I opened my eyes and smiled at him gratefully. Hmm, maybe he is going to go easy on me after all. “Yeah? How many classes does it take before they teach you how to avoid getting flattened by a drunken girl driving a stolen sports car?” I joked.
He smiled causing a little dimple to appear in his right cheek. “That one’s a basic requirement, survival guide number one. You’d be surprised how often that comes in handy.”
“So, how come you’re transferring mid-semester?” I asked curiously. My best guess was that he’d moved house or something. He was obviously living with his aunt, but I didn’t want to pry and ask why he didn’t live with his parents.
He laughed. “I’m not transferring. I was excluded from my last school,” he said, shrugging as if it was no big deal as he pulled his hood up and then pulled out a packet of cigarettes from his pocket.
I eyed him warily. He wouldn’t smoke on school grounds, would he? Surely he was just after a reaction from me. “What were you excluded for?” I asked curiously.
He grinned. “The final straw was smoking, but I was hanging by a thread for fighting and skipping class before that,” he muttered, pulling out a cigarette and offering me the packet.
I shook my head and frowned at him. “You got excluded for smoking? That kind of seems a little harsh,” I admitted.
He shrugged. “Yeah, it didn’t help that I forgot to stub out my butt properly and the carpet in the English block caught fire,” he replied indifferently. I gulped at his words. As I opened my mouth to speak, he pulled a silver lighter from his pocket, flicked the flame on and cupped his hand around it as he brought the tip of his cigarette to it. I gasped in shock that he was seriously lighting up in the school, especially after what happened in his last one.
I ripped the freshly lit cigarette from between his lips and stubbed it out onto the bench, looking around to make sure no one saw. “What the hell are you doing?” I hissed, glaring at him.
He frowned at me angrily, but didn’t say anything, just pulled out another one and lit it. I snatched it out of his mouth and stubbed that one out too. He was really angry now, his jaw tight as his eyes seemed to hold a burning passion in them that actually made me flinch. I glared back at him. Neither of us spoke as he calmly got another from the packet. Before he could even flick the flame on his lighter I grabbed the packet and his unlit one from his hand, put it on the table and poured the rest of my drink onto them.
He jumped up in shock and dived for the packet, flicking the water from it. “What the hell are you doing? Are you stupid or something?” he shouted, his whole body tensing up as he scowled at me.
I calmly stood up and nodded. “Yeah, I’m the stupid one. I’m the one who set fire to my old school and got kicked out. I’m the one who’s repeating senior year because I couldn’t be bothered to turn up and go to class. I’m the one that actually pays to put poison inside my body because I think it looks cool. Absolutely I’m stupid,” I stated sarcastically.
He stared at me for a couple of seconds before a smile twitched at the corner of his mouth, then he broke out into a full smile. I frowned, a little confused at the sudden change in mood. “There was me having you pegged for a little pushover girl who wouldn’t say boo to a goose and wouldn’t in a million years stand up for herself. I guess I was wrong, huh?” He regarded me almost proudly.
I frowned. I’d never met anyone as confusing as this guy. One minute he behaved like a jackass, and the next he was being nice, I literally couldn’t keep up with him. I had a feeling that most of this was an act to get a reaction from people, maybe he liked the attention.
“I guess you did,” I muttered, my voice a little weaker now. “Anyway, the bell’s about to ring so maybe we should think about getting you to your next class. I assume you are going to class?” I asked, raising one eyebrow at him curiously. It wouldn’t have surprised me if he’d walked out of school as soon as the tour finished.
He cocked his head to the side. “Do I have any classes with you?”
I nodded and pulled out his schedule. “Two. Both after lunch.”
A wicked smile crossed his face. “Then I guess I’m sticking around, wouldn’t miss the opportunity to piss you off for the world,” he stated, laughing quietly as I glared at him. I grabbed my bag and walked off without waiting for him, I headed in the direction of his history class. He caught me up easily. “So, does the cheating ex go to this school?” he asked.
I frowned and looked him from the corner of my eye. Why did he have to bring up Luke again? I was getting along fine not thinking about him, Zach and his ‘look at me I’m a badass’ personality were keeping my mind off of the betrayal for a while.
“Yes, and so does the slut he cleated with,” I muttered, hugging my bag to me, wishing that everything would just go back to normal or that I would stop feeling this pain every time I thought of Luke and what he’d done.
“Today’s gonna be fun for you then I bet,” he teased, laughing quietly.
I stopped walking and closed my eyes. “Do you have to be such an asshole? Look, I’m sorry I almost ran you over. I’m sorry I ruined your cigarettes. I’m sorry that you have to come to this school when you would probably rather be somewhere else, screwing slutty girls, or jumping over cars, or whatever the hell is it that you find interesting. Just don’t take it out on me, okay?” I hated the way my voice shook when I said it, I hated the way I felt so broken and vulnerable, I just hated everything about myself at that moment.
He laughed. “Wow, you’re definitely getting better at the bitchy comebacks. You need a little more practice though so I’ll let you keep working on them. Come on, little miss DUI, I don’t want to be late for my first official class,” he chirped, clearly having a great time at my expense.
I gritted my teeth. This torture would only last for a couple of days, by then he would know his way around and meet a couple of friends. Then I’d be free to pretend like I didn’t even know him. “Right well, I’ll show you where your class is and then you’re on your own until this afternoon when I’ll see you in gym,” I muttered, just wanting to be away from him. I scribbled my name and number at the top on a piece of scrap paper and then handed it to him along with the stack of paperwork Principal Bennett had given me the other day. “There’s a map of the school and a list of your classes. If you get lost or anything then that’s my number. Or you could just ask someone, I’m pretty sure the girls will help you,” I stated, turning my nose up at the thought of the girls that were going to be swooning over the new badass.
Zach shoved my number in his pocket and followed along at my side as we walked through the deserted hallways. I made the most of the quiet because I knew that in a few minutes they would be teeming with people and everyone would stare at me, whispering about how Luke had cheated. I swallowed the lump in my throat. All I wanted to do was go home. During the night I’d actually considered finishing my senior year by correspondence. That idea was getting more appealing by the second.
“The Principal said I’d be eating with you today,” Zach said casually at my shoulder.
I frowned and shrugged. “You don’t have to. I have things to do so if you wouldn’t mind braving it on your own,” I suggested hopefully.
He smiled that dimpled smile again. “What you gonna do at lunchtime? Cry in the bathrooms about the prick that thought with the little head at the party?” he joked.
“Do you have to be such an ass?” I snapped, shoving on his shoulder.
His smile faded instantly. “Sorry, I was just joking around.” An apologetic expression crossed his face before he frowned and looked at the door of his next class. “Thanks for showing me the way; I’ll see you at lunchtime. No crying over the dickwad, okay? He’s obviously stupid to have done that to a girl like you,” he stated, crossing his arms over his chest, clearly uncomfortable.
I raised one eyebrow. That was the first nice thing he’d said to me. He looked like a fish out of water, like he wasn’t used to being nice or something. His eyes were looking anywhere but me, and I couldn’t help but smile a little.
“Right, well, okay, yeah,” I muttered weakly, not knowing what else to say. “I’ll see you in the lunchroom then.” I turned and headed off towards my class, wanting to get there before the hallways filled with people. Today was going to be hard; thank goodness I didn’t have any classes with Luke though so I got out of that one. The same couldn’t be said for Sandy though; she was in my gym class, as was Zach. That class was going to be a nightmare no doubt.
I stopped outside of my class and pulled out my textbook as the bell rang, pretending to be engrossed in it as people streamed out of the classroom. I gulped, my eyes filling with tears as people were already having whisper conversations about me. All I could hear were people telling the story over and over, how I had walked in on my long term boyfriend in bed with another girl.
I just kept my head down and willed the tears not to fall. The worst part of all of this was: the one person that had caused me all of this pain and sadness, was the one I really wanted to hug me and comfort me. My body longed for Luke; I wanted to bury my face into the side of his neck and wrap my arms around his broad shoulders, clamping myself to him. I hated myself for wanting that, it made me feel like a worthless pushover. How was I supposed to make myself stop loving the guy? Could I? I wasn’t sure of the answer to that question at all.
I kept my head down during class, not making eye contact with anyone, pretending to be engrossed in the lesson. The time passed, slowly, but it passed. As soon as the bell sounded I made a quick exit, not wanting to linger and talk to anyone. As I stepped out of the door I was engulfed in a hug by Charlotte who quite often met me from class so we could walk to third period together.
“Okay?” she asked, pulling back, looking at me sympathetically. I sighed deeply and shook my head, willing myself not to cry again. “You know, I could hack the FBI and put a warrant out for Luke’s arrest if it’ll make you feel better,” she suggested, grinning at me hopefully.
I laughed and rolled my eyes. She probably can too. “It’s fine, it’ll settle down.”
A wicked smile crept onto her lips. “I already gave Sandy some payback this morning during my computer science class.”
I chewed on my lip and giggled. “What did you do?”
She shrugged casually. “Hacked her Facebook and changed all of her settings, sending out a status that said and I quote, ‘I’m a dirty whore who likes to watch midget p**n instead of doing my school assignments’,” she said laughing to herself. “I might have also sent out a few hundred friend requests to some people who she wouldn’t really want to be friends with.”
I wrapped my arm around her waist as we walked down the hallway. I felt ten times better now that I had someone with me; the looks that I got off of people weren’t as bad when I had someone distracting me. “What kind of people?” I asked, shifting my heavy bag on my shoulder.
She grinned. “Freshman, nerds, faculty, strippers, everyone I could find.”
I laughed. Sandy was going to be furious when she realised, but she’d never know it was Charlotte, she was too good at things like that. “Thanks, Char.” We stepped into class then and headed for the back, still talking back and forth about other computer things Charlotte could do to her as payback.
When the lunch bell rang at the end of class I smiled at Charlotte and Beth. Half the day was done, I just needed to get through lunch and then three more lessons then I could go home and hide in my room, listening to Boyz II men. When I got to the lunchroom entrance I stopped as I saw Zach leaning casually against the wall. Girls and boys were milling around talking to him, looking at him, seeming to hang on his every word. I was right earlier, he was undoubtedly going to be popular with the girls here, they were already adjusting their shirts and skirts, trying to get his attention.
I sighed and rolled my eyes. One good thing about him being accepted by the popular crowd was that I didn’t have to eat with him today. Charlotte nodded in his direction, cocking her head to the side looking at him curiously. “Is that the new guy, Zachary something or other?”
I nodded. “He prefers Zach.”
“You gotta eat with him?” she asked, pouting at me.
I waved it off and shook my head. “He looks like he’s all set. Come on, I’m starving.” I nodded towards the canteen and got about three steps before someone shouted my name, making everyone stop talking and look at me.
I groaned. As if I’m not centre of attention enough already! I turned and looked at him as he pushed himself off of the wall, smirking at me. “Yes, Zach?” I smiled politely.
“I’ve been waiting for you. You ditching me? Now that’s not very nice is it?” he teased, narrowing his eyes at me.
“I thought you were alright,” I replied, nodding at the fangirls he’d already accumulated that were waiting for his attention again. “Looks like you have people to sit with already.”
He laughed and rolled his eyes. “So, how was your morning? I heard you told a guy to shove a note up his ass and then stormed out of class telling the teacher to eff off,” he said, looking at me with an almost hopeful expression on his face.
I sighed dramatically. The rumour mill in this school were working overtime today! “Yeah, my day happened just like that. How was your day, Zachary?” I turned and walked towards the lunch line, not caring if he followed me or not. Charlotte looked at me with one eyebrow raised as her gaze flicked to Zach, raking down his body with an appreciative bite of her lip.