10
BLAINE
MR. LIAM SIGHED
when I crossed my arms behind my head and stretched, pushing my chair back and lifting my legs to rest my feet on the desk in front of me. I didn’t want to be there. I didn’t want to hear his lectures. Not to mention, I had the last bit of my community service to finish up. I was wasting valuable time.
Still, I couldn’t find it in myself to blow Mr. Liam off. There weren’t a lot of teachers who saw through my bullshit. Most of them were lazy or just didn’t care enough to take their job seriously. But he wasn’t one of those teachers. He had no problem putting my ass in line when he thought I needed it.
He stood from his desk and walked around to where I sat. Hovering above me, he shook his head and plastered on his disappointed expression before pushing my feet off the desk.
I didn’t expect it and I nearly lost my balance when my chair lunged forward and I was thrown into the desk.
“Don’t give me that look,” he said, leaning a hip against the edge of his desk. “This is your senior year, Blaine. You’re barely getting by with C’s and D’s. Don’t you want to go to college? Become something of yourself? What do you want to do with your life, Blaine?”
His line of questions made me shift uncomfortably in my seat and avoid his demanding stare.
“I’m sorry to break this to you, Mr. Liam, but I don’t see myself getting into any college.”
“Do you want to go to college?”
I shrugged.
The truth was I never thought about my future all that much. It wasn’t until I met Chelsey that I even considered a plan for after high school.
“I don’t know,” I responded.
“Well, I suggest you figure it out.” Mr. Liam sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in aggravation. “It’s time to get serious, Blaine. These are all questions you should know the answers to. Graduation will be here before you know it, and you’re going to wish you hadn’t spent all of high school dicking around.”
I looked up at him, surprised by his choice of words. “Are teachers allowed to talk to students like that?”
“Nope,” he said, pushing up into a standing position. “But I know you’re no rat.”
I grinned.
The fucker was right. I wouldn’t do that to him. I wasn’t one to tell on anyone. Never had been. I wasn’t about to start doing it now.
I picked at my nail as I tried to put my words together.
“The thing is, Mr. Liam, I have no idea what I want to do with my life.” I thought about Chelsey and her goals. I thought about how hard she pushed herself to do well in school. She made it look so easy. “I never thought about college or career choices. I didn’t think all that was in the cards for me.”
Mr. Liam’s face softened before he grabbed my shoulder and gave me a shake. “It’s not too late, Blaine. I can help you if you want. We’ll take it one step at a time. Getting your grades up is our first step.”
“How?” I asked.
It seemed impossible. I’d fucked around too much. My grades were shit and my attendance was even shittier.
Before Mr. Liam could answer, his classroom door opened and we both turned our heads toward the door. My heart kicked against my chest and I choked and coughed trying to swallow my next breath.
It was Chelsey. The girl I couldn’t stop thinking about. The girl who was making me crazy even from afar. With her plain hair and clear complexion—her pouty lips and those fucking big, brown eyes that were somehow able to see through me. She was perfection. Untouched. Unspoiled by the bullshit around her. And I couldn’t seem to stop when it came to her. It was fucking annoying as hell.
She looked flustered as she stood there staring at me. Her skin was flushed and had a pink tint. Her forehead and the skin above her top lip had a slight sheen of sweat like she’d run miles to the classroom. I grinned at her, and her flush deepened.
She turned her attention away from me and moved to back out the door.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Liam. I didn’t mean to interrupt.” She talked fast in her rush to run away from me. “I’ll come back.”
“Actually, Chelsey, you have perfect timing. Come sit.” He motioned to the chair next to me.
I didn’t take my eyes off her as she walked slowly toward the desk. She didn’t look at me once as she slid into the chair and twisted her fingers nervously in her lap. I had the feeling I was going to like what Mr. Liam had to say next.
“Do the two of you know each other?”
“No,” she said.
“Yes,” I said.
We answered at the same time, and I looked over at Chelsey feeling a spark of annoyance. She threw a quick glance at me and then to Mr. Liam, licking her lips anxiously.
“I mean, we’ve met, but I don’t
know
him,” she corrected herself.
Nice save
, I thought sourly.
“Well, Chelsey, this is Blaine.” Mr. Liam motioned to me. “Blaine, this is the amazing, young lady who’s going to help you raise your grade.”
“What?” Chelsey questioned, nearly jumping out of her desk.
“Blaine needs the extra credit, as well. You both will work on the assignment together and turn it in at the end of next week.”
“But—” She searched for some reason to object, but apparently came up empty handed.
Mr. Liam frowned. “Is there a problem, Chelsey? Are you not comfortable working with Blaine?”
“No!” she yelped. “It’s not that. I’m fine. It’ll actually be easier with a partner.”
Nice save number two.
“Great. Let’s just go over the assignment and the two of you can get started.”
Twenty minutes later, Chelsey and I walked down an empty hallway toward the exit. Other than the obnoxious squeak of my sneakers on the floor, we were completely silent. She didn’t even look at me, much less speak to me, until we pushed through the doors and were outside.
“Was this your idea?” she snapped, picking up her speed.
I had no choice but to follow her or be left behind.
“Believe me, spending an entire week doing this project with you is the last thing I wanted. But as it turns out, I need the grade and apparently, so do you.” She stopped and turned on me with angry eyes. I couldn’t help but goad her even further. I made a tsking sound and moved my finger back and forth. “A bad grade, Miss Ford? What would your parents think?”
I’d officially ruffled her feathers and I was looking forward to smoothing them out.
She sighed. “Look, I plan to take this assignment seriously. I
need
this extra credit, Blaine. I’m a good girl. I can’t have a bad grade.”
“And what am I? A screw-up with no future? Someone you’d rather pretend you’ve never met? Like mother like daughter. Right, Princess Chelsey?”
She was practically hissing when her hand came up. I caught her wrist before she could hit me, yanking her to me. She felt right against my body, and I wondered how something that felt so right could be so wrong.
I bit back a moan when she moved against me to get free.
“Let me go, Blaine.” She sounded fierce despite her small size.
I had to give her credit, she knew how to be aggressive toward me. But I was still a part of her mind. She still thought about me, and I was still able to get a response from her. I could see it in her big, brown eyes when she looked up at me.
She pushed at my chest and looked away. “This isn’t going to work. I’m going to ask Mr. Liam if we can work separately. I think it’ll be better for both of us.”
“Are you that afraid to be alone with me, Chelsey?”
Her eyes clashed with mine. “What?”
“You are, aren’t you?” I chuckled sardonically. “I just can’t decide if you’re afraid because of your parents or because of yourself.”
“My parents have nothing to do with this.”
“Don’t they? You seemed to be on your mother’s side the morning after we got arrested.” I spewed the hard, angry words at her.
Her eyes widened. “I wasn’t! What my mother said was horrible, Blaine! I
never
thought those things about you. I apologized for her words. ”
“You did, but then in the next breath you said you just wanted to be friends. Like I wasn’t good enough or some shit.”
I remembered the day almost a month ago like it was yesterday. I remembered how hurt I felt and how I wanted to hurt her even more than she was hurting me.
Her eyes flashed with fire and then she took a calming breath. “Why are you so angry, anyway?
You
were the one who decided we shouldn’t even be friends. We
both
agreed, as in
you
and me, that it was better if we just went our separate ways, remember.”
“Of course I remember!” I snapped. “But I didn’t think that meant pretending we’d never even met.”
“Forgive me for not knowing the rules of our situation, Blaine.” She sighed in annoyance.
I couldn’t blame her for being annoyed. I was being unfair. I was angry at her, but more at myself for letting an entire month go by without talking to her. Of course she wanted nothing to do with me. I’d jerked her around and all because of my stupid pride.
“Look, I don’t either. I’ve never been this way with another girl,” I said honestly.
She stopped pushing away from me and her body softened in my arms. “What do you mean? You’ve never been like
what
with another girl?”
“For starters, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you,” I confessed.
I stared her down, unwilling to look away or be ashamed of my words.
“Blaine,” she started.
I knew her next words were going to be bad so I interrupted her. I had a lot of damage control to do, and I was going to need this week with her.
“Listen, I
need
this extra credit, too. Without it I won’t pass. I don’t want to be just another statistic, Chelsey.”
It wasn’t a complete lie, but it was as close to the truth as I was going to get. I didn’t want to become her charity case.
I wanted to tell her I wanted to spend time with her. I wanted her to tell her I couldn’t care less about passing or graduation or college, but when I was with her, that’s
all
I seemed to care about. Those things were important to her, and there was a strange ache inside of me begging to be important to her, too.
“We can be partners, or friends, or whatever the hell you want. You can call the shots if you help me with this assignment, okay?”
I hated that I sounded so desperate.
She chewed on the inside of her bottom lip and watched me carefully. As much as I liked her eyes on me, I squirmed a little. She was looking for something, and I didn’t know if she was going to find it.
“You promise you’re going to take this seriously?” she asked. “Because I won’t hesitate to take full credit on this if you’re just looking for an easy A.”
I let her go and she stepped out of my arms. Instantly, I missed her warmth.
“Nothing worth it is ever easy, Chelsey. This is definitely worth it.”
I loved seeing the color fill her cheeks and the increase in her breathing when my words affected her.
“Okay then. Partners.” She held out her hand and looked up at me, waiting for me to shake it.
I moved my fingers against her palm and enjoyed her gasp and the shiver that ran through her body. My fingers closed around her palm and I pulled her to me again.
She made a sweet sound as she landed against my chest, and I held in my own moan.
“I usually like to seal a deal with a kiss.” I grinned down at her. “But since you’re calling the shots and all.”
She licked her lips nervously and my eyes dropped to them. I wanted to pull her bottom lip between my teeth.
“Unless.” I moved in.
“Friends, Blaine.” She reminded me with a shaky voice and a hand on my chest.
She pulled away from me and put distance between us.
“Right. Friends,” I agreed.
For now
.
“We should start right away,” she said. I could tell by the way her eyes moved over my face she was gauging my reaction. “I know the weekend is coming and you probably have big plans, but if we get a head start we might be able to get it done in less than a week.”
She knew how much I enjoyed my weekends. She was checking to see how serious I was about the assignment.
“The only plans I have is with a cute brunette with big, brown eyes.” I smiled down at her.
“Friends don’t talk to each other like that, Blaine. You said you were going to take this seriously.”
I stalked up to her, backing her up against the brick siding of the school. Resting my arm above her head, I leaned my body into hers.
“Did you think I was talking about you, Little Doe?” I whispered, using the nickname I’d come up with for her. She blushed, and I ran my finger down the curve of her cheek. “And if I was talking about you, what makes you think I’m not being serious?”