Surviving the McLane Boys ('On Hold Still...')

Chapter 31 - Out for the Night

Chapter 31

School starts back up soon enough and I start to find myself immersed in truckloads of homework and assignments. I barely have time to hang out with friends or do anything else anymore as all the teachers seem to have decided this is the perfect time to set all these random tests and pop quizzes as well. You never know when a teacher’s going to attack with those stupid quizzes so I study like mad, the consequence of a big fat zero looming over me. Nerdy Hailey has emerged people – leave me alone!

Someone knocks on my door, “Come in.” I murmur, flicking through my art theory notes, trying to find my paper on a gallery we recently went to.

“Hey little nerd.” A glass of lemonade is set next to me and I gratefully gulp it down as I keep reading my notes.

“Hey.” I say back to Jake absentmindedly.

“Still studying your butt off?” he asks, leaning over my shoulder.

His proximity finally breaks me out of my trance and I feel a blush rising to my face. I don’t let on that his presence unnerves me and glare at the picture of Seurat as I try to read what I’ve written about his technique.    

“Go away.” I mutter, pushing my glasses up my nose a bit.

He leans heavily on me, his arms wrapping around me and his head resting on top of mine, trapping me in a hunched position. “Why?”

I grimace at the smirk I can hear in his voice. “Because your parents might come in.” I hiss back, trying to shake him off. He picks up one of my pencils and crosses out one of the answers on a math sheet sitting on top of one of the piles sitting on the side of my desk. “Hey!”

“Wait, you missed a step.” He murmurs, his warm breath brushing against my ear. I grudgingly let him re-write the equation out and redo it, shivering slightly.

Dammit, he’s right.

“But why did you do this?” I ask, pointing at one of the lines.

He lets me go and grabs a stool from under my desk and begins explaining. I look at him through my glasses in awe as I actually realise he’s not just some dumb guy who doesn’t care about work. My eyes travel all around his face taking in his thick eyelashes and his strong jaw, finally coming to rest on his lips.

“Do you get it now?”

I blink once. Twice. “Uh, yeah.” I mumble, sitting up quickly and looking back down at the paper. “I do, thanks…”

He smirks at me, “That’s ok.”

He noticed me drooling over him… I think, mentally slapping myself for being so stupid.

I continue to do the math problems I left off at yesterday trying to remember what Jake had been telling me to do, “You can go…” I grumble after a couple of minutes of him staring at me while I try to do the work and study.

“Well I actually came up here with a proposal.” He says, leaning on my table, making it obvious that he’s focusing completely on me.

“Mhmm?” I try to say uninterestedly. My heart-beat quickens as his other hand comes up to rest on my shoulder, coiling some loose strands of hair around his finger.

“How about we go out tonight?”

I turn slowly and look at him, hope rising in my chest, “Just you and me?”

He laughs at my buoyant expression, “Yeah, just you and me. Everyone’s going someplace or other so I thought it’d be something good to do… you know, for our birthday.”