“I’m busy.” Getting dressed up and going to a party to lie about who I was. Not that I was nervous. I dropped my pen as I scrambled to pull out doodling materials. No need to take any real notes since I had already taken the test for thisclass.
“Well, what about tomorrow after school?” he asked as I leaned over and picked up mypen.
“Um…” How did I tell him I wouldn’t be atschool?
The teacher saved me from saying anything though, as she came in and shut the door behind her. She flipped off the lights and turned on the PowerPoint she had ready for the class. We spent the remainder of the period glossing over materials. To save myself from going insane, or rehashing that awful test and stressing over which answers I had gotten wrong, I scribbled across mynotebook.
My phone buzzed in my bag and I slid a glance down at it, wondering if I could manage to get to it without alerting the teacher. I decided not to risk it and instead raised my hand to request a bathroom break. She stopped me when I passed her with my bag packed, but I had the perfect excuse. Ignoring Grayson’s hard stare, I whispered an excuse about periods and not wanting to pull my tampons out in front of everyone. She nodded and gestured for me to hurryalong.
Once in the girl’s restroom, I closed and locked a stall door behind me before pulling out thephone.
Bellamy:Time togo
Harlow:Still inschool
Bellamy:Not anymore. Where are you rightnow?
Harlow:2ndfloor. Girlsbathroom.
I sighed, thankful that I had at least packed everything away before leaving the classroom. I unlocked the stall and went to the sink to wash my hands. I always felt dirty in public bathrooms. The door to the bathroom opened and I moved to the paper towel dispenser as I assumed another girl had entered for her own afternoon bathroom break away fromclass.
“Almost ready togo?”
I whirled around, hands reaching out to grip the sink, so I wouldn’t fall. Bellamy’s coffee-brown eyes watched me from a much sterner face than I had seen on himbefore.
“What happened?” I asked,concerned.
He simply shook his head. “If you’re done, we need to go. We have things to prepare fortonight.”
“Why do you look like that? And what are you doing in here? This is the girl’s bathroom, what if someone walked in?” Bellamy stepped forward and yanked my bag up and slung it over one of his broad shoulders before tugging me along behind him. “Bellamy?”
He grunted as he towed me out into the parking lot towards the familiar BMW. I looked for Marv, maybe in the passenger side, but he wasn’tthere.
“Where are the others? Where are we going?” He opened the car door for me and pushed me in, shutting it without a single word. He got in and started the engine, and backed up. I glanced at him out of the corner of my eyes. “Why are you acting like this?” Why was he somad?
He lifted the console of the BMW and pulled out a cell phone carrier box. “This is for you.” He tossed the box in my lap. “New number. Don’t use the old phoneanymore.”
“I would hardly call it old,” I said, opening the box and peeking inside. “In fact, I think this is the same phone. Newnumber?”
“Yes.”
I threw the box on the floor of the car and turned to him. “What is yourproblem?”
He flicked a hard look at me before slowing to a stop along a back road before the interstate and pulled over on the shoulder. He turned the ignition off and jerked the emergency breakup.
“Why did that boy pick you up this morning? Did you ask him to? You could have asked any one of us to come get you. You could have asked me!” heroared.
I huffed. “I missed the bus. I didn’t know he would be there!” I yelled back. “He was already there, and I figured you guys would be asleep. I textedyou!”
“After you were already in hiscar!”
“I knew you would be upset if I didn’t tell you, though,” I snapped. “Give me somecredit.”
He stared at me, his eyes sliding all over my face, his cheeks flushed. I’m sure mine were too. I didn’t break his gaze. Then something happened. His eyes narrowed on mine before dropping to my lips. I bit them nervously, especially when he leaned a bitcloser.
“You shouldn’t have gone with him.” His voice lowered, growing dark andgruff.
“He just gave me a ride to school,” Iargued.