“So, you’re single?” He twisted his head to wiggle his eyebrows at mesuggestively.
I groaned. “Oh my god.” I slapped the back of my head on the headrest of the seat. “You areimpossible.”
“I’m trying to be very possible for you.” He swerved into a new lane, bypassing the yellow bug and shooting through a yellow light. “But seriously, are they to you? Friends? They can’t be related to you. They don’t live with you, I know that.” So, that’s why he wanted to know where I lived. I squinted at him out of the corner of myeyes.
“Are you spying onme?”
He smirked. “Just looking out for a girl,” hereplied.
“Some people call that stalking.” Was he just looking out for me? “Especially if you don’t know the girl that well.” He slowed and stopped at a stop sign, his chest curving as he looked directly atme.
“I wantto.”
Not knowing what to say, I didn’t answer. We sat in silence as he pulled into the school parking lot and stopped the car between an old Toyota and an empty handicapspace.
“Thanks for the ride.” I reached for the doorhandle.
“I’ll give you a lift back home too, if youwant?”
“No,” I said. “I won’t be taking the bus home. I have some extracurricular activities.” It wasn’t exactly a lie, but I didn’t want him to know that I would be with theguys.
“Wait! Harlow!” He met me around the front of hismustang.
“What?” I held onto my bag by the top handle before slinging it onto myshoulders.
“I don’t want you to start avoidingme.”
“I haven’t been avoiding you,” Isaid.
He stared hard at me, trying to keep me from looking away, but I did so anyway, focusing on the brick building waiting for ourarrival.
“Please?” His tone was pleading. I had to glance back. The deep, damaged look in his eyes had returned, shining out at me. “Just be careful around thatguy.”
“I’ll see you in class,” Isaid.
I felt his eyes on every step I took away from him, and I wondered if I would see him in class or if the guys would pull me out before the day wasover.
* * *
Imadeit to my last and only real class of the day, having spent the majority of it in the library taking my final exams. All I had left now was to turn in my final Englishpaper.
Principal Wiggins had called me into his office later in the day to tell me that, ‘considering the special circumstances’ – circumstances I wasn’t quite sure I understood fully – I wouldn’t have to finish the last week and a half of school. There was no knowing what else the guys might need me for in the comingdays.
A text message dinged my phone as I walked out of front office. It was Bellamy telling me that he would be by to pick me up after school. My phone dinged again and I sighed as I read the latestmessage.
Bellamy:If that guy tries to talk to you again, avoidhim.
It wasn’t like avoiding Grayson was an easytask.
I walked to class, relieved to finally have something more to pay attention to than questions on paper. Tests really did nothing to assess intelligence, just memorization. It was nice that the school would be turning over the teaching method in the next year to project based learning, where the only tests taken were the state and nationally required ones, and everything students learned would have actual real-worldapplications.
As I predicted, it was absolutely impossible for me to avoid Grayson because as I walked through the doorway, he was already in the seat next tomine.
“Didn’t see you at lunch,” he said as Iapproached.
“You were looking for me?” I put my bag down and slid into the hard, plastic seat. “I was taking exams in thelibrary.”
“What are you doing after school today?” He leaned closer, those bright, blue eyes of his reminding me of Knix’s, but he wasn’t nearly as bulky or tall. He had the football player’s build, but Knix was still several inches taller thanhim.