Page 97 of TJ Powar Has Something to Prove
Charlie puts his finger under her chin and gently turns her face back to his. There’s no pity in his expression. Just steadiness. “But you’re still here, aren’t you?”
“Well,” she says, pausing, melting. “I guess I am.”
The door behind them opens. Charlie drops his hand, and they step apart. Mrs. Scott pops her head out.
“For heaven’s sake, are you waiting for Christmas? The banquet’s started. Everyone wants to talk to you.” She pauses. “Congratulations, by the way. You did very well.”
Charlie looks at TJ. “Well, we made a good team.”
The past tense in that sentence whacks TJ over the head. It’s really over.
Too dazed to protest, she lets Mrs. Scott usher them through the banquet hall doors.
Immediately, TJ’s swarmed by people, and separated from Charlie. Yara’s hopping up and down, beaming. Ameera asks,How does it feel?Her Ontarian opponents from a few rounds ago come by to offer congratulations. A judge from yesterday taps her on the shoulder and says he enjoyed her speech. Chandani’s little brother asks her if he can go home now. There’s no shortage of people who want to talk. But there’s only one person she wants to talk to right now.
She looks over at Charlie. How she wishes for just one more minute alone with him, but it’s clearly not to be. He’s several feet away, surrounded by debaters from Whitewater who are here volunteering. He’s laughing at something someone said.TJ doesn’t know the girl he’s talking to. She doesn’t know any of the Whitewater kids very well, really, but it occurs to her that he’s certainly spent more time with his own school team than he ever has with her.
She suddenly feels embarrassed for her thoughts earlier, when she pondered kissing him. All TJ ever had with Charlie wasarguments. And even that’s over now.
As if sensing her stare, his eyes flick up and meet hers. She feels like the breath has been knocked out of her. Those amber eyes should not rattle her like this, not after all this time.
Then he’s coming towards her, in the middle of the crowd.
Ameera appears at her shoulder, holding her blazer. “TJ, we can all talk later. You must be hungry.”
“Just a second.” TJ’s focused on Charlie, who’s reached her. But even he’s got a distraction in the form of Nate, jabbing him in the shoulder.
“Mr. York wants to talk to you.”
“Hold on.” Charlie hasn’t looked away from TJ. Her heart leaps. What’s he about to say? Could he be—
He reaches into his pocket. “I didn’t give you your pen back.”
It takes her a moment. Oh. The pen they’d shared during that one debate.
She wants to laugh at herself for thinking he might say anything different. Maybe if she hadn’t jerked him around so much, he would. But that’s the thing. She was so concerned about how he could break her heart that she didn’t realize she could break it herself.
Charlie holds the pen out. She takes it, their fingers brushing for a fraction of a second. The metal is warm from his body heat.She never knew she could be so jealous of a pen.
Someone else calls her name from behind her, demanding her attention, so she just takes him in one last time and tries to commit him to memory. Not the way he looks, but the way he makes her feel, just by standing next to her. Safe. Anchored. Understood. Even if he doesn’t realize it, he gave that to her. And she’ll never settle for less.
Charlie’s searching her eyes, and TJ realizes she should say something. She clutches the pen.
“Thank you,” she says.
“You’re welcome,” he says.
And then they walk away from each other.
∗
It takes several minutes to reach the food line. People keep stopping her to talk. Finally, she reaches the banquet table and finds herself next to Rajan.
“Nice debate.” He reaches up to tug at a phantom cap, which Mrs. Scott has confiscated for the duration of the tournament, so his fingers graze his wavy black hair instead.
“Thanks, Rajan.”
Of course, it’s Rajan, so he can never leave well enough alone. “I really liked your point about people of colour not getting jobs and stuff. A great power move, since you were the only minority on stage and so no one could say anything about it without sounding racist.” He winks.