The Origin Read Free Page B

happened at that– ”
    “So back to the story,” he said, trying desperately to steer the subject away from that football game. He wanted to abandon the date, as she was getting dangerously nosy already, but couldn’t find the strength to do it.
    What had happened? At the beginning of the night, he was hell-bent on repulsing her, and now he couldn’t find the strength to push away from the table.
    Thankfully, she took the obvious hint and left the subject alone. “Well, you were at your locker, and I was with my friends, and I mentioned how I wished you would ask me to prom. And they egged me on, double-dog-dared me to ask you out.”
    A hazy memory itched at the back of his mind. “I think I remember…” he said, a picture of a gawky girl with braces and a smattering of acne on her cheeks taking shape in his mind. “Did you use to wear braces?”
    “I did,” she said, her lips puckering involuntarily. “I was, uh, not my finest back then. But somehow, I found the courage to approach you and ask.”
    Slowly, the memory came into focus. Not very many girls had asked him out to prom that year, not many equaling exactly one.
    “And I shot you down,” Daniel said, remembering how easy the refusal had slipped from his tongue. He had been so involved in his personal turmoil that he hadn’t even considered being tactful, had not even given it a second thought.
    Olivia nodded. “You were so brutal about it, too,” she said, a small trace of bitterness evident in her voice.
     
    “Um, Daniel?”
    Olivia King’s heart was thumping wildly, her throat constricting as she stood in front of the former football star. She had somehow managed the walk across the hallway full of lockers and prying eyes to stand in front of him, now the least she could do was finish what she set out to do and ask Daniel Johnson to the prom.
    “Do I know you?” he said, his eyes cold and unwelcoming. He leaned against the lockers with his backpack slung over one shoulder, and crossed his arms across his chest.
    Olivia took a deep, steadying breath and willed her nerves to still. If all those years in ballet school had taught her nothing else, it was to retain grace under pressure. Nevertheless, she was still just a sixteen-year-old girl, faced with the monumental task of asking her crush out, and could do nothing but stare at him in fear, in reverence, with her pink trapper keeper clutched tightly to her chest.
    “Look, I don’t know what you heard, but I didn’t do it on purpose, okay? It was a freakin ’ accident,” he said, his voice alarmingly loud. People were already staring. “So leave me alone!”
    She should have flinched from his angry words, should have slinked away immediately, but she recognized the panic in his face. He was once a popular jock, a guy who could have dated any girl he wanted, and now… now he was a virtual nobody. “I only wanted to see if you’d go to prom with me,” she said.
    He regarded her coolly. She couldn’t tell if his expression was of disgust or pity, but either way, she anticipated his answer before he even opened his mouth.
    “No.” Without another word, he stomped off, not even once looking back.
    She watched him walk down the hallway and disappear through a classroom door, feeling like she’d been slapped in the face. The tears stung her eyes but she willed them to dry. She was a great many things, not all of them dignified, but she was not that girl who cried over a guy’s rejection.
    Her friends approached soon after, all wearing identical expressions of shock on their faces. “What did he say?”
    Olivia sighed, still furiously trying to blink away the acidic rejection. “He’s busy,” she said and shrugged.
     
    “I’m sorry.” Daniel scratched the back of his head. “I was – am – an asshole.”
    “You’re not.” She reached across the table and touched his hand. “I saw through you then, and I see through you now.”
    He moved his hand away from hers, his heart