Super

11 - Spiders

"'I guess I can't help thinking that if I'd known the truth, I wouldn't have met Jace the way I did. I wouldn't have fallen in love with him.'

Simon was silent for a moment. 'I don't think I've ever heard you say that before.'"

– Cassandra Clare, City of Glass

I had never slept with a boy before. No, IH and I didn't have sex that night, but we lay curled up together all night. He woke up around two, a little surprised to find me wrapped around his chest. For a long time, he played with my hair as he craned his neck to watch me trace patterns over his chest. When I started shivering, one of his clones lay a blanket over the two of us. Frankly, it freaked me out a little. And when I was still cold after that, the clone lay down on the other side of me and started spooning me. That freaked me out even more. Eventually, IH and I wound up in my bed, he still on his back and me still on my side, arm around his stomach as we slipped into a dreamless sleep once again.

The next day at school, I couldn't keep the big goofy grin off my face every time I thought of the steady rise and fall of his chest or the perfect way he fiddled with my hair. I remembered the plethora of hearts I traced into his chest, wondering whether he knew what I was tracing or whether he thought it was just random patterns.

Oh, right. Yeah. School. As it turned out, we still had school the next day. The principal sent out an email and everything. Despite the destroyed hallway, the rest of the school was perfectly fine. Fire fighters had cleared out the ash and the bodies and if you didn't look too closely at the bashed-in lockers or the scorch marks on the ceilings and walls, the school almost looked like it normally did. Except for one thing. Walking down that hallway felt like taking a nice stroll through a graveyard.

"Someone got laid last night," Dresden squinted at my overly cheerful face. On any other day, his presence alone would turn my smile into a scowl, but not today. Nothing could bring me down.

"Shut up Dresden," I sang and skipped out of English. Unfortunately, because life hates me, I had several classes with Dresden including English, biology, and math. The only good thing about math was that Lila shared my class. She was just coming from history where, shocker, Brady wasn't there. Apparently he was sick and would have to take a few days off. Stupid evil bastard.

"Dresden is too hot for his own good," Lila pouted, settling into her chair as we stared at Dresden who sat on the other side of the classroom with Ciaran, some guy named Kyle, and a few others in their group.

I sighed, annoyed, and said, "he's an asshole, Lila."

"Yeah. A hot asshole."

"You don't like him do you?" I knew my face was contorting in disgust, and of course, Ciaran and Dresden chose that moment to look at me, my face puckered like I ate a bug with my tongue lolling out of my mouth as I sported the double chin. Dresden smirked and made a joke to Kyle who then high-fived him (asshole), but Ciaran just chuckled, rolled his eyes, and looked away. When neither of them were looking, I stuck out my tongue.

"God no," Lila pursed her lips. "Besides Gold asked me on a date, and-"

"WHAT?" I screeched, earning the attention of Dresden again, but not Ciaran this time, thank God. To me, Ciaran would always be more attractive than Dresden, who kind of looked like a hot evil twin. They were both hot, with their wavy, mussed black hair and startling blue eyes. My stomach twisted as I thought of IH and despite the conversation we were having, I couldn't help the grin that spread across my face. Unfortunately, Dresden thought I was grinning at him; his lips parted in disgust and he pretended to gag. I rolled my eyes and turned back to Lila. What were we talking about again?