Paradox (Unearthly Paradox Series Book 1)

Chapter 22

She nodded. "With the way my mum had me studying, I think I've memorised the whole bloody textbook."

When we reached the classroom, the bitches were huddled to the side of the door. History class was where I had first met them.

Emily nudged the other two girls, then all three of them looked up at us. I waited for the smart-assed comments, but nothing came. I looked over at Lilly, expecting to see her cowering as she'd done every other time she was near them, but her back was straight and her head held high. It was like a complete role reversal.

Jett squeezed my hand. "I'll be here waiting for you when you've finished." He leaned down and kissed me, then pulled me into a hug, where he once again buried his head in the crook of my neck and slowly inhaled as if smelling my hair or my skin.

"All right, that's enough," the teacher said, walking past us into the classroom.

Lilly giggled and grabbed my free hand.

"See you," I said as Lilly dragged me inside the room.

***

When Lilly and I finished the exam, we walked outside to the parking lot. Jett was sitting on the garden wall under a tree, playing on his phone.

"Want a lift home?" I asked Lilly as we headed over to the tree.

"If it's not too much trouble." She adjusted the strap of her bag. "I can't believe we've only got one day left."

"Ah, you do realise that it's only Wednesday?"

"You know what I mean. You can't really count Friday as a school day because we finish by ten o'clock."

I tipped my head back. "I can't wait 'til Friday."

Jett hopped off the wall and slipped his phone into his pocket. "How'd you do?" He kissed my forehead then slung his arm over my shoulders and turned me in the direction of the car.

I laced my fingers with his. "Piece of cake."

He looked over at Lilly. "Are we taking you home?"

"If it's no trouble."

"It's no trouble," I answered. I nodded at Jett. "Another good reason not to bring your bike."

"You'll change your mind once you've had a ride." He opened the passenger door and waited for me to get inside before closing it.

Lilly crawled into the backseat and leaned forward. "Did I hear right? Does he want to take you on his bike?"

I twisted in my seat to face her. "Yeah, why?"

"That has got to be the hottest thing ever. Sitting on the back of a bike with him in—" She cut herself off mid-sentence when Jett opened the driver-side door.

On the ride to Lilly's house, I couldn't get the image of sitting on the back of Jett's bike, with him between my legs, out of my mind. Lilly was right. That would be hot.

By the time we dropped off Lilly and got back home, it was almost two thirty. We pulled out the left-over Chinese and sat at the table outside to eat.

"Are you ever going home?" I asked. "Not that I don't like having you here, but doesn't your family miss you or something?"

He shook his head. "There's no need for me to go home. They know where I am."

"And they don't have a problem with it?"

"I'm almost twenty. They stopped having a say in what I did two years ago." He shrugged. "Besides, I think they understand, considering someone shot you less than a week ago."