This Must Be the Place by Kate Racculia

Author:Kate Racculia [Racculia, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2010-07-05T22:00:00+00:00

Eugene woke up at 3:00, 4:00, and 5:00 in the morning, rolling over in bed to check the blinking red digits of his alarm clock each time, even though he knew it would only be an hour later. It felt like Christmas morning. Christmas in October—and out in the world, not under any specific tree, a present was waiting that had already shown itself willing and able to unwrap itself. Eugene was too elated to stop grinning and fall asleep.

He bounced out of bed at 6:45 before his mother even had a chance to hassle him, and was showered and fed so early he didn’t have to run for the bus for the first time in weeks. His mother gave him a knowing look when he kissed her good-bye, and even in his hormone-addled state, sloshed on residual pheromones, Eugene could see why. He’d shaved, washed his hair, brushed his teeth, and put on jeans and a T-shirt that had only been worn once or twice since their most recent laundering, none of which were exactly prerequisites for leaving the house. The jeans were stiff. He hop-skipped down the long driveway to loosen them up.

Would Oneida walk up to him in the hall and stick her hands in his back pockets? Would she pretend it had never happened? His forty-five-minute bus ride allowed Eugene plenty of time to consider the complexities of all possible outcomes. It was possible that, given the time to digest what she’d done, Oneida would become so disgusted with herself for flashing him that she would stay home sick. It was also possible that she would follow him around like a lost puppy. He doubted it—she seemed far too cool, too prickly, for that—but you never knew; it wasn’t impossible, and it was very troubling. To make their . . . whatever it was that they were doing a matter of public knowledge wasn’t something he thought Ruby Falls High—or he—was quite ready for. They were both marginal freaks. He had a bad feeling that they wouldn’t cancel each other out but that, instead, their social stigma would be concentrated, focused. Mutated something dreadful.

It wasn’t until second-period gym that he caught a glimpse of her: a cloud of dark hair disappearing into the girls’ locker room. All of the possibilities where Oneida had to stay home sick, full of self-loathing and regret, mercifully dissolved. The girls and the guys were still separated, so he didn’t see her again until the period ended, and then only from thirty feet away, turning a corner on her way to the science wing. Eugene felt a not-entirely-unpleasant mixture of frustration and thrill, like he was a big cat stalking a particularly elusive gazelle.

She pounced first. Too absorbed in plumbing the pockets of his still too-stiff jeans for lunch money, he didn’t notice she was following until she slid into step beside him.

“Hey,” she said. “Where are you going?”

“Hey, yourself.” She smelled wonderful, like cinnamon and something toasted. He sniffed the air and smiled.

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