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Somehow, I sense Abe’s agitation from my non-reply. I don’t look his way, but when I get up to leave at the end of class, I feel his gaze burning into my back.
“What’s up, Ice Princess?” one of his cronies–Asher, I think–calls out as he passes me by. He chortles and holds out a fist for Abe to bump, which means he must be right behind me.
I stop and give him my full attention. “What’s up with you, loser?” I call in a cheery voice.
Asher stops, too.
Abe bumps into me from behind. His hand finds my hip. I knock it away.
We’re blocking all the traffic in the crowded hallway now.
“Ooh, too good for all of us, aren’t you, rich girl?”
“Lay off,” Abe growls.
Asher looks over in surprise.
I sense Abe take a step back, away from me. I turn to look and see his nostrils are flaring, and his eyes have turned ice-blue. He looks off-balance. I’m not sure if he can see anything right now. He’s having one of his episodes.
“Dude... you’re, um–” Asher taps his temple.
Abe crashes to the floor in a dead heap. His head slams against the hard linoleum with a sickening crack.
“Oh shit.” I drop to my knees beside him.
Abe’s body convulses. I don’t know if it was his fronting that made me believe he really could handle what was going on with him before, but I realize that was all just bluster. Abe has a serious medical problem he’s been covering up for fear of appearing weak. Terror strikes through my heart now.
“He’s having a seizure!” I call out. “Get a teacher.” I cradle his head to keep it from banging against the ground. Abe’s legs jerk, his body flops.
Oh, God.
Bodies crowd around us, kids pressing in to see, everyone staring.
“Get back,” I wave an arm. My stomach is in my throat. “Somebody get help!”
Tears smart my eyes.
Abe sucks in a hard breath with a huge whoosh, then sits up, gasping. He blinks, his eyes changing back to slate grey. He looks around at everyone staring at him. “Fuck.” In a flash, he’s on his feet, and I’m still kneeling on the ground.
“Dude,” Asher says, eyes wide. “What just happened to you?”
“Abe, you have to stop pretending you’re okay, when you’re not.” I climb to my feet. “You need to get help–this is dangerous. What if that happened while you were driving or something?”
Abe scrubs a hand across his face, taking in the throng of people around us. I should have expected it, but it hits me like a slap when his face contorts into an all-too-familiar expression of scorn. “Don’t pretend you know me, Princess.” He makes a shooing motion. “Go back to your mansion. You have no idea what’s really going on.”
What’s really going on?
Is that his way of pretending I don’t know he’s a wolf?
You know what? I don’t care. Abe could find a million other ways to protect me. He’s just being a dick, as he has always been.
Why I thought I could actually care about someone as flawed as him is beyond me.
“Yeah, keep covering up with bullshit. That’s what you’re good at.”
Abe is already walking away from me, redirecting the crowd away from the scene he was so desperate to avoid. I don’t even get the dignity of him waiting for my comeback.
I watch his retreating back–those broad shoulders that look like they belong on a man, not a high school student. My continued attraction to him hits me as pain.
