LAILAH #2
That had me sitting up and tossing the blankets off me. “What? How is it so late already? I never sleep that late. Oh God, I stood Jay up. I have to call him.”
I hopped out of bed and started looking for my phone, but couldn't remember the last place I had put it. Cami stepped in front of me, holding out my phone, rolling her eyes at me for freaking out.
“I already texted Jay and told him you had a rough night and needed sleep. Besides, you passed out yesterday, your body must’ve been exhausted from everything you’ve been doing,” Cami said as she gathered up her stuff.
“Oh, he also said that he’s going on a work trip and will be gone until the weekend. ”
I felt my shoulders sag at that. Running with Jay had become one of my favorite parts of my day. I knew I couldn’t slack off and wait till he came back; he would expect me to still keep training to be able to keep up with him when he returned.
“What if you switched up your workout for the week?” Cami said.
“What did you have in mind?” I asked, surprised. I knew how much Cami hated to work out.
“There’s a kickboxing class that I like to go to off campus if you want to join me. There’s a class tonight if you feel up to it.”
“I should have guessed that if you did work out, it would involve you hitting something. Check-in with me at dinner, and I’ll let you know how I’m feeling.”
“Works for me! See you later, Lala. Text me if you need anything,” Cami said as she headed out so I could get ready.
I looked down at my watch, and I cursed, seeing I had just thirty minutes to get ready and make it to class.
I threw on a random T-shirt and a pair of jeans and ran out the door with my backpack.
I made it to my labs on time, but it took me a few minutes to calm down and concentrate.
I could tell that the time I spent with Hudson was making a major change in my chem class.
When the teacher was talking, I no longer felt as lost as I once did, and I followed along more confidently.
Thankfully, Tuesdays were easy days, and I made it through classes easily enough, though I’d skipped breakfast. Cami waved to me from our table in the cafe, I dropped my stuff off and headed to order some food along with my chai.
As I was waiting for my muffin to be warmed, I felt my phone vibrate.
Pulling it out of my pocket, I saw it was a text from Hudson.
Hudson:
Hey, I won’t be able to meet up this week. If you have any questions feel free to reach out. I’ll try and get back to you when I get the chance.
I didn’t respond right away, unsure of what to say to him.
Going a week without his help would be a good test to see how I was really doing, but I was bummed.
Working with Hudson in his lab was always a good time.
We seemed to work well together, and I was always blown away by his intelligence.
I took a deep breath and wrote out my response.
Lailah:
Sure thing! Hope our teacher isn’t working you too hard. Will I still see you this weekend?
Hudson:
Of course, I wouldn’t miss going to the party.
For some reason, his answer wasn’t what I wanted him to say. He was still going to be at the party, and I was already going with Brayden, but I wanted to hang out with him, too. Before I could reply, Hudson sent another text a second later.
Hudson:
I didn’t forget my promise to show you that I can have fun once in a while.
Unable to stop myself, I grinned at my phone with a warm feeling fluttering in my stomach.
He hadn’t forgotten the conversation we’d had when I found out he’d never gone to any kind of party.
Well, after I told him birthday parties didn’t count.
Now that I had one college rager under my belt, it was time to share the love.
“Large chai latte with a pumpkin muffin!” the barista called out, sounding like she had called the order more than once. Shaking myself out of my daze, I grabbed my items and headed back to Cami.
“You okay? They called your order twice before you responded.”
“Fine. I was just texting Hudson and got distracted,” I said, breaking apart my muffin.
Cami’s fingers darted out snatching a piece. “What’s that nerdy wizard up too?”
I scowled at Cami for stealing my food and moved it out of her reach. “Get your own. He was just letting me know we wouldn’t be meeting this week.”
“Hmm,” Cami said with a mouth full of muffin.
“Seems like my week is freeing up, just when I got into a routine,” I said, munching on my muffin.
“Sounds like the perfect time to have a girls-only week. I know we’ve both been busy with things going on, but I would love to get a chance to hang with you and Maggs,” Cami said, unable to look me in the eyes.
I felt my brows rise in surprise. “Are we at the point where you’re going to finally admit that Maggs is your girlfriend?”
“Yeah, I guess you could say we made it Facebook official yesterday,” Cami said, grinning at me.
I clapped my hands excitedly and slid my muffin back between us. “In celebration, you may share my muffin with me.”
“Oh-kay, let’s not make this a major thing, Lala.”
“Why? It is a major thing! I am so excited for you, and now that I have more friends to hang out with, you don’t have to worry about leaving me alone all the time.”
“Fat chance. You can’t get rid of me that easily. Just because I have a lady friend doesn’t mean that we won’t be best friends.”
“I wasn’t thinking that, Cami. I just know that you worry about me, and now you’re going to have someone else to worry about besides me.”
Cami laughed. “Trust me. One of the most attractive things about Maggs is that she can take care of herself just fine.”
“Should have guessed that a damsel in distress wouldn’t be your type.”
“If you come to kickboxing tonight, you’ll see just how well she can manage,” Cami said, wagging her eyebrows suggestively.
“Alright, you talked me into it. I’ll go with you.”
“Awesome! I’ll let Maggs know, and we’ll head over around six-thirty.”
“Works for me. I’m heading to the library to get some homework done before we go,” I said, grabbing my backpack.
“That’s my cue, see you later,” Cami said, grabbing her coffee and heading out of the cafe.
Crossing the quad to the library, I found an open spot to camp out in for the next few hours.
I popped on my headphones, selected my favorites playlist on my phone, and got down to business.
I worked on the edits for the second draft of my English paper, totally absorbed, ignoring the world around me.
Needing to reference something from my notebook, I bent down to grab it when someone ripped the headphones off my head and let them clatter to the ground.
Jerking back up, anger swirling in me for being treated so rudely, I shouldn’t have been surprised by who I saw standing in front of me.
Mallory. Of course, her posse was with her, ready to back her up. “We have some unfinished business with you.”
I sighed; I’d never been very good at dealing with situations like this.
I always ran from my problems rather than confronting them.
The need to make friends and have people like me always turned me into a doormat.
At some point over the past few months, something in me had changed.
Maybe it was Cami’s confident influence, or possibly the fact that I now had more friends than I’d ever had in my life, but I was getting tired of running from these girls.
“What do you want, Mallory?” I asked, closing my laptop.
Mallory glared down at me, hands on her hips like she was some kind of supervillain. “We want The Manor boys back. Ever since you became friends with them, they’ve been blowing every other girl off.”
I shook my head and let out a heavy breath. “What makes you think I can control what they do? I don’t force them to hang out with me over you and your crew.”
“Listen, you little bitch, no one has ever been able to grab the attention of more than one of them. There is something you’re not sharing with the rest of us that gives you some hold on them.
” Mallory bent at the waist, so we were now at eye level.
“Either share your secret, or we will have to do something more . . . drastic.”
I laughed in her face, unable to stop myself. I couldn’t believe this was happening to me. Some of the most popular girls at school were threatened by little old me. This was a twist that I never saw coming in my wildest dreams.
“Let's say I tell you what I did to get them to like me. What would you do with that information? You don’t seem like the type to share well with others,” I said, my voice filled with my disdain.
Mallory looked at me with a glint in her eyes, telling me everything I needed to know. Once she had the information, she was going to use it as she saw fit. I could just see the guys like magic genies bending to her will, enslaved to her need to have what people wanted.
“You let me worry about that because once you tell me, they won’t be any of your concern.”
I leaned in, closing the small distance between us so I could whisper in her ear. “Make sure you’re paying attention, Mallory, I’m only going to say this once.”
I paused, feeling the tension in her body, desperate for what I was going to tell her. The power I held in the situation blazed through my veins. I knew, deep down in my soul, that the next words out of my mouth were the truth, even if I wasn’t ready to act on it yet.
“They are mine,” I hissed in her ear, causing her to rear back from me. “Trust me when I say I will never hand them over to a conniving cunt like you. Stay the fuck away from them, or I might have to do something drastic.”
Lightning-fast, she whipped out with her hand and slapped me across the face so hard I knew my cheek glowed with her handprint.
I closed my eyes and took a breath before I shot out of my seat and returned the favor, but I did it with a closed fist. The impact of my knuckles meeting her jaw hurt, but the terrified look on her face made it worth it.