Don't Let Go

05-Bad Reputation

Three days into detention and Kimberly has decided Dean is now a part of our inner circle.

I could honestly kill the girl.

No matter how silent we're supposed to stay during detention, Kimberly has somehow managed to chat with Dean every day and keeps trying to include me into their conversations. I, of course, ignore her and Dean's irritating smirk but it seems like even though I'm trying hard to pretend he doesn't exist, he wants to continually remind me that he does.

"Can you stop staring at me?" I whisper harshly.

"I'll stop staring when you do," he responds, leaning back in his chair with a grin. His shirt rises a bit and I scowl at the sight of his firm and muscular stomach. I look away quickly, pretending I didn't see anything but he of course notices and teasingly lifts his shirt higher. "Let me know when you've got your full, sweetheart."

I growl, turning away from him and return my attention to my textbook. I stare at the words on the page until they start to blur and my eyes start to water. Ugh, I can't concentrate. Not when I can feel him staring at me while he whispers with Kimberly. Well, Kimberly does most of the whispering he mostly just listens and stares.

Tina nudges me softly and passes me some cookies and I take them, smiling in thanks. The teacher in charge is sleeping peacefully in his chair and the only thing stopping me from leaving early is that I need him to sign our forms saying we were here and he only does that at the end of detention.

"So Dean, I heard you have a car." Kimberly says and I shoot her a quick look. She's not looking, though I doubt she'd listen anyway. "A black Aston Martin, to be precise."

"That I do," he responds back easily.

"How can you afford such an expensive car?" Kimberly wonders. How has his car not gotten stolen is the better question. Dean stays quiet, which is what he usually does whenever Kimberly asks questions that are bordering on personal. It takes everything in me to not peek back at him to study his face. After a few more seconds of silence, Kimberly continues. "I was wondering, since we're all friends now—"

I scoff, turning a page in my textbook loudly. Tina gives me a wide-eyed look, silently telling me to stop. She's still nervous around Dean and I almost think detention has been more tortuous for her than me. She says that underneath that smile lies a lot of anger and that she doesn't trust him to not explode on day. Kimberly's response was to tell her to stop reading her mom's erotica books at home.

"—if you could give us a ride home" Kimberly continues. "It's raining outside and I just got my hair done, and it cannot get wet."

Oh no. Oh hell to the no. I'd rather walk home in the rain and look like an angry wet cat than take a ride from him. I've been letting Kimberly play her little games with Dean but now I'm starting to get seriously annoyed.

"Kimberly—" I warn turning in my seat to glare at her.

"I'll give you a ride on one condition," he cuts in, running his hand through his wavy dark hair. He looks right at me as he continues, "Carmen has to come too."

Kimberly looks at me with pleading eyes and I roll my own. The amount of time I've rolled my eyes in the last week alone, I'm surprised they haven't gotten stuck. Though I'm pretty sure that can't really happen and it's only something my abuelita used to tell me to try and get me to stop doing it all the time.

"You and Tina can go without me," I say, pretending to study some writing on the desk. "I'd rather walk."

"You'd really trust the big bad wolf alone with your two friends?" Dean asks with a mischievous grin. "In case you haven't heard around school, I'm a suspected hitman. Maybe you girls are my next targets."