Chapter 7
All Eyes on Me
As soon as I walk inside the school building, all conversation stops as dozens of eyes, some shocked and wide, fixate their attention directly on me.
Or perhaps they're staring at the three guys flanking me like my own personal armada of bodyguards.
Jayson reaches for my hand and my steps falter, causing my shoulder to brush against Ryder's arm.
We must have arrived during the bell change for lunch because the hallways are full of students.
My heart is thudding so loudly, like the pounding rhythm of a heavy metal song, that I can actually hear it.
Principal Stubbs is standing out in the main hallway in front of the reception office. Her brows crease when she sees me. “Miss Fairchild. May I have a word, please?”
“Yes, ma'am?” I ask, walking over and trying my hardest to ignore the staring eyes around me.
She points a severe look at Ryder, Jayson, and Julien. “Gentlemen, I'm not going to write you up for tardiness, but do not make this a habit your senior year. Now, please report to your homeroom teacher to check in and then head to the lunchroom.”
When I met Mrs. Stubbs the other day, she was very polite and quick to smile. Today, however, she is in principal mode—all business and no-nonsense.
"But Mrs. Stubbs —" Jayson begins.
"Now, Mr. Jameson. You too, Mr. Cutton." She turns back to me after she has made sure they obeyed her request. Switching from principal to caring adult, she asks, “How are you doing today, Elizabeth?”
“I'm doing alright, I guess. A little overwhelmed,” I admit.
She nods her head. “Mmhmm. I can imagine. Would you like to tell me why you are just arriving to school now?”
I swish my right foot back and forth along the crack on the beige linoleum floor. “I was actually early, but left to go home and change clothes.” Using the same lie I told Daniel, I tell her, “I spilled a soda on myself.”
“Mmhmm,” she voices again. “I see the boys found you. Do you remember them at all?”
“No,” I quietly answer.
Mrs. Stubbs lifts my chin. I have no choice but to look her in the eyes.
“You know you can come talk to me or Miss Prichard anytime.
Consider our office doors permanently open for you.
We want you to feel safe and not pressured.
Your uncle already set up a video conference later in the week for me and Miss Prichard to speak with your doctors back in Durham.
We want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to help you during what I know must be a very difficult and confusing time.
You may attend that meeting if you'd like.”
“No, thank you. I've had enough of doctors for a while.”
“Alright. Well, it's your lunch period now. I'm sure there will be a lot of your old friends who have missed you and would be very happy to see you today. If it becomes too much, just come to the main office. I can unlock the teacher's lounge for you, so you have a quiet place to relax and recoup.”
“Yes, ma'am. Thank you.”
“My pleasure. I'll check up on you later before school ends.”
I shift my backpack to my other shoulder. “Um, Mrs. Stubbs? Could you remind me where the lunchroom is?” I feel so stupid asking.
“Of course. Down the hall, take a right, and it's at the end of that hallway behind the double doors.” She gently pats the back of my shoulder and walks inside the main office.
As I walk down the hallway, three heads poke out from around a corner, comically stacked one on top of the other.
“Is she gone?” Julien whisper-shouts and I giggle.
“Coast is clear,” I assure him.
“Awesome. Come with us. We're going to sit out on the quad for lunch,” Jayson says.
I have to admit, having the three of them with me today is going to make things easier.
At least I have somebody to hang out with and not look like a total loser sitting by myself during lunch.
They may be friends I can't remember and who are complete strangers to me now, but a girl in my situation can't be choosy.
The quad outside is peppered with groups of students: some eating their lunch picnic-style and some playing frisbee or throwing a football back and forth. There's a circle of cheerleaders practicing cheers.
A piercing shriek has me jumping about two feet in the air before I'm almost body-tackled by a blur of curly brown hair.
“Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod! You're back!” the girl chants, hopping up and down and taking me along for the ride.
“Celeste, put her down, babe,” a brickhouse of a guy says as he walks up behind her.
He grabs her by the hips and lifts her away from me like she weighs no more than a sheet of paper.
The girl, Celeste, has the most beautiful toffee-colored skin and striking green eyes.
She’s absolutely stunning. And I can’t stop staring at the guy with her.
His honey brown eyes sparkle with mischief, and the blue streak in his hair contrasts with his dark skin. Together, they make a striking couple.
Another girl, this one with wavy strawberry blond hair, speed-walks over.
She’s holding hands with a guy who has to be at least a foot taller than she is.
He has black, spiky hair and looks like he could dead-lift a car.
There must be something in the water in Fallen Brook, because between Ryder, Jayson, Julien, and Fallon, and now these two new guys, I'm surrounded by chiseled male perfection. All of them are drop-dead gorgeous.
As soon as the redhead and her boyfriend enter our cluster, a flurry of questions gets flung at me: How am I doing?
Where have I been? When did I get back? And why didn't I text or call?
I think I may have to take Mrs. Stubb's offer of hiding in the teacher's lounge if this keeps up.
As everyone talks excitedly to me and around me, I feel myself shrinking back from the group, one tiny inch at a time.
“Hey, you doing okay?” Ryder's deep voice feathers across my cheek and into my ear.
I tip my head up and to the side to look at him, and my lips accidentally brush against his lower jaw.
Suddenly, it feels as if all the oxygen has been sucked out of my lungs, and I forget to breathe for a second.
A sharp tingling crackles across my lips at the barely-there contact with his skin.
What is it about this guy that makes me react so strongly whenever he's near me?
Jayson alleges he was my boyfriend before the car accident, so why don't I react to him in the same way?
My lungs start working again and I wheeze out a breathy, “Yeah.”
Still lost in the magical spell that Ryder has on me, I don't catch what Jayson is saying until I hear the word ‘amnesia.’ Celeste and the redhead throw their arms around my shoulders and tell me how sorry they are.
The new guys give me sympathetic looks. Did Jayson just tell everyone about what happened to me?
He has no right airing out my personal business.
I'm going to have to talk with him about boundaries later, and which lines he should not ever cross.
I don't care that he used to be my boyfriend before the car accident, or these people used to be my friends. Jayson has no right to speak on my behalf, especially about what happened to me or my family. That’s my personal business.
Before I realize what I'm doing, I reach behind me, grasping for Ryder's hand. I grab it like a lifeline and link our pinkies together.
“Need to get out of here?” he asks me.
“Yes, please,” I reply, thankful that at least one person seems to understand how uncomfortable I am right now.
Ryder pulls me away from the group. “Guys, we're heading over to the tables,” he informs them, giving our linked fingers a tiny tug.
I follow him as he pulls me over to where four picnic tables are located, all of them in various stages of use.
He chooses one that only has two other students sitting at it.
“I can’t believe he just did that,” I mumble more to myself.
“Want me to talk to him?” Ryder offers, sitting down next to me.
“Thank you, but I can handle him.”
“I never said you couldn’t,” he replies. “But you can count on me, Elizabeth. I’ll always be there for you, no matter what.”
I give him a small, grateful smile, then frown when I see the entire group walking over to join us. My desire for space and quiet is short-lived.
“Liz, you want anything?” Julien asks me as Jayson slides in, sandwiching me between him and Ryder.
“No thanks. I'm still stuffed from the pizza and salad I ate.”
Julien just shrugs and takes a seat on Ryder’s other side.
“Do you really not remember anything? Like at all?” Celeste queries, sitting down in her boyfriend's lap. The redhead does the same with the other large guy.
“That's what they tell me,” I reply, but my wry humor is totally lost on her. Ryder, however, chuckles and shoulder-bumps me. I bump him back.
I look at the two girls across from me. “Let's just pretend that I'm the new girl at school and we're meeting for the first time. Hi, my name is Elizabeth,” I say, offering my hand across the table.
The girls seem to like this game and play along. “Hi, I'm Celeste, and this is Davis, my boyfriend. He's on the football team.” That explains his enormous build. It wouldn't surprise me if the other girl's boyfriend is also a football player.
She confirms it when she says, “And I'm Beth. The guy I'm sitting on is Keith and he also plays football here. You should definitely come watch a game.”
I nod my head, but I don't actually say yes. As we play a round robin of getting to know one another, I notice three girls coming up to our table. Two of them I recognize from the cheerleader circle I noticed earlier.
“I thought you were dead,” the blond one says. “You're like a freakin' cockroach.”
Celeste and Beth both gasp in horror at her crudeness.
I do a slow blink. “Are you talking to me?” I feel both Ryder and Jayson tensing up on either side of me.