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She handed me my booklet with a kind smile on her face. “This was your project from a few weeks ago and very well done. You made a hundred on it,” she told me. “Continue doing great things, Bailey.”
I smiled a little, a blush tinting my cheeks. I quickly walked back to my seat and dropped down, my blush deepening when I realized my ass had grazed Seth’s hand that was resting on the back of my chair. I avoided his gaze. “Fucking great ass,” he rumbled. He snatched my project from me and looked at the front. “A hundred?” he asked incredulously. He looked over at me. “You actually fucking aced this?”
I put it in my bag and looked over at him. “Yes,” I retorted, my cheeks now returning to their normal color. “Some of us actually take notes and pay attention to the teacher.”
He shrugged. “Shit’s overrated.”
I snorted. Only Seth Brinson would think school was fucking overrated.
I just turned and faced the teacher as her heels clicked across the floor. She began passing out a packet of papers. “The person you are sitting next to will be your partner on this English project. It is an in-class only project, meaning you do not have to take this home to finish it as it needs to be a supervised assignment.”
Seth nudged me and waggled his eyebrows at me. I gave him a ‘go to hell’ look. He chuckled. Once our project sheet was set on Seth’s desk, I snatched it from him and began to flip through it. “You have two weeks before it is due. Begin working on it,” the teacher ordered. “Remember, I am here if any of you have any questions. The books you need are over on that shelf,” she said, pointing to one of the many shelves in the classroom.
I looked over at Seth. He was texting once again. I huffed in annoyance. He sent whatever message he’d been typing and looked over at me, pocketing his phone again. That was when I noticed the blood seeping through his gray, long-sleeved shirt. “Seth, you’re bleeding,” I whispered in horror.
“I know,” he said, for once not looking at me.
I was panicking. What if the wound was bad? What if he passed out? What if he lost too much blood?
The image of Trent’s pale, still body on the floor flashed through my mind. I squeezed my eyes shut, forcing myself to suck air into my lungs. I had to get him out of class so I could help him.
“I’m going to pretend that I’m fainting. . .” I told him. Seth arched a disbelieving eyebrow at me. My voice trailed off as I realized what I was saying. Was I really about to skip school because of a boy?
“You—a goody-two-shoes—would skip school and most likely get suspended for a bastard like me?” he asked me.
I frowned at him. “You’re not a bastard,” I blurted, blushing when I realized what I had said.
A smirk twitched at his lips. He wasn’t even bothered by the fact that he was bleeding. But I was. My heart was racing in my chest. I felt sick to my stomach. “You really want to fake and possibly get caught?” he asked me. “They’ll know you’re missing, Bailey. Your aunt is the assistant principal.”
I shrugged, though there was a sick feeling in my stomach at the thought of getting caught. I’d never done anything bad in my life. “It’s better than everyone else finding out your secret,” I harshly whispered.
He rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”
I closed my eyes and set my head down on my desk. “Mrs. Bradford, I need to take Bailey to the nurse’s office,” Seth announced. “She’s not feeling good. She’s got a major headache and feels dizzy.”
Mrs. Bradford sighed. “Go on. Seth, make sure you come back to class afterward,” she instructed. I almost snorted. It was pitiful that a teacher had to add that on when speaking to him. She had to know he probably wasn’t coming back.
Seth stood up, and a moment later, his arms slid around me, lifting me from the desk. My eyes snapped open in shock. I’d never known Seth was actually this strong. He always hid behind his hoodie which hid how muscular he apparently was.
I hated that being held like this by him felt amazing. He was strong, his muscles flexing as he adjusted my body in his arms. I could feel his toned chest against my side.
He didn’t seem to be struggling in the slightest.
He walked out of the classroom, and once we were outside, he set me on my feet, grabbed my hand, and together, we made a mad dash for the student parking lot. “I’ll make sure to bring you back to school this afternoon to get your car,” he told me as we slid inside of his old truck.
I shook my head. “No need,” I told him. “My car broke down, and my brother deemed it as a piece of shit and unworthy of being worked on.”
Seth barked out a laugh.
I pulled out my phone and texted Gemma that I was skipping school and not to worry about me. I knew she was going to blow my phone up after that kind of message, so I set my phone on silent.
We rode in silence for a while, only the sound of the radio filling the quiet cab of Seth’s truck. Eventually, he pulled onto a dirt road and drove down it for a couple of minutes until we were out of view of the main road. He parked on the edge of a field by the woods.
After shutting the truck off, he leaned his forehead on the steering wheel. I reached into my bag and pulled out my gym shirt. His bleeding had increased, and I knew I needed to get it to stop soon. “Take your shirt off,” I told him.
He smirked over at me. “Already, babe? Damn, you move faster than I thought you would.”
I just scowled at him.
With a roll of his eyes, he pulled it off, leaving him in a wife-beater. I swallowed hard at the sight of the muscle in his arms. His top was plastered to his hard chest and abs.
“Like what you see?” he asked me.
I hated that my cheeks darkened. Ignoring him, I put my gym shirt on the bleeding cut on his arm, applying pressure until it mostly stopped bleeding. “Look in the glove compartment,” he said once I pulled my shirt away from his arm. “There should be gauze and tape in there.”
I opened the glove compartment, and sure enough, there was. I pulled the supplies out and silently doctored up his arm all while he watched me. I’d done this for weeks once Trent was out of the hospital. He hadn’t wanted to, but when I’d burst into tears, sobbing that I could have lost him, Trent let me play doctor.
This time, Seth’s stare was different—more intense. It was almost as if he could see right through me. And something in my gut told me that today, things were going to change between us.
For better or for worse, I had no idea.
