His hand shot out toward the wall, right next to my head, blocking my path His blue eyes focused on me.
These were different than the nerdling’s too. Same blue shade, but dimmer. Sad. Wounded. Embedded so deep inside him that it seemed overwhelming and I wanted to tell him I was deeply sorry for whatever hurt caused his otherwise incredibly handsome face to look so down.
Those eyes stilled my lips as well as my legs. His gaze seemed to penetrate through me, right to my core, begging me to find what was lost in him, wanting to fix him, so the smile on his lips actually reached his soul.
“You don’t have to run,” he said in a tone that was soft, deep, and suggested deeper meaning.
The sound of a door crashing open behind me told me otherwise. “I have to ...” I said. I inched to move under his arm.
His arm slid down, until his fist was against the wall, at my chest height. His eyes were still sad, but he masked them somehow with a teasing glint. “Stop it, sweet pea. You aren’t in trouble. Yet.”
My eyes widened at him. I turned my head, catching pretzel boy, my target, and Corey, the nerdling coming down the hall.
My panicked heart was unrelenting agains
t my rib cage. Despite what the cool guy was saying, this was clearly a security team, obvious in the confident way they approached me. Pretzel boy had taken the lead over the other two following him. His mismatched eyes zeroed in on me, the smile on his lips smug, satisfied. He’d caught his prey.
But I had one more last trick. A dirty girl trick.
“Rape!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.
The entire group of boys stopped dead, except Corey, who jumped a short step back.
I took my chance. I ducked under the cool guy’s arm.
“Wait,” pretzel boy called. “Bambi!”
I didn’t stop. I felt the brush of the cool guy’s fingers swiping at my back, but he wasn’t fast enough. I darted down the hall toward the exit.
An alarm didn’t sound. I was out in the parking lot and weaved amid the cars. Losing my breath. Losing my mind. Losing the boys.
For now.