Chapter Nine
For fourth period I interned in the library, helping Mrs. Morgan reshelve books and make copies of worksheets for other teachers. The quiet work felt like a nice breather before I had to go home. Especially on Wednesdays.
I sat on the counter with the laminator humming warmly against my hip as I fed a poster of the food pyramid for the girls locker room through it when I heard a deep voice behind me.
“Hey, baby.” Andy leaned against the door frame of the media room with a yellow pocket folder loose in one hand, his Letterman jacket unzipped over a white T-shirt.
I smiled at him. “Hi, handsome.” I crossed the small room to kiss his cheek. His skin was cool from outside. “Did you need me to do something with this?” I asked, pointing to the folder.
He held it out. “Yeah, Mr. Hayward sent me down here with it. He said he needed fifty copies and would pick them up after school.”
I nodded, undoing the brad on the front. When I peeked inside I had to press my lips together.
“It’s empty, isn’t it?” he guessed.
“Yes,” I breathed.
He tilted his head, voice softening as he played with the ends of my hair. “What’s wrong?”
“What do you mean?”
“The old man wouldn’t send me down here with an empty folder unless he wanted me to check on you. So what is it?”
I set the folder on the counter and turned back to the laminator. “It’s nothing. I just got in a dumb fight with my tutor.”
His brows pulled together. “Aaron?”
“August.” I corrected.
He snapped his fingers in recognition. I watched the poster slide out the other end of the machine, sealed stiff.
“About what?” he asked.
I pouted. “One of his friends called me a Barbie.”
He made a low, solemn sound, like a pastor acknowledging a confession.
“I’m sorry, babe. Kids are assholes.” He pulled me into him easily, my face pressed against one of the metal buttons of his jacket.
He smelled like cold air and the same pine body wash he’d used since sophomore year.
“But if it makes you feel any better,” he said into the top of my head, “I love your plastic boobs and permanently painted smile.”
I laughed into his chest. I tipped my chin up to meet his blue eyes. “And I love that you have a smooth, very non-genitalia-suggestive bulge in your pants.”
He laughed, his whole chest moving with it. He kissed my forehead. “You good?”
“Yeah.”
“All right.” He let go and stepped back toward the door. “I’ll see you tonight for youth group, yeah?” He winked.
I smiled and nodded. He slapped the top of the door frame on his way out, the sound echoed in the small room, and then he was gone.
As I made my way through the student-filled parking lot, the sound of other students talking loudly was barely audible over the music playing in my earbuds.
I was almost to my car when I spotted August standing at its trunk. The only thing that made me more nervous was Andy hovering over him, a look plastered on his face that made him resemble his father.
I took my earbuds out and pushed through the last of the students in time to hear Andy say, “Have I made myself clear?”
August was nearly the same height as Andy, though a lot thinner.
His mouth was set in a hard, unimpressed line before he said, “Yes, I’m smart enough to comprehend your neanderthal thinking, Andy.
Has anyone told you that speaking louder doesn’t actually make you sound smarter?
Or is it a side effect of getting hit in the head too many times? ”
Andy was about to step closer, but I slid between them, pressing my hands to Andy’s chest and forcing him back. “What’s going on?” I hissed.
Andy didn’t take his eyes off August as he sneered, “I was just reminding this little punk to watch what he calls my girlfriend.”
“August isn’t the one who said it, Andy. I told you it was one of his friends.”
His teeth clenched in an unpleasant sneer as he growled, “Then he can pass the message to all his misfit friends too.”
I dropped my hands from his chest, and he looked down at me instantly. “Don’t say things like that. Calling them names makes you just as bad as them, Andy.”
His brows folded in frustration. I heard a familiar laugh and peeked around him at his teammates, and could already hear their taunts in my head.
Are you going to let your girl talk to you like that, Andy? Why is your girlfriend defending a misfit anyway, Spires?
I didn’t care that the rest of the team were assholes, but I did care if I was dating one. When I looked back at Andy, I knew he was bracing for the same jokes. His hard features turned on me as he said, “We’ll talk about this later.”
I was stunned when he turned away and climbed into his truck, his friends whooping and hollering as they piled in on the passenger side.
I turned back to August, who looked just as irritated as Andy had—though with fewer muscles in his face. It didn’t look nearly as aggressive.
“What did you say to him?” I asked, keeping my tone low.
“I didn’t say anything to your guard dog,” he said dryly.
“I was standing here waiting to apologize to you, and he approached me. Started beating his chest in front of all his friends about how I’d disrespected his girl—” He sneered the last two words.
“—like you’re his yard and I just pissed on it. ”
“Oh, and I suppose you didn’t antagonize him at all, huh? No witty comebacks to make him feel dumb? No big words to make yourself superior?”
“It’s not my fault if your boyfriend has the vocabulary of an eighth grader,” he muttered.
I bit my lip, fighting the smile that threatened to break free. August’s gaze dropped to my mouth, and the corner of his eye twitched up. His lopsided grin, suddenly playful, sent a thrill through me I didn’t want to acknowledge.
“He really does his own stereotype justice,” he said, no malice in his tone.
“He’s really a nice guy.” I stamped my foot against the asphalt like a petulant child, trying to sound severe, but laughter tangled with words.
August laughed too, a low, warm chuckle that did weird things to my stomach.
“You can not be intellectually satisfied with him,” he laughed, but the comment landed wrong in my chest. He didn’t catch it, and went on, “And we both know you aren’t satisfied…otherwise.”
I smacked his chest lightly. “I only said I faked it sometimes,” I whispered, glancing around to make sure no one was watching.
August caught my hand and held it against his chest for a half-second before letting go. My palm tingled from the brief warmth.
He cleared his throat. “Anyway, I wanted to say I’m sorry. As much as I hate to admit it, the quarterback was right. I should’ve stood up for you, and I didn’t. I’m sorry.”
I glared. “Is that all you’re sorry for?”
“Yes,” he said, his jaw ticking.
I huffed and moved around him to slip between my car and the next.
I opened my back door and flung my bag onto the seat.
August stepped into the space after me, caging me in with the half wall separating the parking lot from the main drive.
I supposed I could’ve gotten in my car and backed over him, but that felt like a sure route to the term premeditated being thrown around a courtroom.
“You don’t have anything you want to apologize for, Sin?” he asked casually.
I whirled back. “What would I apologize for?”
“Oh, come on. I know the Barbie comment didn’t bother you that badly. But you couldn’t tell your boyfriend what I said because it was true, right?”
I didn’t answer. He stared at me in satisfaction and stepped closer. My eyes flicked around again—no one left in the lot was watching us.
“So, Princess Lola got her feelings hurt because I called her out on her bullshit. And now you have to act like the victim, and get your boyfriend to try to put me in my place in front of everyone, so you can remain high and mighty.”
“I didn’t ask Andy to do that,” I snarled.
“No, but you knew he would. And if you didn’t, you would’ve kept your pretty mouth shut, huh? Would’ve lied and said you were fine. Just like you lie when you say you like how rough he is with you.”
My heartbeat rang in my ears as he took another step closer. I didn’t look around this time; I couldn’t take my eyes off his mouth, now only a few inches from mine.
“You wanted to put me in my place? Then do it yourself, like a big girl.” He stared at me expectantly. When I didn’t respond, he gave me a wicked grin and reached out to touch the cuff of my shirt, low enough that no one else could see.
“Go on. Tell me I’m beneath you. That I could never have a girl like you.
Remind me that I’m lucky to sit across from you every morning, let alone that you’d ask little ole me to tutor you.
That I should’ve gotten on my knees and worshiped you for offering to help me with girls, because lord knows I’d never have done it on my own.
” His words tumbled out rapidly, like he was begging me to actually say them.
“If that’s the game you want to play, Sin, then I’ll gladly play it.
You can pretend you’re actually helping me, and I’ll pretend to not love the fucking attention.
But let’s be mature about it and not drag other people into it, alright? ”
My eyes stayed on his mouth until August bent his knees a bit, forcing me to look into his eyes. “Say okay, Sin.”
“Okay,” I breathed, thoughtlessly.
“Now say you’re sorry for dragging your poor boyfriend into our business.”
“I’m sorry,” I said automatically.
His smile was the brightest I’d ever seen as he straightened to his full height. He drummed his fingers against my wrist three times, then shoved his hands in his pockets. “I’ll see you at my place after school tomorrow. Enjoy…church.” He chuckled low and shook his head as he walked away.
When he was finally out of sight, I let out a deep breath, feeling like I’d just stepped out of a fog, wondering what the fuck had just happened.