombones.

That's when Issa knew everything was about to change. Adam had been acting weird the past two weeks, but she had attributed his behavior to worrying about midterms.

“You're great, Iz, but sometimes I wonder why we're together. Don't you think that maybe, you know…”

“I don't know what you're trying to say. So I suggest you come right out and say it and quit stallin'.” Her voice was growing high and she had an idea of what was going to happen next. This was Adam,
her
Adam. And he was breaking up with her. This couldn't be real. She felt like she was having an out-of-body experience.

Adam glanced around the hallway. A few people were staring at them. Issa realized the stricken look on her face was probably giving away what was going on in that corner. “I just need to find who I am. Before high school is over. I don't want to be this…nerd forever. I want to know who else I can become.”

“What's wrong with who you are now?”

“I—we, ever since we started high school, we got into this routine and we've never tried anything new. Every day's the same. Classes, study dates, movies on Saturdays, debates. That's it. We can go through another two years of high school like this, or we can try something different.”

Issa knew what he was trying to say, but she held on to some hope. “So we'll both change. We'll go to football games, parties, all that stuff—”

“No. That wouldn't be different.”

Everything was perfect. Cat Morena had once again swept into her life and turned everything inside out. Issa felt a burning hatred for Cat like she'd never felt before. “Different. You mean, me. You can just say it. You don't want me anymore.”