Broken

• Chapter 62 •

"You wanna come over tonight?" Adrien pins me back against a wall after school. My heart sinks into my stomach as I get out of that compromising position and walk into the courtyard, he trails after me.

"Um, I have a lot of work to do. Maybe some other time?"

What if he wants to hook up? I can't let him see me, much less touch me, yet. Adrien's face falls in disappointment, he pulls my arm back. I yank it out of his grasp subconsciously and his eyebrows knit together at my defensiveness.

"Are you sure everything's okay? You've been really... Distant," he tells me.

I shake my head and fake a smile, "Yes, everything's fine. I'm just still feeling sick and I've missed so much work. I need to finish up my project, it's due soon. And I have other work to catch up on and—"

"Yeah, okay. I get it," he looks annoyed, but he shrugs his shoulders. His eyes roam around the courtyard. They stop somewhere and stay there, a look of anger plays on his face.

I frown as I follow his gaze to Ashton, who's standing next to his car, focused on his phone. Adrien's head snaps back at me.

"Hey, that Ashton kid. You talk to him much?"

My cheeks flame because I have to lie to his goddamn face. "Um, we're partners for the project—"

"That's not what I asked," his gaze is stern.

I frown, "What exactly are you asking, then?"

He clicks his tongue in irritation, "I just mean it looks like you know each other. That's all."

I scoff, am I not allowed to have friends with penises? I roll my eyes at his possessiveness, but I can't be all that angry at him knowing I'm keeping the fact that I've been staying with Ashton for the past week. But it was circumstantial and completely innocent. Still, I can't tell him.

I find my eyes wandering to Ashton, he's concentrating extremely hard on his phone. What could be that important and attention-grabbing? He sighs at his phone in what looks to be annoyance, shoves it in his pocket and runs a frustrated hand through his hair.

He looks up and catches me staring, his gaze wanders to Adrien, then back to me. He leans back against his car and folds his arms across his chest, flashing me a slight smirk. What's with him?

"Clementine."

I flinch back and pull my eyes away from him to Adrien. "Sorry," I clear my throat and shake my head in embarrassment.

He frowns, "Kay. Well, I've got football practice. I'll see you tomorrow, or whatever," he rolls his eyes at me.

I sigh and grab his collar, willing him to come back to me. He huffs as he looks down at me, I press our lips together before he can retort or say anything. He almost immediately melts into my embrace, probably forgetting he was annoyed in the first place. Boys.

I pull away after a while, hands still clinging to his blazer. "I'm sorry. Kay? Just bare with me," I plead. I'm not good at this relationship shit, I don't know what to do.

He nods and presses our foreheads together. "Okay. I'll see you tomorrow," he tells me before giving me a light peck.

I sigh as I watch him walk back into the building, waving him off. I start making my way towards the parking lot, stopping in front of Ashton. He's studying me carefully, a cautious look flickers through his eyes. I sigh and brush my hair behind my ears.

"Hey. So, we have to work on our project. We haven't even looked at it the past week," I tell him.

He hesitates before nodding once, then gets into his car. He rolls his window down, "I only have an hour to spare. Come on."

My heart thuds rapidly in my chest. I look around to see if anyone's watching, but there's no one around other than a few kids from lower grades. I release a breath and walk over to the passenger seat, quickly getting in and buckling up. I urge him to get out of there as soon as possible to avoid anyone seeing.

I don't know why this feels wrong, I suppose it's because of everything everyone has been saying today. Aya, Ms. Shanice, Adrien... They don't understand. They don't know what's been going on.

Still, does it make it wrong?