Chapter 22
ALEX
What the fuck just happened?
Did Kai Fields actually just call me cute ?
I sat there frozen, staring at the computer screen like it might explain it to me.
We hadn’t done a single bit of work. And then he just… left. Bolted, really.
But it was the way he looked at me that kept replaying in my head.
The way his green eyes widened, like he’d let something guarded slip without meaning to.
It made something pull low in my stomach.
I didn’t think Kai Fields was gay. I didn’t think Kai Fields was anything . I didn’t think about him at all.
But now?
Now all I could think about was him calling me cute.
He probably didn’t mean it. Not like that , anyway. He probably just said it without thinking, and then I reacted like a complete idiot - blushing like that - and made it weird. Yeah. That sounded about right.
Make friends with the guy and then drive him away in the same breath. Classic Alex.
That sounded more like my life.
Because why would he be interested in me anyway?
I let out a long breath as I pushed myself up from the chair, my ribs still aching, slinging my bag over my shoulder, shoving my drink into my blazer pocket, and walking out of the room.
One more lesson.
That was all that stood between me and potential exclusion - or worse, expulsion. I couldn’t even bring myself to imagine what my life would look like without school. Without those six hours a day where I could breathe, where Connor wasn’t hovering over me like a shadow I couldn’t outrun.
The thought alone made my ribs twinge, a sharp reminder of exactly what I’d be stuck with if I lost this one place that felt even slightly safe.
My pulse kicked up at the thought of sitting in a room with the head and Mum. I just hoped she didn’t turn up drunk or high or… anything, really.
Before I left this morning, I’d tried to hide all the alcohol in the house, but knowing her, it didn’t matter. If she wanted it, she’d find a way. And it didn’t help that Connor had his mates around all the time, practically handing her whatever she wanted like it was nothing.
But still, it wasn’t his fault she was a junkie. She’d been using long before Connor ever got mixed up in that world. If anything, she was probably the reason he ended up in it.
She was always around the wrong people, bringing home the wrong men. You grow up seeing enough of that, and you’re bound to go one way or another.
Connor chose to stay in that life. Me? I wanted to get as far away from it as I possibly could.
That’s why I needed this meeting to go well.
I had to stay in school if I was ever going to make anything of myself.
I just had to.
This meeting wasn’t just standing between me and expulsion - it was standing between me and my future.