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I choke on my apple.
‘Seriously, Frankie. I’veneverhad my hair pulled like that.’ She tosses her blue braid over a shoulder and readjusts her tank top so her boobs look bigger. ‘Is he looking?’
I dip my head and peek at the table in the corner where he always sits. Chase is there, laughing at something Gregory Ashmore, a boy with undiagnosed autism, says. Archer lounges on a bench, his elbows braced on either side of him. A slight smile twists his mouth, but he somehow makes it look cruel. And he is watching me.
My stomach drops into my arse.
As soon as our eyes lock, he winks.
I glance away quickly, suddenly very interested in my half-eaten apple.
‘Well?’ Cassie prompts. ‘Is he?’
‘Yeah,’ I mumble.
‘Really?’
‘Don’tlook.’
‘Okayyyyy.’ Her rings clang into the table as she suddenly slams her hands down. ‘Speaking of sex.’
I smile inwardly. Cassie always has a bizarre sex story to tell, and I love them. In fact, ‘What about you? Are you a virgin?’ was the very first thing she said to me in biology two years ago, when she’d overheard two other students discussing what, exactly, they got up to weekend. I shrugged, and told her ‘My body is a shell, but my mind is a temple’ and she’d stared at me like I'd spontaneously grown antlers, but we’ve been inseparable ever since. I’m not sure why; as much as I enjoy our friendship, I can’t help but acknowledge that maybe she latched onto me because it was her first day and any friendship was better than being alone. We don’t have anything in common, we never hang out beyond school, and we don’t talk about much else other than boys.
But I think a part of me latched onto her for the same reason. When I’m with her, I’m not the daughter of parents with marriage issues. I’m someone else entirely.
‘So,’ she begins. ‘I was with Logan last night watchingBig Hero 6and because I’m on my period I got ridiculously horny, so I asked if we could have sex—‘
‘The entire cafeteria doesn’t need to hear this, Cass.’
She shoots a withering look at a girl clearly eavesdropping before turning back to me. ‘Anyway. We go upstairs, and you know I have to wear pads because I’ve no idea how to use tampons, and when I take off the pad and stuff it under the bed, Logan gets it stuck on hisfucking sock.’
I laugh into my drink. Water splashes the table and shoots up my nose and soaks my shirt, but it just makes me laugh harder because I’m still choking.
Cassie is wide-eyed. ‘Should I get some paper towels?’
‘It’s fine,’ I say hoarsely. ‘I got it.’ I race to the bathroom.
I’m dabbing my cardigan when the bathroom door closes and locks. For a panicked moment I think I’m locked in, but it’s much worse when Archer steps around the corner.
Oh. Shit.
I back away but he grabs my knees. I nearly fall back into a sink, but he doesn’t seem to care. He parts my legs and positions himself between them. I go to grab the soap dispenser—the one that’s been hanging off the wall for months—to smash into his head, but he seizes my wrists—both of them—and yanks them to my sides.
‘I’ll scream,’ I say in a shaky voice.
‘But I haven’t even started yet.’
A slow smile spreads across his mouth as my eyes widen. ‘Relax. I just want to talk.’ But his hands release my wrists to rub up my thighs. He squeezes them. ‘Your name’s Frankie, isn’t it?’
I nod.
‘Can I fuck you, Frankie?’
I swallow down the thickness in my throat. ‘No.’
Archer stares at me for a long moment, so long I wonder if he’ll ignore my refusal. And then he chuckles darkly. ‘I saw the way you were looking at me. You want me.’
‘You were looking at me first.’
