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ALLIE
Jamal sat at the nerd table with me and Imani again at lunch. I welcomed him today, giving him a warm smile and wondering if I could finally be happy with him someday. We ate in silence as Imani typed on her keyboard, only looking up when Poison walked into the lunchroom.
I narrowed my eyes at her. “What’s going on between you guys?” I asked.
She looked back at me with wide brown eyes. “Who?”
I playfully rolled mine and gestured to the table Poison had claimed for themselves.
Imani tugged on one of her curls and blushed. “Nothing,” she said a bit too quickly, turning back to her screen and trying to look busy.
“Way to not seem sus,” Jamal said to her.
“Sus?” she asked, furrowing her brows.
“Suspicious,” I clarified, placing down my chocolate milk. “Landon keeps asking for you.”
She closed her laptop, giving me that narrowed gaze again. “When do you talk to him?”
My lips curled into a smirk. “Is someone jealous?”
Jamal rested his forearms on the table and leaned forward. “Landon’s bad news. If you’re going to go for any of them, try Kai. He’s chill. Allie and I grew up with him on Pierce Road.”
Imani gave me a small smile and looked down at her lunch. “Or I can try all three.” She threw me a wink, which made Jamal scrunch his nose and look away, as if he hadn’t heard the football team talk about doing worse with the cheerleaders.
“If you’re going to hang out with us, this is what you get, Jamal,” Imani said, laughing. “Sarcasm, sexual innuendos, and anxiety about Bio. We aren’t those innocent, geeky girls everyone thinks we are.”
Jamal chuckled and gave me a look. “I know that.”
Imani kicked me under the table and gave me those what the hell happened between you two this weekend eyes. I shrugged my shoulders and stuffed a ham sandwich into my mouth.
My gaze flickered to the head of the cafeteria, where João was talking with Jace. Jace shook his head and continued into the room, leaving João behind and sitting at his table, next to a couple guys from the football team. Nicole sat across from him, giving him those fuck me eyes that I loathed.
I clenched my hands into fists and continued eating my lunch in peace. But today, I had a mission to stop Jace from ruining his life. So, against my better judgment, after lunch, I skipped fourth period and searched for Poison in all the hallways, slipping into restrooms and empty classrooms when I saw a teacher walk down the hall toward me.
Who knew skipping would be so fucking hard? Maybe I just wasn’t used to it.
I wandered down the corridors, finding no sign of Poison anywhere. The windows at the end of the second-floor hallway were fogged up, so I swiped my hand across the glass and saw one of the boys on the front steps.
Hurrying down the stairs, I bumped into Principal Vaughn.
“Miss Allie Hall, what are you doing out of class?” he asked, a hairy gray brow arched hard. He clasped his hands behind his back and stared down at me from nearly six foot five in the air.
“I’m just, um …” I crossed my legs. “Going to use the restroom.”
“You haven’t shown up to class. Your teacher is worried.”
My cheeks flushed. “I’m sorry,” I got out, heart pounding. “Girl problems have been bad this week, sir.”
He hummed to himself and gave me a curt nod. “Well, make sure you get to class. You have a perfect record. Wouldn’t want to ruin it.” He continued up the stairs and walked onto the next floor.
I cut my eyes to his departing figure and continued down the stairs to the front door.
Kai sat on the steps, smoking a damn cigarette, right out in the open, like he didn’t care about anyone asking him to put it away or to get back to class. I stared out the door window at him, my heart racing in my chest.
Am I really doing this? Yes.I had to for Jace. I wasn’t going to let him ruin his life.
I pushed the door open and stepped out into the cold, tugging my jacket around my body to stop the frigid air from giving me hypothermia.
