✖ Chapter 19 ✖

"I'm so fucking pissed."

Lina and I tore our eyes away from the painting towards Courtney's direction. She looked incredible in her burgundy sheath dress that emphasized her incredible genes and dedication to the fitness life. The scowl on her face made her achieve the dark Disney villain vibe more than the makeup she'd put on. All three of us had decided to twist the fairy tale theme and wear identical dresses and makeup, and tell anybody who asked that we were the three wicked godmothers.

Both of my friends were ready but I was far from it. I'd arrived to school early in the morning to continue painting. My plan had been to go home, shower and get ready to join the girls and their boyfriends for the pictures before the homecoming baseball game. But I'd missed all that. The painting just hadn't been ready when I'd hoped. I could tell Courtney was mad that the plan got derailed, but frankly I was relieved to not have had to be the third wheel in the pictures.

The problem was that this forced them to cut the pictorial time short so they could stop at my place, get my dress and makeup and bring them to school so they could help me look presentable for the dance. The game started at about the same time I finished the painting, and now we stared at it in its glory.

Meanwhile, I was a disaster.

I cringed. "I'm sorry I missed the pictures. I thought I'd be able to finish a lot earlier but I just couldn't get the last details right. But I'm sure you guys looked incredible in them."

Courtney folded her arms. "I'm not pissed about that."

Lina's lips twitched with a repressed smile. She put one delicate hand on our friend's arm and I zeroed in on her corsage. It had a lovely red rose that went very well with the whole vibe of the look. Then I looked at my own wrist, bare except for splotches of paint, and sighed.

"Then what are you pissed about, my dear?" she asked Courtney.

"I feel like we've been telling Rory to do cool shit like this for ages," as she said this she motioned in the general direction of the canvas. "But she only goes and does it when it's Sawyer who tells her to."

Lina's jaw dropped and I protested, "That's not true-"

It kinda was, and we all knew it. Courtney's baby blues narrowed at me.

"And you say he kept you company every night? That's suspicious."

I rolled my eyes. "Trust me, I also don't understand why he took his breaks here with me-"

She interrupted again. "Breaks from what?"

"Work," I said with a shrug.

Lina's head tilted to the side. "I didn't know your dad's shop opened so late every day."

"Normally we close at 7pm but this week we've had to pull overtime to keep up." I caught myself there and scrunched up my face. "Anyway, it doesn't matter. I don't care why he did it. I got free food out of it and he wasn't too annoying, so I can't complain."

"I can," Courtney stood in front of me and tilted my chin up with her finger. "It almost sounds like you had a date with him. Or dates. And I thought that our goal was to keep him away from you."

I batted her hand away. "That plan got derailed by Mr. Davies, if you recall."

Lina, ever the pacifist, jumped in at that. "Oh, so it was study sessions? Like, he studied while you painted?"

"Um, no," I said.

"So he was just staring at you?" Courtney asked.

"Not at me." I'd had my back turned to him the majority of the time, so who the heck knew for real. Still, I added, "At the painting."

"At your ass," Courtney concluded. She looked back at Lina. "What we feared is happening."

"What?" I asked, looking from one wicked godmother to the other.

Lina picked up the bag with my things and attempted to change the topic. "Come on, we have to get you clean and pretty and the dance is starting soon."

Naturally I planted myself like a tree and asked, "What do you guys fear is happening?"

They exchanged a look in the classic move of totally not suspect.

For the record, I knew exactly what the message their eyes conveyed to each other was. I just wanted to hear them say it to my face so that I could laugh at theirs. But at that moment we were interrupted by Trevor and a couple of other guys from the dance committee.

"Holy shit," he said, looking up at the painting like it was some sort of miracle. "You made this?"

I was both pleased by the note of absolute awe in his voice and ticked off that he had to ask. He'd seen the progress I'd been making all week, and it was frankly insulting that he'd think I didn't have this in me.

"She did, so make sure everybody knows that when they're taking cutesy pictures in front of it," Courtney said, ever my biggest champion.

As the two other guys picked up the canvas and figured out the logistics of getting it out of the art room and I freaked out about it the whole time, the girls managed to drag me away into the girls' locker room and we busied ourselves with making me decent. We got into panic mode as we did this, which prevented us from continuing the conversation that I still wanted to finish. By the time we were done and I tried to pick the thread back up, their phones started to explode with calls from their boyfriends. We met them at the entrance of the gym, and they looked dapper and freshly showered after the game. I admitted in the sanctity of my mind that I was bothered I was not being escorted by a pretty boy as well.

All that went to the back of my mind as Lauren found me and asked for help handing out the stupid little crowns to everybody who came in. I jumped at the chance to not have to be a third wheel. I made sure to take my sweet time with that task and when we ran out of crowns, I figured I could prolong my time away from the two couples by taking an extended bathroom break. I weaved my way through the crowd of dancing bodies and made a bee line for the girls' restroom. Most of the stalls were free and I chose the furthest one from the entrance to catch a break.

If it weren't for the fact that I found public restrooms super gross, I might have even tried to take a nap. I toed my heels off and lifted one foot first to give it a quick massage, and then the other. I'd spent the entire day on my feet, just as I had every night this past week. I was tired and really wanted to go home and get in my pajamas. But I didn't have allowance money anymore and couldn't Uber home. I also didn't want to call Toni and ask her for a ride, because she'd already nagged at me even more than the girls about the fact that I didn't bother getting a date for the dance. I was stuck here until Courtney took me home. It was going to be a long night.

I stretched my neck and in doing so one of the graffitis caught my eye. I snorted out a laugh, feeling a strong sense of deja vu.

Sawyer L-OH-gan, read one. It took me only a second to figure the author implied that Sawyer gave her a Big O. I shuddered at the gross imagery of him going at it with some faceless girl who screamed in pleasure under him. Or over him.

That was the thing that I'd have loved to tell Courtney and Lina if we'd been able to finish our conversation. While, yes, I was stupidly attracted to him, I was well aware of his reputation. By all accounts he'd been with so many girls in this school that it was a wonder there weren't any sex tapes featuring him going around. Or that he didn't have some sort of STI. And I wasn't interested in competing with other girls for the attention of one guy who clearly couldn't keep it in his pants.

There probably were more mentions of his prowess in these walls. I looked around, curious but not really expecting to find his name in this same stall again. But then I did. I snorted out an ugly laugh at the irony. By this point I'd already spotted three dedications to him. If I went out to hunt for more mentions I might find so many that pens wouldn't be enough to cover them up. Not that I had an ounce left of such good will in me after seeing the third one anyway.

Sawyer Logan's cock is so big it didn't fit in my mouth.

Someone scratched up the third word until it was almost unrecognizable, but the meaning was pretty clear. I felt a flash of anger that I couldn't explain, and I jammed my feet back in my heels with the intent to get out of that place.

And then I realized something.

It was exactly the same handwriting as the second graffiti. I tried to remember if it was the same as the first one I'd seen weeks ago, but I hadn't committed it to memory. The fact that these two were written by the same girl didn't mean anything. He'd still gone to town with her.

And this bothered me.

I opened the stall door with more force than necessary. It made a bang that startled the living daylights of a girl who'd been washing her hands. I apologized under my breath as I walked over to do the same. I looked at myself in the mirror, and even though my friends had done a stellar job in the hair and makeup department, considering that we'd had such little time to work with, I felt like I still looked like a hideous creature.

It was because as I read those graffitis I'd got so angry. Why did it matter to me if he was a promiscuous idiot? He was free to do whatever he wanted and it had nothing to do with me.

I dried my hands and left the bathroom, the words I don't care echoing in my head. Except now I was mad that I was clearly trying to convince myself of something I didn't believe.

Dang it, I cared! Why did I care?

I got interrupted by a loud bang. I turned to see that someone had dropped a big box type of thing on the floor.

"I swear to God, Ayrton. If it's broken I'll make you pay for it," said a boy with long, shiny black hair. As aggressive as his words were, he looked on the verge of tears.

"It sounded worse than it was," came a second voice from behind the door. He pushed it open and I saw a super hot boy pick up the box from where he'd dropped it. "See? It's intact."

My jaw dropped as an exact copy of him followed behind, carrying a massive guitar. "Play nice, girls."

I stood rooted to the spot as they were joined by more eye candy. This time a black boy who could very well be a super model as he wheeled a large cart packed with equipment, and two girls who could be in the cover of Teen Vogue for all I cared. Dead last was Leti with her boyfriend, and when she saw me she shouted my name.

I watched as the town's latest sensation dragged their equipment in front of me and gave Leti a lukewarm greeting because I was suddenly so starstruck. A couple of the guys from the committee rushed out of nowhere to help and I sat back to enjoy my handiwork. Maybe no one was going to thank me for basically saving the homecoming dance singlehandedly, but I sure as heck was going to find a way to work it into my college applications once I started them in the next couple of weeks. Every school was going to jump at the chance of admitting someone like me, who hustled and bustled and made things happen.

Who cared about some stupid boy?

I tossed my hair back and walked back to the entrance. I'd let the true fans of the band fawn over them setting up the stage and maybe try to enjoy myself until the band started playing. Since the dance had been in full swing for a while now, there was no one else in the line to get pictures taken against the backdrop of my painting. Maybe now I could sneak a solo picture with it.

Except the photographer was gone and in his place stood Sawyer Logan. He stared up at the painting, hands in the pockets of his jeans like he'd never got the memo that this was supposed to be a suit and tie dance. And of course he saw me as soon as I tried to backpedal and his eyes held me rooted to the spot. I knew they were a light grey that could change with his moods, but in the dim light they looked like fathomless pools of darkness.

"Hey," he said, and the sound of his voice carried over the noise, even though it was barely above a whisper. Or maybe I imagined it.

What I didn't imagine was the way my body reacted to his presence. Like it somehow knew that he was around and had been craving him all along. It terrified me. So I did the only sane thing I could think of, I turned and ran.

Or I would've ran, if it weren't for the shooting pain in my feet because of the stupid heels. I lost my balance and prepared for a fall but it never came. I knew exactly whose arms had closed around me, exactly whose chest I was now pressed against. I knew exactly who the intoxicating scent belong to, that could send my heart racing at its nearness.

I felt myself grow limp with resignation. Courtney and Lina's and my biggest fear had come true. I'd fallen for Sawyer's trap.

It was then extremely ironic when he whispered in my ear, "I got you, princess."

this is the look i want you to picture: