Sandy and her little followers were all milling around in their little circle of perfection, bitching obviously about some of the other girls in the class. I stood at the back, chewing on my lip, wishing this day was over with already. I found myself wishing Alex was here with me. The boy drove me crazy most of the time, but his presence was calming to me, like he was my rock or something. I wished I could just shrink into his side and hear his annoying voice just to keep me company.

Sandy smirked at me and her friends all turned to look at me, making me shift uncomfortably on my feet. The girl that had told me that Luke wanted to speak to me at the party, smiled at me almost apologetically, but I just looked away as Mr O’Conner walked in.

“Right then guys and girls, we’re running laps today so get those behinds in gear and no slacking,” he barked, waving his hand at the door.

The gym door opened again just as Mr O’Conner was telling us about how many laps to run, how to warm up and cool down. Everyone turned to see who dared enter class late; Mr O’Conner was a seriously harsh teacher when it came to punctuality.

Zach entered, smirking at the class, his nose slightly red, his lip split, and his knuckles red raw. “Sorry I’m late, some jackass teacher sent me to the Principal,” he chirped. I looked at him warningly and shook my head, nodding towards the front where Mr O’Conner was standing. Zach’s eyes settled and me and his smirk grew bigger as he looked me over in my clothes. “You rock that gym kit,” he teased, winking at me.

“ENOUGH! OUTSIDE EVERYONE!” Mr O’Conner bellowed.

Everyone jumped and practically ran for the door; Zach grinned and crossed his arms over his chest, looking at the teacher challengingly. I gulped and headed out of the room not wanting to witness another showdown.

I walked slowly to the field, and stretched out my muscles, getting ready to run. Sandy stopped next to me, stretching out her long toned legs as she tied her long immaculate hair into a perfect twist. “The new guy’s hot,” she stated, raising one eyebrow. I looked at her with as much hate as I could muster as I imagined ramming her face into the mud and standing on the back of her head. “I think maybe he’s even hotter than your ex-boyfriend. Maybe I’ll give him a try and see which one screws the best before I decide which one I want.”

I opened my mouth to speak but I was cut off by a male voice behind me, “Trust me, I screw better. Thing is though, sweetheart, you just don’t do it for me. I like a girl to have a little more up top, and I’m not talking about bra size.”

I laughed and turned back to see that Zach was looking at Sandy distastefully. She huffed and turned to walk off to her group of waiting clones. “Nice knock-back,” I congratulated.

He laughed and stepped to my side. “Thanks. So that’s her, huh?” he asked, looking Sandy over in her short shorts and tank top. I frowned and nodded. “Don’t see the appeal myself. I like a little mystery, something that you have to work for. With her, you see what you get before you even unwrap, where’s the fun in that?” he asked, turning his nose up slightly.

I grinned and rolled my eyes, trying to look like I disapproved but I just couldn’t, I loved that he wasn’t interested in her, it reminded me of how Luke used to be before everything got ruined.

“So how much trouble did you guys get in for fighting?” I inquired as we started to jog around the track.

He shrugged. “Two days lunchtime detention. No biggie.”

“Why did you do that anyway?” I asked curiously. He must want to get expelled from here too or something.

He grinned. “Just thought your dickwad of an ex deserved a little payback. He was seriously pissed with me,” he explained, laughing happily.

I raised one eyebrow at him in disbelief. “You like to make a good impression, huh?”

He shrugged. “People think of me what they want. I don’t need other people’s opinions to validate who I am. If they don’t like me then that’s tough luck for them. I call it like I see it. I thought your boy needed to hurt, obviously the thing that’s hurting him the most is losing you. He’s got it bad, so I decided to rub his nose in it a little more,” he said, shrugging as we continued to run.

I gulped and dropped my eyes to the floor, not wanting to talk about Luke and his feelings for me. “I don’t like fighting,” I said sternly.

“Duly noted, but sometimes it’s necessary. For example, you need to punch that hoe in the face,” he stated, nodding at Sandy who was running about a hundred yards in front of us.

I snorted at his comment. “I’m not punching anyone in the face; nothing can be solved with violence.”

He laughed and bumped his shoulder against mine. “Maybe you’re right, punching her won’t actually solve anything, but it’ll make you feel better.”

I laughed. It probably would too, but I still wasn’t doing it, that wasn’t who I was. The rest of the lesson we just jogged with him teasing me about how unfit I was. The boy wouldn’t leave me alone, no matter how many times I told him to just run ahead and not wait for me. He stayed firmly planted at my side the whole time and even walked me to the locker-room to change after.

“Walk me to English after?” he asked, cocking his head to the side.

I shrugged, pulling my sweaty T-shirt away from my body distastefully. “Whatever. Meet me here then, okay? I need to shower.”

He grinned wickedly. “I could come and help if you want, wash your back for you,” he suggested, raising one eyebrow.

I rolled my eyes and didn’t bother to comment on his slutty remark. Now that I’d gotten to know him a little better I realised that he was actually a pretty nice guy. He was unquestionably cocky and opinionated, but he reminded me a little of Alex in some ways.

I showered and changed as quickly as I could, heading out, only to find him pressed up against a girl who I recognised as one of Sandy’s little minions. She was giggling while he leant in, one palm pressed against the wall near her head; he was obviously flirting his ass off with her, and doing well too by the look of it.

I didn’t bother to interrupt their little session, I just turned on my heel and headed to English class on my own, choosing a seat near the front so people wouldn’t be able to talk to me too easily. He came in five minutes after class had started, earning him a warning from the teacher. He frowned at me angrily and plopped down in the seat a couple of rows from me, tapping his hand on his desk, looking out of the window, not paying attention to anything the teacher said for the whole lesson.

When the bell rang he walked over to my desk and kicked the leg of my chair to get my attention as I packed my books. “What was that? I thought you were meeting me?” he growled angrily.

I shrugged. “I didn’t want to interrupt you, you obviously have a need to flirt with as many girls as possible in one day, who am I to ruin that for you? You’re probably going for some sort of record by getting as many phone numbers as possible on a first day,” I teased, smirking at him as I shouldered my bag.

He frowned and sighed, shaking his head and strutting off without answering. I watched his back as he walked away. Guilt washed over me. I should have waited for him earlier; we had agreed it after all. I’d have to try and catch him tomorrow to apologise or something.

I headed to my locker, pulling out my books for the last lesson of the day. I did it deliberately slowly, just wanting a couple of minutes peace. People started filing out to their respective classes, so I closed my eyes and took a couple of deep breaths. There was only one more lesson left now, but I wasn’t sure I could make it through anymore. I chewed on my lip and considered skipping my last class, I could easily catch up, and it wasn’t like I ever usually did it so no one would suspect anything foul if I missed one class.

Movement at my side caught my attention. I opened my eyes and looked up just as Luke stopped next to me. He looked bad; Zach had certainly done a number on his face. His cheek and jaw were red, his lip split and swollen. I daren’t even think what his body looked like. He looked incredibly sorry for himself, his head hung and his shoulders slumped. His deep brown eyes met mine, and I felt my heart break all over for him. He was so sad, so rejected, so low, but I just didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know if I could forgive him. I just knew deep down that everything was ruined, I didn’t think there was any way we could come back from this.

Chapter 9

“Can I talk to you, just for a minute?” he asked quietly as he frowned at the floor.

I still wasn’t ready to talk to him at all, but I couldn’t exactly say no with him looking like that. I nodded, swallowing the sadness that seemed to make my throat swell up. I closed my locker and leant against it, waiting for him to speak, unsure what he was going to say.

He swallowed loudly and kicked his toes at the floor absentmindedly. “I just wanted to apologise for what happened in the lunchroom. I was totally out of order doing that, and I’m sorry if I embarrassed you even more than I already did. I’m such a prick, and I’m so sorry,” he said quietly, not looking at me.

“You are a prick,” I confirmed. He grinned at me then and nodded, looking a little amused, like he was trying not to laugh. “What’s funny?” I asked.

His smile grew bigger. “I just still find it funny when you cuss. It’s just so random that a bad word would come out of a pretty mouth like yours, it just shocks me still,” he said, laughing quietly and shoving his hands into his pockets, rocking on his heels.

I laughed weakly. Luke had always found me cussing strange, he liked it a lot. “I forgot about that,” I muttered, rolling my eyes at him.

His smile slowly faded. “So, am I forgiven?” he asked, looking at me hopefully.

I frowned. “For starting a fight, yes. For cheating, no.”

He frowned too, but he didn’t look shocked. Maybe he expected me to say something along those lines. “Okay, that’s fair enough. Can I just ask one thing?” he whispered, looking at me curiously. I nodded, giving him the go ahead. “You didn’t really sleep with that guy, did you?” he asked, his voice breaking slightly as his eyes burned into mine, a pleading, almost begging expression on his face.

“Do I really have to answer that?” I asked incredulously. Does he really think that little of me that I would cheat on him the same as he did to me? I pushed away from the lockers and glared at him, my anger flaring up again. How dare he ask me that! Stupid jerk! “I’m done. This conversation is over,” I stated confidently as I started marching down the hallway towards the exit, deciding that I would actually skip my last class after all.

“Maisie, I’m sorry!” he called. “Wait, where are you going?” he asked, jogging to catch me up.

“Home. I’ve had enough for today.”

He grabbed my hand, making me stop. “Home? You want a ride? I could drive you so you don’t have to walk.”

I sighed and closed my eyes at his sweet offer. That was Luke all over, and one of the reasons why I fell deeply in love with the guy. “Luke, please just let me have some time. Please? I just can’t be around you right now,” I whispered, begging him with my eyes to just drop it and leave.

Suddenly someone shouted something that sounded like ‘catch it’ and then people were laughing, running towards us down the hallway, coming from the direction of the science lab. I looked up at them, confused, until I spotted a frog hopping down the hallway with about four people chasing after it, laughing, trying to catch it. Bile rose in my throat as my heart seemed to stop and then take off in overdrive. I had a terrible phobia of frogs. I knew it was irrational, but when I was younger Alex had found a dead toad and rubbed it on my face before he pushed it down the back of my top. I was a little scarred from that experience.

I squealed and threw myself at Luke, literally climbing up his body until I was wrapped around him like a baby monkey. I could hear screaming but quickly realised that it was me, so I bit my tongue and buried my face into the side of his neck, squeezing my eyes shut. I didn’t even care that I was probably embarrassing myself in front of people, or that I was behaving like a child right now. I just needed Luke. He was like a safety blanket, and it was a natural response for me to throw myself on him.

“Baby, it’s fine. Shh, it’s fine,” Luke cooed, rubbing my back softly, one arm hooked under my ass, supporting my weight. “It’s okay. I won’t let it over here. Loosen the fingers a little, can you?”

I gulped and suddenly realised I was digging my fingers into his back, my nails probably hurting him, but I couldn’t move my hands an inch. “I want to go!” I practically shouted.

“Okay, I’ll take you outside,” he suggested. I could feel that we were moving, but I couldn’t think about anything else other than the irregular beating of my heart and the squirming horror that was building in my stomach. I squeezed myself to Luke tighter, clamping my body to his and pressing my face harder into the side of his neck. He patted my behind lightly and I risked pulling my face away so I could take a quick glance around. We were in the parking lot, safely out of the school, no frogs in sight.

“Thank you,” I mumbled, finally loosening the death grip that I had on his back and shoulders. He seemed to breathe a sigh of relief when I did that so I knew I’d been hurting him.

“No problem. Though one day I think you need to see someone about this fear, baby, it’s getting a little out of hand,” he joked, laughing quietly. “Not that I’m complaining about having you wrap yourself around me like that, of course,” he added.