Starstruck by Brenda Hiatt Read Free Book Online

sympathy. At least I’d always had Bri and, more recently, Deb. It sounded like for all his popularity, Rigel had led a pretty lonely life.
    “So where—?” I began, when the warning bell for fifth period cut me off. “Oops, I didn’t realize it was so late!”
    “Me either.” His smile warmed me, though I worried there might still be a trace of pity in it. “Talk to you later. And, um, is it okay if I call you M, like your friends do?”
    I nodded, probably too enthusiastically. “Oh! Uh, yeah, sure! Absolutely.”
    “Cool. I’d better go find Trina before class. Don’t want her plotting any nastiness.”
    He was gone before it sank in that any nastiness Trina might plot would surely be against me, not Rigel. I had no doubt he was well aware of that, too.
    I made my way to History in a daze, still half convinced I must be imagining all of this. It just seemed so . . . bizarre.
    Rigel entered just as the bell stopped ringing. He glanced my way, but we were on a seating chart now, so he had to take the same seat as yesterday, near the door. Trina wasn’t in this class, and I wondered if he’d found her, to explain sitting with me at lunch—and what he’d said.
    As soon as class was over my friends started bombarding me with questions, but I just told them Rigel had asked about my past and I’d asked about his, but we hadn’t had time for much detail. And that he’d definitely said he would talk to me again.
    “So he’s going to sit with us again tomorrow?” Bri asked excitedly.
    I shrugged. “He didn’t say that. Maybe?” I refused to obsess about it. For now. I wouldn’t see him again until tomorrow anyway. Probably just as well. I needed a chance to catch my breath, emotionally.
    At the start of Health, Trina came over to me with a nasty gleam in her big blue eyes. “I don’t know what the hell you think you’re doing, pestering Rigel Stuart, but you’d better stop it,” she hissed.
    Though I was startled, I managed an innocent stare. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, Trina.” I spoke in a normal voice, not whispering as she had. “Are you actually worried Rigel might like me? How interesting.”
    She glared at me for a moment, then turned away with a toss of her perfect hair. “I was just trying to spare you embarrassment, Marsha,” she said, no longer whispering. Then, even more loudly, “It’s so pathetic when a girl gets all starry-eyed about a guy when it’s perfectly obvious to everyone else that he just feels sorry for her.”
    Even though she didn’t get as big a laugh as yesterday, I felt my face turning red as I took my seat. Though I knew Trina was just being spiteful—and jealous—I couldn’t help worrying she was right.
    Maybe Rigel was just being nice to me because he felt sorry for me. But he hadn’t even known about my parents before he came to talk to me. Had he? I realized I had no way of knowing what Trina might have told him about me.
    I felt more and more depressed as class dragged on. It just made so much more sense that Rigel felt sorry for me than that he was attracted to me.
    After the final bell I trudged toward the buses, not nearly as excited now at the prospect of talking to Rigel again tomorrow. I’d half convinced myself that I was some kind of charity project to him—like some stray at the pound. And no matter how much I liked him, I definitely didn’t want—
    “M! Hey, Marsha!”
    It sounded like Rigel’s voice. Was I hallucinating? Shouldn’t he be at football practice?
    I turned and sure enough, there he was, sprinting toward me.
    “Hey, I’m glad I caught you,” he said, joining me as I reached the bus line. “I only have a sec—have to be at practice—but I wanted to make sure Trina didn’t pull anything.”
    Even though his words supported my theory, I couldn’t help feeling a rush of warmth at his concern. Still, I refused to be an object of pity, so I suppressed the smile that tried to break free and