4. Harley
HARLEY
I was at my first day of a new school. My senior year.
All because Slade, my annoying neighbor talked me into it.
Well, maybe not so much, but he made me realize I was being stupid when I spelled out how I wanted to get out of here.
How was I going to do that if I didn’t have at least a high school diploma?
What I really needed to make it in the world would be a college degree, but I wasn’t holding out hope on getting a scholarship that would pay for everything because I knew there was no way in hell that my mom was going to pay for my college.
She was too selfish. Why pay for my education when she could use that money to go on trips or buy a new wardrobe?
Whatever.
Starting at a new school was bad enough, but starting when the year had already started was the worst. No one wanted to talk to me. Everyone looked at me like I was a disgusting piece of shit on the bottom of their shoes.
“You finally came,” a familiar voice said from behind me.
I turned from facing my locker and found Slade standing there with a smile.
Damn did he look different in the light of day.
So far, I’d only seen him in the shadows of the night.
While I had felt he had a good body, I was in no way prepared for the man who stood in front of me.
He was tall, and that said something since I was tall for a girl or at least any that I’d encountered in my seventeen years of life.
While I stood at five foot, eleven inches, Slade had a good six inches over me.
That wasn’t the only impressive thing about him.
My eyes tracked down his long, lean golden skinned body that looked like it had been chiseled out of stone.
Each line of him was perfection. Hell, I could see every ridge of his abs through his t-shirt.
It wasn’t even plastered to his body. He was just that well defined.
While his body was heavenly it was his captivating eyes that had me staring at him long after I should have looked away.
Those eyes of his were this strange shade of light brown that were almost a little yellow in color with a mix of mossy green in them. I’d never seen anything like it.
“Looks like it. Although I’m not sure why I thought that was a good idea. These people don’t seem to like newcomers.”
“Yeah, I can’t remember the last time someone new infiltrated our system.”
I scoffed. Infiltrated? Like I was the enemy.
“It’s not as bad as you think,” he smirked, making his eyes twinkle in the brightly lit hallway. “Just give them time.”
By the time they got used to me, I’d be on my way out of here. I could lay low, do my work and not make any friends. I’d live.
“What’s your next class?”
I shook my head as I pulled out my schedule.
I had no idea. I was taking each hour as they came, and not worry about the next.
I handed him my schedule not even caring what my next class was as long as it wasn’t art.
I was the absolute worst artist unless you count what I made looked like something a kid in first grade made.
“Well, what do you know? We’ve got next hour together.” Putting his hand on my lower back, Slade started to push me down the hall. “I’ll walk you.”
“Are you sure you want to do that? Being seen with me might equate to high school suicide. You might be scorned if you’re seen with me.”
“Fuck them, if they’re going to judge, right?” Flicking the ends of my hair with his finger he started to walk. When I didn’t immediately follow, he gripped the strap of my backpack on my shoulder and hauled me with him.
“Has anyone ever told you you’re annoying?” I huffed from beside Slade making him release my strap.
He smirked over at me. “I’m sure my sister has mentioned it a time or two.”
“I feel sorry for her,” I mumbled as we walked down the hall.
If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought I’d had a wardrobe malfunction, or the word loser tattooed on my forever with the way everyone stopped what they were doing to star at us as we passed by.
“Do they always look at you like this?” I muttered out of the side of my mouth, trying to lighten the situation and epically failing.
“I don’t pay attention.”
Right! Slade was most definitely the best-looking guy at this school, and quite possibly the entire state or continent. There was no way he was that oblivious to his looks.
Maybe he’d fucked over some girl. Probably the captain of the cheerleading team and the entire school was mad at him. Or at least that was what I was thinking until we turned the corner and ran into an entirely new crowd. And they loved Slade.
“Dude,” a guy a few inches shorter with brown curly hair slapped Slade on the back. “Please tell me you’re going to the party tonight.” His muddy brown skipped over to me and then back to his friend. “Who’s the girl?” He asked none to quietly.
“This is my new friend, Harley. She’s new here so make her feel welcome.” Slade’s tone wasn’t one of a nice introduction. It was one of a demand. He was ordering the curly haired guy to be nice to me.
His muddy brown eyes pinched at the corners. “I’m Josh. Let me know if anyone give you a hard time.”
Slade’s eyes sliced to mine. “If anyone gives you a hard time, you come to me. Not him.”
Damn. Who was this guy? His entire attitude changed once we rounded the corner.
I wasn’t sure why the other students only stared before, but to this group he was a god.
I wasn’t sure what I’d got myself caught up in being seen with Slade.
Maybe it was a good thing or… yeah it was bad if I went by all the female eyes that were aimed at me with daggers coming out of them.
They didn’t need to worry though. I’d be out of here in no time and in the small amount of time I’d be here, Slade would only be the annoying guy who followed me on my runs like a crazed stalker.
I tried to put distance between me and Slade, but he wasn’t having any of it as we walked, and every single person greeted him.
I kept my gaze straight ahead and pretended like I knew where I was going.
I would need to find an alternative way to get to this class because there was no way in hell, I was coming down this hall again.
“Hey,” a sly voice came from my other side. An arm wrapped around my waist and pulled into the stranger’s side.
“Back the fuck off, Rogers,” Slade gritted out as he maneuvered me back by his side.
“Damn boy, I didn’t know she was your plaything. My bad,” he laughed, holding his hands up.
Oh no. There was no way I was going to let that stand. Even if I was only going be here for two months. Pushing myself close, I was only an inch away as I glared up at him. “I’m no one’s plaything.”
“Let’s go.” Slade’s arm around my waist as he pulled me back from killing his friend.
Turning in his hold, I poked him in the chest. “And who gave you the right to manhandle me because it certainly wasn’t me.”
Slide backed off. His dark brows pulled down. “You know, I?— “
“I don’t know shit, but until I invite you keep your hands to yourself.”
“So that means you are going to invite me to touch you?” He smirked and half the people in the hallway laughed.
“Don’t bet on it.” I whirled away and headed down the hall without looking back. It didn’t matter that I didn’t know where I was going. It was my first day and I should be allowed to be late. Why was this school so damn big anyway? It was at least double the size of my high school.
“Hey,” his voice was softer than I’d ever heard it. “Don’t be like that. I was just playing around.”
“Yeah, I realize that. It was at my own expense.” Pulling out my schedule, I looked at the room number I needed and the room numbers around us and saw I was nowhere near where I needed to be.
“If you want to be helpful show me where I need to be.” I swear they needed ten minutes between each class just to allow students to get where they needed to be.
“Sure.” He nodded in my peripherally.
We didn’t speak for the next couple of minutes as everyone gawked and greeted him.
I kept a blank expression on my face not letting on how much I hated the attention.
The girls already hated me for the simple fact that I had Slade by my side, and the guys leered at me like I was the next image in their spank bank.
As long as they didn’t tell me about it, I didn’t give a shit.
“Are you like the captain of the football team or something?” I asked when he stopped outside a door that read 425.
His dirty yet captivating eyes darkened as he looked down at me. His entire body went stiff before he relaxed against the wall, but he wasn’t fooling me. Something had happened there. “I was. The season’s over.”
“That explains a lot.” I patted him on the arm. “Well, thanks for walking me to class. This place is like a damn maze. The room numbers are all over the place.” There was no rhyme or reason to the way the rooms were numbered or at least I couldn’t see it.
I stepped inside the classroom and all eyes were on me. This was what I hated. I was the freak who appeared five months into the school year. Everyone already had established relationships.
An older man with very little gray hair on his head, but plenty coming out of his nose and ears smiled at me as he looked at me over the rim of his glasses. I handed over my schedule and let him look it over.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Blake. Please take a seat at any of the free desks.
I took back my schedule that he’d marked on, and turned to find a seat only to find one seat vacant and it was the one directly in front of Slade. What were the odds?
Why did we have to have this class together? It was already one I wasn’t excited about and now with him in here, I’d be dreading it. Science classes were so not my thing. Anything where I had to dissect any once living thing was not in my wheelhouse. At least the teacher seemed nice.
Mr. Brown stood up in front of the class and started writing on the board. I pulled out a notebook prepared to write notes and hope the class went by without event.
“As you can all see, we have a new student with us today. I’m not going to embarrass Ms. Blake by making her come up here in front of you all. Instead, we’re going to change up our lab partners for the rest of the year and no you won’t be picking.”
At least if we weren’t picking, Slade couldn’t pick me. Thank god for small miracles. My thoughts drifted to this morning when I asked my mom for money for lunch and the way she sneered at me as if I asked her to give me a pint of her blood.
“I hope you’re not squeamish,” Slade chuckled from behind me, breaking me out of my thoughts on how I was going to get money to eat lunch. I was already hungry since I didn’t eat breakfast after my mom pissed me off.
Looking over my shoulder, I hissed back. “What are you talking about?”
His unique eyes scanned my face for a moment and then brightened with excitement. “About the fact that tomorrow we’ll be cutting into a baby pig.”
“Oh, I’m going nowhere near anything that once had a heartbeat.” I realized then I’d missed who my partner is. “Can you point out who I was assigned to?”
He tilted his head to the side and stared at me for a moment before he lifted a finger and pointed at his chest.
“No.” I nearly stood up from my desk and backed away. There was no way fate could be this cruel.
Pressing his hand to his chest, Slade chuckled. “You wound me. How can you say you don’t want me to be your partner when I’m the only person you know here?”
“Who says I don’t know anyone else?”
He gave a dry look that said I was stupid for the words that just came out of my mouth.
“Fine,” I huffed. “I don’t know anyone. Including you.” I looked back to the front of the classroom and saw everyone was moving to the lab portion of the room. “Please tell me we’re not doing this today.”
“Not today. We’re just getting prepared for tomorrow. Don’t worry if it makes you feel better, I’ll do all the work.”
My head shook frantically as I stood up and followed him to a table in the back. “Not really,” I said as I stared down at a diagram of a pig. “I can’t sit here and watch you cut into some poor piglet.”
His nose wrinkled up in disgust. “Are you a vegan?”
“Not a vegan, but a vegetarian.”
“Almost as bad. I don’t know how you do it.”
“Well, it’s pretty easy since I don’t like to think about eating the faces of animals that I like.”
“Oh my god, Harley, you don’t eat their faces.”
“I can assure you people do eat the cheeks of animals and other things. Still, it doesn’t matter, I won’t eat them.”
“That’s your choice, but don’t expect me to stop eating my favorite foods.”
I was sure I was looking at him like he was crazy because I was. “I would never. Plus, we’ll only see each other at school.” It wasn’t like we were going to all of a sudden start hanging out.
“And runs.”
I ignored his comment.
“What do you expect from me?” I pointed to the sheets of our assignment for tomorrow.
“Absolutely nothing. Well,” he smirked, and his brown eyes twinkled at me. “Not throwing up would be good.” He leaned over the table his face in mine. “If you do, I’ll retch all over this place.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Thanks,” he nodded and sat back down.
“What are we supposed to be doing?” Everyone was just talking. Did Mr. Brown think we needed a whole day to prepare?
“Planning,” he lifted one shoulder. “Now why don’t you tell me why you really don’t want to be my partner?”
Like he was that clueless.
“Don’t pretend like you don’t know.”
Leaning back further, he stared at me from across the table. “How would I know?”
“You’re so full of shit. You’re going to sit there and pretend like you don’t know the pull you have at this school? I walked down one hallway with you, one time, and I saw you’re the big man on top. Every guy wants to be you or your best friend, and every girl wants to fuck you.”
His face went completely blank.
Leaning forward on my elbows, I laid it out for him. “While I’m only planning to be here a short while, I don’t need the attention you attack.”
“Please,” he drew the word out as he rolled his eyes. The only expression on his otherwise blank face.
“Those girls wanted to claw my eyes all because you were walking down the hall with me. While I can take care of myself, I don’t need their bullshit.”
Pushing forward, he crossed his arms and laid his chin on his arm. “Oh, I have no doubt you can take care of yourself. What I want to know is why you’d like them win.”
“Win?” What the hell was he talking about?
“You’re giving them exactly what they want.” When I didn’t respond, he continued. “To stay away from me.”
“Listen, pretty boy. This might come as a shock to you, but not everyone wants to get dicked by you. I’ll be just fine living in the shadows until it’s my time to leave.”
“But you shouldn’t have to live in the shadows, Harley.”