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Everyone split off to go to their respective classes, and I headed down the hallway to English Lit. I’d had to hand in my essay first thing in the morning, and now I’d see if I got to keep my spot as team captain. My stomach rolled. Fuck.
Instead of sliding into my usual seat at the back of the classroom, I found myself sitting next to the window, with an empty chair next to me.
“Um…excuse me. You’re in my seat.” I looked up to see Pete, the guy whose seat I’d taken. Not like we had assigned seats, but he’d been sitting in this exact spot every class so far.
“There’s a free seat at the back.” I lazily threw up my thumb in the direction of my usual table, and he scurried off to the back of the room.
I felt her enter the room before I saw her. I was aware of everything—her soft intake of breath as she saw who was in the seat next to her, the thump of her books as she slammed them down on the table, and the scent of caramel apples as she reluctantly sat next to me.
“Why are you here?” Her voice was annoyed, and it made me smile.
Turning my head, I finally met her eyes. “What’s with the new look?”
“I don’t…what? I don’t have a new look.”
My gaze raked over her, and her breathing quickened.
Reaching out, I threaded a strand of her silky hair through my fingers. “Okay, not a new look. But there’s something different.” I tugged gently at her hair before releasing it, not missing her shiver.
“Why are you here?” she hissed, all fired up despite her body’s reaction to me. “Last night you told me you didn’t want me, and you were—never mind.”
“I was what?” I leaned closer to her. “Angry? Because you falsely accused me of stealing?”
She sucked in a harsh breath. Turning her head, I saw the anger disappear as her eyes met mine, wide and unsure. “If it wasn’t you, then who was it?”
Before I could say anything else, Prof. Patel was in front of us, handing us our essays.
“Looks like I have Raine to thank for this.” He looked between us, his eyes narrowed.
I glanced down at my paper. B. Fuck, yes!
“No
thing to do with me,” Raine said softly. I glanced over at her paper—A, of course. I couldn’t even be mad, though. With her help, I’d somehow managed to bullshit my way to a B. My sense of relief was immediate—my place on the football team was safe for now.
“Today, we’re going to continue watching our recording of Macbeth,” Prof. Patel announced, returning to the front of the room and flicking on the projector. “This will cover the entirety of Act 2, and we will follow up with a discussion.” He dimmed the lights, and I settled back in my seat, my legs stretched out in front of me. Raine shuffled in her seat next to me, then did the same, kicking her legs out in front of her. My eyes were drawn to her smooth thighs, covered in sheer tights, and I had a sudden urge to touch her.
After looking around to check no one was paying attention, I lifted my arm and rested it casually along the back of her seat. I smiled at her sharp intake of breath as I leaned closer to her and spoke low in her ear. “Tell me what I’m supposed to have done to get you kicked out of drama club.”
She sat in silence for a moment, then turned her head slightly, still facing the screen but angled towards me, her mouth close to my ear. “Someone took the money from the cash box that we use to buy stuff for the costume department, and I’m the only student who knows the combination.” Her voice wobbled. “Mrs. Whittall blamed me, of course. I can’t even blame her for that—it’s the obvious conclusion.”
My fingers curled around her shoulder. “Maybe she made a mistake?”
Raine shook her head almost violently. “No, there was four hundred and twenty pounds missing. And now—and now I’ve been kicked out of the drama club unless I pay the money back. Where am I going to get that kind of money from? You know the situation with my uncle.” Her body was trembling, letting me know how much the news had affected her.
“Four hundred and—what the fuck, Raine?” My grip on her shoulder tightened, before I realised what I was doing. Moving my hand to her hair, I started sliding my fingers through it, soothing her. “It wasn’t me. Fuck, Raine. You drive me insane, but I wouldn’t do that.”
She stiffened under my touch. “No, you’ll just post photos everywhere to make people think I’m a slut. Do you know what people have been saying about me?”
My mind went to Chris, earlier, and unreasonable jealousy pulsed through my veins, followed by a surge of anger at the reminder that she’d tricked me.
Fuck, should I have posted the photos? It wasn’t like I hadn’t done worse than that to people before. I’d never felt any remorse in the past, though.
Her soft sigh hit my ears, distracting me from my thoughts, and I leaned closer to her. “I’m sorry about the photos, okay? But I didn’t take the money.”
“If it wasn’t you, then who was it? No one else has access to that box.”
I couldn’t be sure, but I needed to pay a visit to a certain blonde ex-girlfriend of mine. In the meantime, I needed to distract Raine from questions I didn’t have the answer to.
