Page 21

“We have three hours,” he says with another shrug, as if having three hours explained how he was going to eat what looks like a dozen pastries. I’m not even sure I could do that in three days, let alone in three hours.

But then, he opens the backpack he came with and drops two boxes on the blankets in addition to all the viennoiseries.

I recognize a few of what’s inside, and I have to prevent myself from groaning. He has brought lime pie, that passion fruit éclair I’ve been eying for days at the bakery down my street, and a chocolate cake that seems indecent. And that’s just what caught my eye at first glance. There are as many little pastries as there are viennoiseries.

Did I say three days? We’d need three weeks to eat all of this.

“I think you grossly overestimate what I can eat,” I tell him with a chuckle.

“I think you grossly underestimate what I can eat,” he answers me, and I don’t miss the way his eyes trail over my body as he says that.

I shouldn’t feel hot at the sight, but I can’t help myself. All I can think about when he says that is that maybe I’d like for him to devour me the way he seems to want.

No. Stop. I can’t think like that.

I still move around my desk and come to stand in front of him at the edge of the blanket.

I’m just going to take one of the pastries, and then I’ll go back to my desk.

It’s going to be hard to explain if someone comes to my class and sees Louis sitting on his blanket. It would be harder to explain if I’m there too.

Not that I think anyone would show up on a Saturday morning, but still …

I bend down and pick up the éclair before going back to my desk.

“You could stay here with me,” Louis says before I reach my seat.

“No,” I tell him firmly—and I’m probably more trying to convince myself than I am trying to convince him. “Thank you, though.”

I sit down and get back to work.

He stays on his blanket and lies down on the ground, reading something on the projectable screen of his holo while eating from either the bags or the boxes at his sides. I should call him out about it, but it’s not like he would do anything different sitting behind his desk.

Like I said, the school is basically empty on Saturday mornings. The only other rooms that are occupied are the main detention room and probably the ones with teachers stuck with unruly students like mine. No one should be wandering around.

It’s with that idea in mind that I stand again an hour later to get the lime pie I saw earlier. I know he hasn’t eaten it, because I refuse to say it out loud, but I kept an eye on him—and I’m shocked by how much he’s been eating.

But when I bend down this time and grab the pie, Louis catches my wrist, and I fall onto his lap.

12

Louis

Itried to be good.

I tried.

Okay, maybe it only lasted one detention period.

But I did try. Now I’ve tried long enough, and I don’t think being good is made for me.

That’s probably why, when she comes back to serve herself a second pastry, I lean into the irresistible idea I have to grab her and make her fall with me on the blanket I laid on the ground of the classroom.

Or maybe that was my idea all along.

It’s just pure luck that she falls directly onto my lap.

Or maybe not.