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“You okay?” Jax asks.
The sound of his voice startles me, and when I glance at him, worry is written all over his face.
“I’m fine,” I lie. “I’m just not a fan of having to walk into class late.”
He rakes his fingers through his hair. “Me neither, but at least we get to do it together, right?” He offers me a small smile that alleviates a drop of my worry.
But then a whole new set of worries rises. What if, when the guys find out what I may have done in my past, they ditch me? Sure, I barely know them, and I’m more used to not having friends than having them, but I kind of like this—having someone to drive to school with, eat breakfast with, walk into class late with, share smiles with, and tease me in a playful way. I don’t want to want it, because letting yourself want something means you’re opening yourself up to the risk of losing it.
Concern creases Jax’s pretty features again. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
I do my best to make myself chill the hell out so I don’t come off as a total nutjob. “Yeah, sorry,” I tell him. “I really don’t like drawing attention to myself and being the new girl who walks late into class is going to do that.”
He stares at me with hesitation written all over his face, and I feel like he wants to say something but is holding back. Then he sighs. “We should get to class.”
I nod in agreement, crossing my fingers that we can slip in undetected. But nope, we don’t even come close to doing so. In fact, we don’t even manage to make it down the hallway without getting spotted.
As we round the corner, a girl around my age is leaning against a locker. She has long, blonde hair and is staring off into space with her arms crossed and aggressively chewing her gum.
“Shit,” Jax curses, skidding to a halt and stiffening at the sight of her.
I glance from him to her then back to him. His expression says it all.
“Let me guess, old girlfriend?”
“Yeah …” He massages the back of his neck, his gaze flitting between her and me. “Do you mind if we take the long way? I’d rather not deal with her right now.”
I shrug. “Sure. We’re already late anyway.”
He smiles with gratitude then spins around, but as he does, the girl spots us. She immediately stops chewing her gum and straightens.
“Um … We’ve been spotted,” I hiss under my breath.
I expect Jax to sigh and twist back around, but he snags ahold of my hand and tows me with him as he basically sprints away from her.
As we round back around the corner, I sneak a peek back at the girl. She’s watching us walk away with a hurt expression on her face, and I kind of feel sorry for her. Although, I don’t know the story of how they broke up, so perhaps I shouldn’t.
Jax continues to hold my hand as he steers me down a hallway that wraps around in the other direction. It’s kind of strange that he’s holding my hand. I’ve spent years not being touched by anyone … well, in a welcoming nice way. But yesterday, Hunter grabbed my hand and now Jax is holding my hand. Honestly, I don’t even think he realizes it.
“Was it a bad breakup?” I finally ask when about a minute of silence trickles by.
“What …?” He blinks at me. “Oh … yeah …” He lets out a quiet exhale. “Honestly, at this point, I should be over it. It’s been about two years. And I am over it. I just …” He huffs out a frustrated breath as he rakes his fingers through his hair with his free hand. “It was just a really bad breakup and seeing her reminds me of everything that happened.” He lowers his hand to his side and meets my gaze.
“You don’t need to explain it to me. I get that breakups can be hard. Or, well, I don’t get it personally since I’ve never dated anyone before, but I know enough to know that they have to be hard.” Jesus, can I ramble anymore? Seriously, what is wrong with me this morning?
His lips part in shock. “You’ve never dated anyone before?Ever?”
Why, oh why, do I have to open my mouth sometimes? Le sigh.
I shake my head. “Nope.”
His gaze skims across his face. “How not?”
Huh?“How not what?”
“How can you have never dated anyone?”
I shrug, feeling a bit squirrely. This conversation is getting way too personal for me. “I don’t know. I guess maybe because I’ve just always been sort of a social outcast.”You know, because my evil villain of a cousin tells everyone that I’m a murderer.
