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He may have been able to resist it then, but he couldn’t resist them now.
There were some footsteps, heading straight towards them, and both Nathan and Tulsa held their breaths.
Three steps, then a pause, then after what felt like an eternity, the intruder turned, dried their hands, and the bathroom door opened.
As soon as the door closed, both of their shoulders relaxed, and the laugh Nathan had been holding broke free.
“Were you trying to get us caught?” She smacked him lightly on the shoulder, but she didn’t look as mad as he thought she would—just relieved to have gotten away with it.
“At least I wasn’t the one who hit my head on the wall,” he chuckled and turned the lock so the door swung open.
Tulsa pushed out first, and he followed close behind her, still chuckling.
He almost bumped into her when she froze in her tracks, staring straight ahead.
It took him just as fast to catch on.
Heather Swayzee stood, slack-jawed right in front of the bathroom door. She wore her purple cheer uniform, ready for practice.
“Oh. My. God,” she said, lifting her hand to her mouth. Clearly, shedidhear them. Somehow, she’d even outsmarted them in her attempt to find out what scandalous couple was hiding in the stall alone.
Well, Heather got the answer she wanted and turned to actually exit the bathroom and sprint down the hallway. Straight to practice to no doubt spread the information to Joliet and the entire cheer squad.
Both Nathan and Tulsa stood in shock, still registering. Nathan was the first to recover and laughed once again. Tulsa looked over her shoulder at him.
He shrugged—smile on his face—and shook his head. “I guess this is going to be much easier than we thought.”
twelve
tully
Tully ducked her head and let her short, frizzed fringe shield her face as she leaned back against her car door. To all the nosy eyes, she looked like she was intrigued in whatever her French textbook had to say. In reality, she hadn’t read a single word. The accents all jumbled together because she was more concerned about pretending the tips of her ears weren’t red from the scrutiny of her classmates who hadn’t noticed her before today.
She had known the attention on her would grow ten-fold after she agreed to this farce, but one day wasn’t long enough to grow comfortable with it yet.
Maybe she should have asked Stephanie to stay with her while she waited for Nathan’s BMW to turn into the parking lot.
As per their new plans, she agreed to meet him here before school so they could go in together. And he was late. According to her watch, she had been five minutes early, and he was running three minutes late.
“Hey there, baby,” a familiar voice called across the parking lot, and Tully’s head snapped up as her body tensed. It took every ounce of self-control to not scrunch her nose in distaste as Erik walked toward her. To rub salt into the wound, three of his loyal teammates snickered at the nickname and followed closely behind him. She took a deep breath to calm herself and kept her face as still as possible as she shut the textbook with a little too much force. “What are you doing out here all alone?”
He looked around the car, like he was expecting someone to hop out and surprise him. Tully didn’t even try to give him a polite smile, she pursed her lips into a straight line. “I’m afraid that is none of your business.”
“Oh, come on. Don’t be like that. You know you love me.”
She had to bite her tongue—hard—and clenched her hand around the book. The worst part was that he wasn’t far off. A small part of her heart still softened just at the sight of him and that damn nickname. But as far as her mind was concerned, he was as good as dead.
Damn Nathan for being late. Erik wouldn’t have the nerve to approach her if he was here. For some reason, standing alone was an invitation for guys like him.
She stepped forward, narrowing her eyes as she was close enough she had to tilt back her neck to keep eye contact. “Get it through that pathetic little head of yours, Vaughn. I’m not interested anymore.” She flicked her eyes down, making a dramatic show of staring at the crotch of his jeans. “Not like you have much to offer anyways.”
The three others coughed into their fists, hiding reactive laughs at the thinly veiled slander against Erik’s manhood. One of them muttered “damn” under his breath.
Erik didn’t take the insult well. His body tensed and his eyes narrowed while his ears flamed at the ends. He never was very clever, and the only defense he could muster up was a harsh, “Bitch” into her face.
She shrugged, maintaining that air of nonchalance that she hung to desperately. “Hey, I’m just being honest. I know how much you value honesty.”
She wasn’t going to stand here any longer and wait around if it was going to bring over idiots like this into her vicinity. She shoved her shoulder against Erik’s as she brushed past him, and ignored the taunting jitters of his friends.
