Chapter 151
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FIFTY-ONE
ALEC
“That bitch isn’t here today,” Maddie said through her teeth.
“Who, Sandra?” I asked, shutting my locker and heading toward Spanish with Maddie.
“No, Piper.” Maddie arched a brow. “Why do you want to talk to Sandra anyway?”
“Because she’s the only person who’s had a thing for me,” I said.
I had been thinking about it all night, and I couldn’t stop thinking about the blonde wig that Sandra had stuffed in the back of her closet. She had bought it last Halloween for a costume that she didn’t end up wearing.
“And?”
“And what if it was her?”
“I don’t think it’s her,” Maddie said. “Half the school’s population likes you.”
“Maddie,” I grumbled.
She tucked some hair behind her ears and matted down the frizziness. “What?”
“You know that’s not true.”
Cue the longest and most dramatic eye roll that I had ever seen. “Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
“Do you not see everyone staring at you?” she exclaimed, pointing toward a group of freshman girls who were huddled by a locker and giggling, their gazes locked on me.
They turned away, all embarrassed, and hurried down the hall in the opposite direction.
Honestly, I hadn’t even realized they were staring. All I cared about was Maddie.
“It could be anyone,” Maddie whispered.
“No,” I said. “It has to be someone that Spencer knew.”
“So … literally anyone with a vagina?”
“Maddie,” I sighed. “I’m trying to find the person who did this to us. Plus, you hate Sandra.”
She pressed her lips together and continued down the hallway of lockers. “I’m not trying to stop you from finding her, but I’m just telling you that Spencer used to sleep around with a lot of girls”—her voice dropped—“believe me.” Another sigh. “He even used to have a thing for Mrs. Dawson.”
“Our math teacher?”
“Yeah,” Maddie whispered. “She was extra flirty with him around me.”
“You think that they were sleeping together?”
“Think?” Maddie scoffed in disgust. “I walked in on it.”
“Cupcake …”
“It’s fine,” she said dismissively. “I’m over it. But it’s why I got so angry when I heard about your parents sleeping with guys from our school. It’s triggering, and I wanted to protect you because I love you.”
My lips turned into a small smile as I curled my fingers around the belt loops of her jeans and pulled her closer to me. I rested my head against hers and shook my head. “I don’t deserve you.”
“Shut up, Wolfe,” she said, playfully smacking my chest. “You deserve the fucking world.”
“Excuse me!” Mrs. Dawson called from across the hallway. She stood at her door, freshly highlighted hair curled around her shoulders, dressed in a blinding bright Lilly Pulitzer teal shirt with some equally bright dress pants. “You know physical affection is against school rules.”
Maddie tightened her grip on my shirt and growled underneath her breath, “Sure. Sorry about that, Mrs. Dawson. I’ll save the physical affection for when I’m fucking him after school.” Maddie—while she was pissed—threw me a wink. “Gotta get to class.”
Once Maddie turned around to head in the opposite direction of where her class was, I grabbed her hand and pulled her back toward me. “Won’t happen at school again, Mrs. Dawson. But no promises about after hours.”
“Excuse me, Mr. Wolfe. I’m not going to have to keep you after school to—”
“I’m not interested in fucking you, like Spencer Katz did.”
“Oh shit.” Jace Harbor, high school football star, chuckled down the hall.
Flushed in the face, Mrs. Dawson crossed her arms over her belly and stepped back. “I—”
“Serves you right, bitch,” Jo?o said, giving her the finger as he and Jace continued toward their class. “That’s for giving Landon a D last year because he didn’t want to sleep with your crusty ass.”
After Mrs. Dawson marched back into her room and slammed her door, Maddie chuckled next to me and pulled me toward the staircase to walk to our class. “She’s going to hate you now. You didn’t have to do that.”
“Of course I had to do it for you,” I murmured, intertwining my fingers with hers and squeezing. “I’m not going to let her tell me when I can and can’t kiss my own girlfriend. She can go fuck herself for all I care.”
When we reached the third floor, I spotted Sandra lingering outside her locker with Jenny. I cleared my throat and nodded to my ex-girlfriend. “Is it okay if I go talk to her for a couple of minutes? I’ll be in class soon.”
Maddie glanced at Sandra and sucked in her cheek. “Sure. But be quick.”
Once Maddie disappeared into the classroom, I walked over to Sandra. Jenny gave me a half-smile and hurried down the hallway as the first bell rang.
Sandra crossed her arms over her chest. “What do you want?”
“Did you kidnap us?”
She laughed and twisted a piece of hair around her finger. “What?”
“I’m not fucking playing around. I saw the blonde hair.”
“Are you being serious?” she scoffed, grabbing locks of her hair and holding it toward me. “What’re you, blind now, Alec? Does this look blonde to you? Anyone with eyes can see I have the blackest hair on the face of the planet.”
“What about Jenny?”
“What about her?”
“You both had those blonde wigs you picked out for Halloween last year.”
“I didn’t kidnap you,” she said through gritted teeth. “Why would I do that?”
“Because you still like me.”
She rolled her brown eyes. “I might still like you a little, but I wouldn’t kidnap you! Besides, I had a sleepover with Jenny for the past two nights in a row.” She bit back a smile as she stared at the ground. “It was fun.”
I snapped my finger in her face. “Hello?”
She lifted her lip in disgust. “As I was saying, I might still have a crush on you, but I was too busy with her. And if you would really like the details of what happened, then I can tell you, but it involves vaginas, and I doubt that your girlfriend would like you talking about that with me.”
After massaging my forehead between my thumb and forefinger, I exhaled. “Then, who was it?” I mumbled.
“Someone actually kidnapped you?” she said in a burst of laughter.
“Sorta.”
“I don’t know,” she hummed, snorting. “Have you thought about Mrs. Dawson?”
“Why would Mrs. Dawson kidnap me?” I asked, but she was the second person to bring it up to me today. And while I didn’t think that Mrs. Dawson had the damn strength behind that harsh force that had knocked me out … I didn’t know.
She shrugged. “Because I always see her flirting with freshmen who don’t know any better. She probably has a thing for you too. And she’s blonde.”
I scrunched my nose. “Ew.”
“Yeah, ew.” Sandra slammed her locker. “It’s gross how handsy she is with kids.”
“What would she want with me?” I asked. “I have never once shown interest in her in my entire life here. She used to flirt with me, too, in freshman year, but I had always had my sights set on Maddie that I ignored her most of the time.”
“Don’t know,” Sandra said. “And it’s not my problem. But rumor has it that she’s gotten possessive and jealous of guys she used to flirt with in past years. I heard that she slept with a couple of students three years ago and … paid them to keep quiet.”
That wasn’t even the worst of it, especially if Maddie had walked in on her and Spencer …
“Anyway, gots to go,” Sandra said. “Class time. Have fun with your little investigation.”