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So much better.
“So, will you come with us next weekend?” she asked.
“I won’t be allowed to go.”
“Come on, Shan, you can’t just say no,” Claire whined. “Not without asking, at least?”
“I don’t need to ask, Claire,” I croaked out. “I already know the answer.”
“Then don’t ask him,” she quickly said. “Just make up an excuse or something and come over to mine. We don’t even have to go with the lads.”
I sighed heavily. “Claire—”
“We can have dinner at my house,” she hurried to say. “And you know, if Johnny just happened to stop by because of a rogue text message sent from my phone, then maybe you two could go up to my room and—”
“Stop it,” I warned her, shivering at the thought.
Claire laughed down the line. “I’m kidding.”
“You better be,” I grumbled. “Because I would die.”
“So, do you want to do that?” she asked, smothering her laughter. “Come over to mine for a takeaway and a movie? Or we could go to the cinema. Or out to eat at a restaurant. Whatever you want,” she told me. “It’s your choice and my treat.”
“I love you for offering,” I told her, biting down on my lip to stop it from wobbling. “But you know he’ll never allow it.”
Claire sighed heavily. “Shan…”
“Don’t,” I pleaded quietly. “Please don’t say anything.”
There was a long pause before she whispered, “I won’t.”
I sagged in relief. “Thank you.”
“I’m here for you,” was all Claire replied in a sad tone of voice. “Forever.”
13Creeping and Winging
JOHNNY
Every day since starting at Tommen, I sat at the exact same table in the lunch hall for break. It was close to the door and comprised of a thirty-foot banquet table, filled with my teammates and a few of their girlfriends. I always sat at the end of the table, with my back to the wall, looking onto the rest of the room, where I had a crystal-clear view of everything going on around me. I liked it because I had space to breathe and not have girls fucking groping me and touching my back every fifteen seconds. Like always, Gibs and Feely sat opposite me, and Hughie sat to my right.
The difference today was both Hughie and Feely were in detention, and Gibsie was scowling at me.
“Could you stop staring at her for five fucking minutes and pretend to be listening to me,” Gibsie hissed. “Seriously, lad.” Tossing his sandwich down on the lunch table, he threw his hands up in frustration. “It’s getting creepy, and you’re putting me off my food.”
“I’m not doing anything,” I grumbled as I leaned back in my chair and rolled my water bottle between my hands absentmindedly.
Shannon was sitting at the opposite side of the lunch hall with her two friends, smiling and laughing at something Hughie’s little sister was saying.
Her hair was swept back in two long braids resting on her small shoulders, and every time she wrapped one of those braids around her finger, I had to bite back a groan.
Seriously, I’d been sitting here for the past twenty-five minutes, not listening to one word Gibsie was saying, because I was too fucking busy watching a girl who clearly wanted nothing to do with me.
All weekend, Shannon had been in the back of my mind—okay, the fore point.
I’d spent days brooding over her reaction to me on the pitch Friday, and how she hurried away from me.
When she passed me in the hall this morning after first class, I had felt way too fucking excited to see her. Of course, she smiled shyly before dropping her head and hurrying past me, but she was here. She was in my space. Which meant both my attention and my thoughts were fixated solely on her.
