Tuesday. One more day until Spring Break, and I was so excited that I could barely focus in class. Not including tomorrow, I just had to survive this period, the two after that, lunch, and...oh for the love of fuck I had Astronomy again. I took a deep breath. I needed to get through five classes and lunch, and one of the most infuriating boys I had ever met was between me and my happiness. I groaned quietly, leaning until my head was against my locker. I let my arms hang down in exhaustion, seeing as how I hadn't slept the night before, and groaned again. Today was going to suck. Hard.
"Good morning, sunshine."
"Get. Away. From. My. Locker." I didn't even turn to look at Corey.
"You look tired."
I sighed. What was the point in replying to him when he basically just had a conversation with himself the whole time? Whatever. "Yeah. I am. I was having nightmares about having to see you in class again today." I turned around now to face him. He was chuckling under his breath. Well, I hadn't had nightmares about him exactly, but the first part wasn't a lie.
"I happen to be looking forward to it."
"Good for you."
He chuckled again.
I sighed, too tired to deal with him at the moment. "What could you possibly want right now? What happened to the whole staying away from me thing because I'm a nightmare or whatever you said."
"I thought about it. You seemed to happy to stay away from me. Therefore," he said, a smirk hinting at his features, "I'm not going to stay away from you."
"Don't expect much of a conversation from me."
"We're having one right now."
"Don't remind me." My eyes shifted from his eyes to his hair, which was only a little bit higher than his eyes. There was a very obvious white streak in his hair. "Do you dye your hair or something? Your eyelashes too? Or are those fake?"
I honestly hadn't meant to offend him. I was genuinely curious. He didn't know that. His eyes became guarded and cold, losing what little humor they had been offering a moment ago.
"You don't have to answer," I muttered a little more quietly, feeling guilt pull at my stomach. "I just think it looks cool is all. It's interesting." I yanked my backpack higher on my shoulder so that it rested more comfortably, tearing my eyes away from his hair to look him in the eye again as he hastily moved his hood, which was up again. As I walked away, I didn't hear footsteps. I was pretty sure that he was watching me. Whatever.
* * * * *
"Um...Ryder?"
"What?" I mumbled around a nacho, which I had been nibbling on for about a minute.
"He's, uh...watching you."
"Good for him."
"No...it's freaking me out...could you, like, say something to him?"
"Kelsey," I said calmly, putting down my nacho, "if I look at him and turn around and you have taken any of my guacamole, I swear that I will not eat with you for at least a month."
"Okay, okay, yeah, just fix it."
With a sigh, I stood up from the table and walked to the part of the cafeteria that linked to the hallway. "What do you want, Corey?" I asked in a tired tone.
"Who said I wanted anything?"
"The girl that has been complaining for twenty minutes that you're looking at our table."
"It's a nice table."
"It's a school table."
"Your point?"
"Look. Either come sit with me, or stop staring. One of the two needs to happen, because you're freaking out Kelsey, and her whining is driving me insane, since I already have a headache. So. Which one is it?"
"Is it bothering you?" His eyes glittered with interest.
"I don't give two flying fucks what you do," I said with a shrug. "I'm too tired for that."
He smirked. "I give two flying fucks about what you do."
"They're flying because they'll be gone soon enough," I muttered under my breath.
"What was that?"
"Nothing. Are you sitting with me or not?"
"I don't see why not."
I sighed and walked back to the table, sitting down across from Kelsey again and laying my head on the table, my forehead against the cool surface. It felt nice. "Kelsey, that's Corey," I grumbled when I felt the bench move as someone sat down. "He's a pain in my ass and we're going to deal with him right now, okay?"
"Okay," she squeaked.
We sat in silence until lunch was almost over. It was almost not completely horrible.
Almost.
I felt a rush of cold fly down my head, hair, and back. I shot up, immediately spinning to punch whoever had poured a soda on me, but to my surprise, Corey already had the poor guy by the shirt, about an inch off of the ground.
"What was that?" Corey asked in a scarily calm voice.
"I-I tripped!" The boy sounded terrified.
I wiped soda off of my forehead, cussing under my breath at the pain it caused when it got in my eyes.
"Apologize." Corey was actually scary.
"I-I'm sorry!" the boy stuttered.
Nearby, a group of people were laughing at me as I swiped soda off of my shirt. Others were laughing nervously, also looking at me. Most were staring at Corey, unsure of whether he was about to beat the hell out of the kid. "Drop it," I muttered.
"Excuse me?" Corey asked.
"I said drop it. Forget about it. Let the kid down. I don't care. I'm just going to wash this damn soda off and go home to change real quick. It doesn't matter."
"I think it matters."
"I don't. Let him down." My voice was icy.
Now everyone was staring at us. I wasn't one to defend people I didn't know, but the way Corey was acting was actually a little bit scary. That's the word to describe him: scary. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't quite scary enough to have me let him do whatever he wanted to whoever he wanted to do it to.
I heard his sneakers hit the ground, then the sound of him running away.
"Kelsey, can you tell my Astronomy teacher that I'm going to be late and explain why?" I asked quietly, pulling a piece of ice out of my hair calmly.
"Of course, Ryder," Kelsey replied softly.
"You," I said, pointing toward Corey. "Don't just pick up random kids just because you can. It's not right. He didn't do anything to you."
"He did something to you," he growled.
"That's not your problem."
"Says you."
"Damn straight says me."
He glared at me.
I shrugged it off and wrung the most soda possible out of my shirt.
Corey reached in to his backpack and handed me a sweatshirt. "You're going to freeze."
I raised an eyebrow. "It's sixty degrees outside."
"Take the jacket or I will be accompanying you to make sure you don't die of hypothermia."
I rolled my eyes, took the jacket, and put it on to soothe the big baby. "There. Better?" I pulled my hair out of the collar of it and placed it so that it fell down my back.
Corey nodded, his eyes seeming a little bit distracted.
I patted his shoulder lightly. "Thanks." I didn't want the sweatshirt, at all really, but it was the fastest way to shut him up so I might as well thank him for the opportunity to make him shut his mouth. I walked out of the school and got in my car.
As I took a deep breath, I was hit with an overwhelmingly good scent.
I blinked in surprise. I didn't even have perfume that smelled this good. I reached back in to my backseat, looking for the source, but my car was spotless, and I couldn't find a source. Slowly, I raised the collar of his sweatshirt to my nose and inhaled a little bit.
It was the sweatshirt.
* * * * *
I forced myself out of the shower reluctantly and groaned, laying down on my bed. It would be so easy to just not go back to school. In fact, it was too easy to pass up. Therefore...
I pulled out my phone and texted Kelsey.
not coming back. no point, and im in a worse mood now than I was before. see you tomorrow. maybe come over tonight tho? im pretty lonely here at night.
I hit send and closed my eyes. God I was tired. My phone buzzed a moment later.
alright, see you then :) Movie night? Just us?
Sure.
IÂ sighed quietly to myself, closing my eyes once more. My head was pounding, and the last thing I wanted right now was to watch a movie. Maybe that would change by the time Kelsey came over, though. I turned on my side and looked at the sweatshirt that was neatly folded on the edge of my bed. I had washed it before I took my shower, but the scent didn't wash out. What could the scent have possibly been from? Surely not him. He was such an asshole, he couldn't smell so intoxicatingly good.
I stared at the hoodie for a couple more moments before gingerly pulling it over to me, using it to prop up my head.
I fell asleep faster than I ever had before.