Dirty Little Secret

Chapter Twelve

“Hey, you're older than me you're the bad influence.”

"Not by much. Come on, I don't want you to skip," he picks me up and starts carrying me towards the building.

“Elliott! put me down!” I giggle.

"Never," he grins and kisses me on the cheek.

“Elliott!” I whine still laughing.

"Elliott, please put Lani down, now." I look over his shoulder to see my English teacher looking at us with an amused expression on her face. He puts me down.

"Lani, do you plan on attending my class any time soon?" Mrs. Griffin smiles at me as she walks pass. "I don't want to mark you late because of your boyfriend here."

“Yes, I'm going.”

"Okay, hurry." I smile at her and look at Elliott. I kiss Elliott’s cheek and rush into class. I slide into my seat and grin at Mrs. Griffin as she taps her watch and shoots me a thumbs up. I smile.:

Five minutes later the class is full except for two separate seats. Owen and Erica walk in a few minutes later, hand in hand, looking around the room. I sit there and don’t look at them

"So glad you can join us," Mrs. Griffin says, a sarcastic edge to her tone. "Hurry up and take a seat." They sit down in separate seats. I turn my head to the side and see the empty seat taken by Owen. Before he can catch me looking, I snap my gaze to the board. I start taking notes in my notebook. Something lands on top of my paper, a scrunched up ball. I frown and look at Owen from the corner of my eye. I un-crumple the paper. His messy handwriting stares up at me as I flatten it out. I look at it.

Just four words. How have you been?

Fine. And you?

I flick it back to him and rest my head on my hands. A few minutes later I get it back.

Not good.

I stare at the two words and bite my lip.

Oh.

I hate not talking.

He looks at me as I read it. I move my hair so it covers the side of my face. I sigh.

What do you expect me to do?

I give it back to him and tap my pen. He gives it back to me and I read it.

Can we talk?

About what?

About us. I miss our friendship. It's been four weeks.

I know.

Mrs. Griffin stands in front of our desk and raises her eyebrow. "Are you two paying attention?"

“Yes.” I say. “Sorry.”

Her eyes flicked between me and Owen. "If I catch you again, you will be staying after class."

“Okay.” We sit silently and don't pass anymore notes until the lesson is over. Owen looks over his shoulder and lightly grabs my wrist. "Can we talk?"

“Fine.”

"Can I drop by tonight?" He gives me a sad smile.

“Sure, but early, I have plans tonight.”

"Okay, great. See you later." Before I realize what he's doing, he tugs me into a hug and then walks away. I stand there, not knowing what is going on.

"You okay, Lani?" I look over at Mrs. Griffin, who is packing away her papers in a bright colored bag.

“Yeah, fine.”