Starcrossed

eavesdropping on her and Jerry from the widow’s walk, but now she couldn’t seem to stop herself. When she heard Pallas say her name, she had to know what they were saying about her.
    “I’m not going to lie to you. Helen caught my eye,” Lucas was saying in a low voice. “But nothing’s going on.”
    “So everyone keeps telling me,” Pallas replied. Helen saw him rub his lower lip in thought before continuing. “I’m not so worried about that right now, but what I am worried about is a month or two down the road when the two of you are flying off every direction together. Alone. It can’t happen, Luke.”
    “It won’t,” Lucas replied coldly. “I’m teaching her to fly and I’m making sure she doesn’t get killed, but there’s no way I’d ever touch her. Give me some credit.”
    They continued talking, but Helen had stopped listening. She felt sick. Stumbling in her borrowed shoes, she went over to her dad. She stood right next to him as he talked to Pandora, and stared at his profile until he took the hint and looked at her.
    “What’s the matter with you?” he asked sarcastically at first, until he took a good look at her and became concerned. “You okay, Len?”
    “Can we go? I have so much stuff to do. Homework and chores. And I’m so tired,” she said, making up random excuses until he responded. She was causing a bit of a scene, which she hated, but she simply couldn’t stand there and suck it up for one second longer.
    Jerry glanced down at his watch. “Sure, yeah. I guess it’s getting kind of late. Was that supposed to be my line?” he asked with a guilty grimace.
    “No, you’re good. It’s still early. I’m just . . . I’ve got stuff,” Helen said before she launched immediately into the thank you, good-bye, and see-you-tomorrow crap that she wished she could just skip.
    Ariadne shot Helen a worried look, but Helen didn’t care about anything anymore, not anyone’s feelings or whether or not they all thought she was rude or crazy or both. None of it mattered. She just needed to get out of that house before she saw Lucas again or she was going to lose her mind. It was rude and awkward, but Helen managed to drag her dad out the front door before Lucas and Pallas had even looked up from their conversation in the corner.

Chapter Eleven
    H elen rode her bike to school the next morning, giving her dad instructions to tell Lucas that she had a few things to do before homeroom. Jerry was a little put out that Helen refused to call Lucas to explain it herself, but she honestly couldn’t make herself listen to his voice.
    “Did something happen at dinner last night?” Jerry asked. She ran out the door and pedaled off before he could get a straight answer out of her.
    The cool autumn wind felt good on her face, which was puffy from staying awake half the night with her eyes leaking. She hadn’t really cried, and never got that explosive release that comes from a good old-fashioned weep-a-thon. Lying in bed, she’d been too shocked to sob. She felt like an idiot. She knew there had to be worse things in the world than being dissed by the boy of your dreams, but at that moment, she couldn’t think of any of them.
    Kate, Claire, even her dad had asked her repeatedly what was going on between her and Lucas, like it was expected that the two of them would get together eventually, but no one had ever asked Lucas what he thought about being paired off with Helen. Now Helen knew for a fact that he “would never touch her.” Those words kept coming back to her, not just the words, but how passionately he had said them. The way he had spoken about her made it seem as if the very thought of kissing her was disgusting to him, and Helen was just as confused by this as she was hurt. How could he want to hold her hand all the time if he thought she was repulsive?
    Helen got to school, locked up her bike, and took an alternate route to her locker. It was longer, but she knew it would be Delos-free, and therefore worth all the extra steps. She had left her house so early that even with the longer walk she beat everyone to homeroom.
    When Claire arrived, she noticed immediately how awful Helen looked. Like the good friend she was, she forgot all about the argument they were supposed to be having, asking Helen a dozen questions about her red face and ratty hair before she had even put down her book bag. Helen lied as best she could, but so halfheartedly she never would have gotten