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“You and Blaise.”
I gritted my teeth. “How the fuck did you hear about what happened?”
But in all seriousness, I couldn’t believe that everyone knew now. I didn’t want anyone to know that I had gotten tangled with Redwood’s bad boy. That wasn’t how shit worked in my stories. There was always more buildup before the big blowout. I should’ve had more time.
“Word gets around,” he said, looking back at me and flashing me a smirk that nobody should ever trust. Smirks from bad boysnevergot good girls anywhere. “But I can make the rumor die down, if you babysit tomorrow night.”
After rolling my eyes, I pushed the books toward him. “There is no rumor, is there?”
João chuckled. “Not yet, but you know that Skylar is about to let it rip.”
While I might’ve been safe for now, João wasn’t wrong. I’d have maybe until tomorrow morning before the entire school knew that I had been fucking Blaise Harleen. Then, everyone would wonder why the fuck he wanted me.
Hell, I wondered about it too.
Compared to some of these Redwood girls, I looked like a stick of deodorant. I wasn’t stick thin like them, didn’t have the perfect body or smile or the clearest skin. And, God, I could barely have a normal conversation with someone without getting flustered.
“Fine,” I said between gritted teeth and glanced over at Blaise, who now had his hands balled into tight fists and looked like he wanted to rip João’s head off his body. “I’ll babysit, but you have to promise me that you’ll do more than shut her up.”
João’s smirk widened. “What’re we talking?”
“I don’t know,” I said, not wanting to know what he’d do. “And I don’t want to know what you plan to do with her or how you plan to shut her up. I hate her and want her to stop fucking with me.”
“Will do. She tried to fuck with Landon last year anyway. She deserves what’s coming to her.” João smacked the counter, grabbed his books, and walked toward the doors. “Good talk,” he shouted over his shoulder, then looked directly at Blaise, as if they had some kind of beef with each other. “See you tomorrow night, V.”
I blew out a frustrated breath, knowing that he was going to get me in a shit-ton of trouble one day, and called for the next person in line. And lo and behold, CVS man stood in front of me with a wide grin.
“Getting around, are we?”
“I’m not in the mood for you,” I said, snatching his engineering books from him.
“Of course you’re not.” He nodded in João’s and Blaise’s direction. “You got two bad boys fawning over you.”
Scrunching my nose, I scanned his books. “First of all, gross. Second, I’m almost a hundred percent certain that they both have girlfriends.” Or whores, in Blaise’s case. Skylar wasn’t the type of girl to be chained down, even to Redwood’s bad boy.
“Does that mean you’re single?” he asked.
After cutting my gaze to him, I clenched my jaw. From the corner of my eye, I saw Blaise looking over at us now that João had disappeared through the exit. And as bad of an idea as this was, I wanted to get back at him.
So, I swallowed the bile that had risen in my throat at the thought of flirting with Jim and nodded. “Yeah, I’m single. Why?” I asked loud enough for Blaise to hear without seeming too suspicious.
It wasn’t like it actually mattered though, because Blaise didn’t like me like that. He only wanted to get into my pants. I just hoped flirting with this annoying bastard would make me feel better about myself.
Jim rested both his forearms against the counter. “Because I want to take you out.”
I slid his books across the counter and leaned toward him. “Yeah?”
Jim smiled—and not one of those fake smirks, but an actual, genuine smile. “Yeah.”
Blaise still stared at us. I didn’t know what had come over me, but I wanted to take it up another notch. I wanted to hurt him, like the way I felt so fucking hurt right now. It wasn’t fair to me that he’d used me.
“I close up at nine tonight,” I said, brushing my finger against his forearm and trying not to cringe at how awkward I felt. This was how the girls flirted in my stories. It had to be somehow hot, right? After convincing myself that I wasn’t being totally gross, I smiled. “But I do have a break in fifteen minutes, if you want to wait.”
“How long is your break?”
“Long enough.”
ChapterTwenty-Three
