I didn’t look directly at them, but Alexis had no such problem as she tracked their movements across the room. I turned to look at Cody and actually shivered as a sudden chill ran down my spine. The fierceness was all gone when he turned his head to look at me, and I’d have believed it was just my imagination had it not been for the lingering fire in his eyes.
I smiled as if that would somehow change the atmosphere, and when he played with the ends of my hair between his fingers, I felt my unease dissipate. Now I couldn’t help but look across the room at this paragon who’d caused him to lose his cool.
There were five girls sitting at the table, and there was no need to guess who was in charge. I’ve spent enough time dealing with cliques to recognize the dynamics at a glance. Wealthy, pampered, spoiled, this is Susie; I’d bet my significant trust fund on it.
She’s gorgeous, blonde, tall, with piercing eyes that shone brighter than the rocks in her ears. Somehow, I didn’t feel as insignificant as I usually do when faced with someone of her ilk. Even though she was everything I’m not, everything you’d expect someone like Cody to go for, instead of feeling threatened, I felt defensive I guess; so that when she deigned to take her eyes off him and looked at me, I smirked.
I didn’t look away, not even when my tummy started acting up the way it always does when facing confrontation of any kind. I can only blame this new reaction on the events of the past day or so, after the whole picture debacle. I knew something about myself had changed, but not even I had expected this.
Instead of wanting to run away and hide, I wanted to walk across the room and smack the pretty off her face. “Who is she? Why is she staring like that? An old girlfriend?” Although I knew the answer, I still felt a bit queasy even saying those words.
“I don’t have any of those, not since I was about fourteen or so at least.” He smoothly evaded the question, but I didn’t push. Now that I had a face, I was sure it would be easy enough to get a name to go with it. Even though I had my newfound confidence, it still did my heart good when he didn’t look in her direction again but kept his focus on me.
The rest of the table seemed to remain tense except for Alexis and Jess, and I got the feeling as he walked me to my next class that he couldn’t wait to get me out of there. I didn’t let on that I was affected in any way, just kept the conversation light as we walked in step. I’d all but forgotten her anyway by the time we reached my classroom door because of the mere fact that Cody had held my hand all the way there.
“I’ll come get you after class; wait for me.” Somehow that sounded like more than just him wanting to walk me between classes and more like he was worried about something. I didn’t know enough about this girl to put all the blame at her door, but something was definitely up. I became even more suspicious when he walked across campus all day to escort me, which he’d never done before.
If he had classes nearby, that was understandable, but today he’d gone out of his way. I didn’t bring it up, not even when he dropped me off at the dorm and forbid me to leave again unless he was with me. He was being bossy and overbearing, and somehow that worked for me too. I was itching to get inside and see what the others had learned, if anything.
“There’s no practice today, so I’ll come take you for a drive later. Did you want to eat in the cafeteria or go somewhere off campus?”
“Why don’t we have something here? I’m not really in the mood to get dressed to go out.” Even with Jess and Alexis’ help, I’m still not used to dressing down when leaving the house. Mom would have a heart attack if she knew about my new daily uniform of jeans and tees.
“That’s fine; I’ll come to get you when you’re ready, then we’ll go for that drive.” He’s so sweet. I’d told him how much I enjoyed taking long drives in the evening, just taking in my surroundings and when he wasn’t at practice or doing homework together, that’s what we’ve been doing. “Sounds good; catch you later.”
The little peck he gave me, though not earth-shattering, was enough to warm my insides and kept a smile on my face until I closed the door behind me. They were waiting for me, all but vibrating with excitement. “That was her, Susie Powell. Alexis got the dirt.” Jess didn’t even let me sit before she started.