Chapter 3
Once we were dismissed—and I left the room in a mad dash, making it impossible to even think about getting one more glimpse of Cal—my lungs expanded fully and rushed much-needed oxygen to the rest of my body.
Cal was that consuming. The heat of him sucked out the breathable air until I begged for his leftover fumes.
It had been that way for over two miserable months.
Those bright blue eyes of his, like ice under the ocean … Jesus, fuck, how I hated him.
While I headed to the class that was nearly over, I pulled my phone free to check the messages that had vibrated in my pocket during that torture session.
Ty
Am I picking up gasoline and matches after school?
Idiot.
Mom
The school called. Are you okay?
Were you hurt?
I sighed and stopped in the hall to answer her before continuing. I was late already, and the teacher would know why. What was a few more minutes?
I’m fine. Not hurt. It wasn’t really a fight.
Her response was immediate. Though she’d no doubt been given the 411 from Ty and filled Dad in, she’d probably been perched on a barstool in the kitchen as she’d waited for my answer.
She worried, and I hated that I’d made it harder for her.
Since that night they’d gotten a call from me in tears, at the hospital, she’d had this ever-present fear she’d get another call like it.
Though it hadn’t been my fault—I’d finally accepted that after a year of therapy—it’d been because of me she carried this deep-rooted dread with her.
Mom
Okay. We’ll talk more when you get home. They said you had detention. Ty will wait for you and get started on his homework in the library there at school.
I’m glad you’re safe, sweetie.
The economics teacher barely acknowledged my late arrival to his class as I quietly entered and slunk into my seat next to Ty.
He lifted a brow and whispered, “You good?”
I shrugged. Was I? How the fuck would I know?
Something like detention shouldn’t be too much of a blight on my high school transcripts, right?
But more pressing, how the fuck would I stand detention with Cal Winters, of all people, sitting next to me.
I could only hope others would be in there with us, diluting his potent effect on my nervous system.
Nope, not that fucking lucky.
Today’s detention was with Ms. Haney, the very teacher who’d caught us this morning. She eyed us like the killjoy I imagined her to be. All pruned and pursed like a sanctimonious bitch, set on her moral high ground and unlikely to ever see anything outside of black and white.
When I tried to sit as far from Cal, who was already situated in the middle of the front row of desks, she put a nasally stop to it.
“No, Mr. Rutledge. Since the two of you have such an issue with each other, making it the problem of those around you, I’ll be returning the favor. You will spend the next hour sitting beside Mr. Winters,” she said.
At least Cal seemed just as happy about it.
I fell into the seat, making the desk jerk away from him as much as possible without it being obvious that was my intent.
Ms. Haney was no fool.
Once I’d stopped squirming and gotten my homework out of my bag, she waltzed her ass right over and jerked my desk back into position. I glared at her squat yet deceivingly strong body as she strode back to the desk at the front of the room.
“For every word I hear, I’ll extend your detention ten minutes. Am I clear?”
Fucking evil.
I nodded, not daring to speak or see how Cal responded.
After thirty minutes of excruciating silence, a small giggle startled me out of my calculus homework. I glanced at Cal, hoping that hadn’t been him, but his focus was forward. I followed suit and stared at a rosy-cheeked Ms. Haney as she smiled at the e-reader in her hands.
Seriously? I couldn’t imagine what would have her bright-eyed like a schoolgirl. Actually, I didn’t want to imagine it.
I glanced at Cal again, and this time, his eyes were on me.
Fuck you, shithead, he mouthed. At least, that was my interpretation. I’d never claim to be a lip-reader, but his were impressive enough to want to study the craft.
No. Ah, fuck. No. No studying Cal’s lips.
You wish, I aimed right back.
Your fucking fault.
Dream on. You’re just as much at fault.
Confusion lowered his brows. Okay, he might not be an advanced lip-reader either. I scribbled the same words on my notebook and showed him, all while glancing at Ms. Haney to make sure she was still distracted.
He scratched over his own notebook, then tilted it to show me.
Chain your brother or do you like being his whipping boy, taking the punishment he deserved for being a loud mouth?
I snapped my gaze to his, shaking my head and wishing I could burn him alive with my eyes. Talk about Ty again, and I swear, I’ll kick your fucking teeth in.
He smirked as he showed me his new message. Now whose dreaming?
Who’s, dumbfuck.
God, I hate you.
Mutual.
“Boys!”
We jolted in our seats and didn’t bother checking the anger in Ms. Haney’s expression, just hunched over our notebooks. I returned to my homework. Who the fuck knew what Cal did for the remainder. Thankfully, she didn’t extend our time.
Cal took forever putting his shit in his bag at the end of detention, and I took the concession for what it was, leaving quickly, putting as much distance between us as possible.
Ty was gathering his books when I entered the library and nodded toward the door behind me, then waited for him in the hallway.
“Come on, troublemaker,” Ty said when he came out.
He pushed my shoulder to get me moving faster, and I swatted at his arm. “Shut the fuck up, dickhead. This is just as much your fault.” Cal’s messy handwritten words saying pretty much the same thing came back to me, and I sighed. Fuck him.
“Hardly. Had you kissed and made up long ago, you and Cal would be balls-deep in each other’s asses instead of getting your asses in trouble.”
“Would you shut up?” I hissed, glancing around, then relaxing in the empty hallway.
The more I hated Cal, the more my infatuation with him grew. The sun-kissed locks, the blue-water eyes, the perfect white teeth behind his tanned lips all went straight to my balls. Cal smiled, and my chest tightened. Cal spoke, and the sound sent warm shivers down my back.
Well, for about two seconds before I snapped at him for being an asshole jock.
I was responsible for perpetuating this whole thing. The fight between the two teams might’ve died out once soccer camp was over and our field was finished, but we’d never know now.
“Detention all week?” Ty asked.
I ground my teeth at the reminder and punched open the door into the bright afternoon sun. “Yeah.”
“I’m thinking about organizing a retribution prank.”
“Don’t. They don’t care who’s behind it. They’ll still say we organized it, and next time, it’ll be suspension or worse. I can’t have that on my record.”
Ty turned to walk backward and yelled, “Such bullshit,” at the school while giving the building the finger.
I snickered in spite of it all.
Ty grinned at me, then bumped his shoulder into mine. “You going to be okay? A week with Cal will suck.”
And not in the way my mind would prefer either, but I only shrugged.
We reached the BMW X5 we shared, Mom’s hand-me-down when she got a new Lexus, just as Cal opened the door to his truck to my left.
He lifted his head and paused for a second, watching me watch him. We were probably thirty yards from each other. The details of his expression were lost to the distance, but the weight of his gaze bored into me. Did he really hate me? I sort of hated him, but only because it was easier, safer.
“Jack,” Ty yelled from inside the SUV.
I opened my door, eyes still on Cal, then lowered them and jumped in.
I supposed our hatred was all for the best. Cal had given no indication he was into guys; not like I had either.
My life and what I did with it was just that: mine.
No one here needed to know shit about me when I’d be nothing more than a picture in a yearbook come summer.
Ty sped out of the student parking lot, then screeched to a halt when Cal tried to make the turn onto the street at the same time. He graciously waved Ty ahead of him, to which Ty gave Cal the finger.
“Ty, come on, man. Don’t be a dick. He’s in trouble just like I am for something we didn’t do.
” And here was a great example of my self-made drama.
No matter how much I hated him, wanted to hate him, I couldn’t stand it when anyone so much as thought about being mean to Cal or disrespected him.
Logically, yes, Ty was only supporting me in his actions, but my heart was a stubborn ass.
“How do you know he didn’t do it?” Ty asked.
“Because he said he didn’t.”
“And he’s the pillar of truthfulness?”
“Why would he lie? We’ve both owned up to the shit we’ve done. If he said he didn’t ruin our kits, then he didn’t. The whole school is in on this now. It could’ve been anyone.”
Ty laughed. “Yeah.”
“Don’t be so happy about it, Captain Chaos.”
“I most certainly will. It’s fucking funny as shit.”
“Why don’t you spread the word to end this fight? That’s what you can do as your own penance in all this,” I said.
Cal lived a few streets over and made every turn we did. I couldn’t see him, only the passenger side of his black Raptor in the side mirror, but I stared the entire way home.
Ty turned onto our driveway, and Cal disappeared. I lowered my eyes to my lap, to the strap of my backpack I’d twisted tightly. As much as I’d hated the extra time with him today, I wasn’t ready for it to be over.
I slowly followed Ty inside. With my homework completed in detention and nothing else to do, I went to the kitchen, where Mom was prepping dinner.
She glanced at me as I took a seat on a barstool, then retrieved a tray of snacks from the refrigerator and slid it along with a Gatorade across the kitchen island toward me.