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“Have you hung out with Trinity lately?” I asked as I pushed the door open to the hallway. A bunch of freshmen lingered in front of the doors, but when they saw me, they quickly scooted off to the side.
“Wow, I’m impressed. It took me two years of scowling and roughly bumping people to get that kind of attention.” Ryan raised his eyes as we walked through the parted freshman sea.
“It’s not me. People only started doing it once Rhys started walking me around school whenever he could. Before that, I was anonymous,” I sighed wistfully.
“Girl, with your harem of hot man meat, you’re never going to be anonymous again. Maybe if you were with just one.” He tilted his head and looked up at the ceiling as we reached the front hall. “Nope, I take that back. Jonah’s going to do big things, just because he’s ambitious like that. Rhys is a hockey god. Beck is a rock star. The only one you might get away with anonymous with is Thatcher. And that’s a big if. Because he’s artsy fartsy and crazy talented. No Ass, you might as well get used to it now.”
He was right, I knew he was. As much as I hated it, I was okay with it too. The guys were more important to me than remaining in the shadows. That just seemed like a lonely life anyway.
“Back to my question. Have you been hanging out with Trinity?” Sometime since Christmas, they’d exchanged numbers and had grabbed food a couple times. I was glad. I constantly felt like I wasn't the greatest friend to Ryan because I focused on the guys so much, and Trinity could use a couple good friends. There wasn’t a better person to be in her corner than Ryan now that he saw she wasn’t my nemesis.
“I have,” he grinned. “You know, I wasn’t sure about her at first. She threw off major bitch vibes when I met her, but she’s mellowed out a lot.”
It warmed me that he gave her a chance to see what was underneath. I got the feeling from Trinity that not a lot of people did. “She had a not so great childhood. I’m pretty sure the bitch vibe was to purposely throw people off. Or maybe because she didn’t know how to not be that way?”
"She is a bitch, don’t mistake that, but she’s also pretty cool. You should go to dinner with us one night when your boyfriends aren’t eating up all your time.”
Rhys’ head bobbed over the crowd as he headed our way. Where people moved out of my way reluctantly, they scurried out of his. Except today, there was an added element of unease traveling through the puberty infested crowd of underclassmen.
His face was like thunder by the time he made it to us, and he shot his gaze around the hall. Every time he made eye contact with someone, they turned and fled.
This wasn’t the typical befuddled appreciation he got from girls who wanted him and guys who wanted to be him. The way they seemed to whisper behind their hands and shift away from him as if he was diseased was different. Alarming.
“Ass, are you getting the vibe that Rhys has some strange new insanely contagious STD that everyone is trying to avoid?” Ryan asked quietly as more whispers filled the crowded space.
“You just now noticed that?” I returned as I stepped up to Rhys and slid my hand through his. The rough, warm skin of his palm met mine, and his fingers clenched around my hand, giving me the same security I had hoped to give him. “What’s going on?” I glanced up at Rhys.
“I have no fucking idea. It started in third period. It’s only gotten progressively worse from there.” He extended his hand to Ryan, who bumped his fist in the typical masculine greeting and goodbye of some teenagers. Then he steered us down the hallway.
“You don’t think it’s another gossip article about us, do you?” We’d been careful not to linger outside too long over the last few months. Not that we were hiding what we were to each other. Jonah, Rhys, and I had also started being more open at school too.
Coming out to the general school population seemed to quiet some of the worry that had plagued Rhys. Then he was honest about our relationship in Michigan. I had thought all this was behind us.
“No. Even if it is an article about us, you’ve been holding hands with both Jonah and me, and we both kiss you before and after classes. I doubt that would phase the student body this much. But you feel it, right?” He glanced around, glaring at every person who made eye contact.
“Yeah, I do.” There was a buzz in the hallway. Not quite tangible, but a low level of rage humming underneath the typical teenage façade.
“Mr. Bennett.”
A woman called, and I turned around, trying to find the source of the voice. The assistant principal was heading our way on swift, efficient steps. I couldn’t remember her name, but she’d been kind to me every time I passed her in the hall.
“Mr. Bennett, the principal needs to see you,” she huffed from the excerption.
“Now?” He asked as he tightened his fingers around mine.
“Now,” she agreed.
Rhys pivoted on his heel and started leading us toward the office, but the lady stopped him. “This might take some time. It would be better if Ms. Scott went to class.”
He canted his head as he studied her firm demeaner. I had a bad feeling about whatever they needed him in the office for. “Is this about why I’ve been getting strange looks all day from teachers and students?”
She hesitated for the barest moment, then she clasped her hands in front of her. “It is.”
“Then Astrid comes with me. She’s my girlfriend so she’ll be targeted by the attention as much as I am. Maybe more because of who my family is.”
The woman winced but nodded. “I’d normally protest, but in this case, that’s a very valid point. Very well, Mr. Bennett. The principal is waiting.”
We were still fairly close to the front of the school where the offices were. A handful of bright-eyed students crammed the tables in front of the receptionist, giving us strange looks when we stepped inside. The back of my neck had just started to itch from the blatant attention when the principal poked her head out of the office.
