A Banshee's Wail (The Banshee Curse #1)

Chapter Five

     “Nah,” he exclaimed, leaning forward in his seat. “I'm not as crazy as you are, Niks.”

     I chose to ignore his little comment and continued to stare at my paper blankly. My head was starting to hurt from trying to figure out the problem, and knowing Lyle was staring at me wasn't helping. Eventually, Lyle sighed and started to explain how to do the problem. Still frowning, I listened to what he said and executed what he told me to do. Surprisingly, it worked. Who knew model-attractive, swimmer guy was so smart?

     “I can't do this,” I muttered after half an hour of tutoring. I wasn't talking about the math problems or science that I didn't understand, though. I couldn't stay here, listening to him speak and knowing that I couldn't actually speak to him outside of class or tutoring. Knowing that if I made one friendly move towards him, I could kiss my chances of getting Sam back as a friend goodbye. “I'm sorry, I can't.”

     “Really, you can't understand this?” he exclaimed, raising his eyebrows at me.

     I packed up my stuff and stood up, shaking my head. “Yeah, sure,” I mumbled, running my hands through my hair as I left. That's what I'd been talking about.

     Lyle didn't come after me.

     I hefted my bag further onto my shoulder and kept my head down as I walked back to the dorm. The wind was a very annoying thing that tangled my hair and blew it into my face. I was actually really glad when I made it to the dorm and walked inside. My relief quickly changed to panic when I saw Marc and Vince sitting in the lobby, watching TV. I kept my head down as I headed for the stairs and didn't stop walking until I'd made it to my room.

     “Jemma!” Sam exclaimed the moment the door shut behind me. She was grinning and looked like she was going to start bouncing off the walls at any moment. This was...strange. “Guess who asked me out?”

     My bag dropped to the ground with a loud thud. “What?” I said, certain I'd heard her wrong.

     She bounced her way over to me. “He asked me out,” she squealed, grabbing onto my arms and forcing me to jump up and down with her.

     My heart stopped and I felt my eyes widen as I stared at her. I quickly forced a smile and let out a small squeal along with her. “That's great,” I exclaimed breathlessly, swallowing hard as she released me and I sat on my bed.

     “I know,” she screamed, practically running in circles. “I'm so excited!”

     I raised an eyebrow at her. “Where do you think he's gonna take you?” I asked incredulously. “We aren't allowed to leave campus after seven pm.”

     “You know Joey's party tonight?” she replied, twisting as she tried to stay in place. It wasn't working for her. I nodded. “He's taking me there.”

     I snorted. “How romantic,” I muttered, rolling my eyes. Even though he wasn't taking her anywhere special, it still hurt that he'd asked her out. But this was what I wanted, wasn't it? For him to ask her out and have her actually talk to me again? It seemed like the idea had worked, so why was I complaining?

     “Shut up,” she said, affectionately pushing my shoulder. I chuckled and shook my head at her. “Hey, are you going to Joey's party?” she asked suddenly, tilting her head to the side.

     I shook my head. “I wasn't planning on it,” I told her, stretching out on my bed. “Marc asked me to think about it, but I'm really not much of a party person.”

     She raised an eyebrow at me suggestively. “Ooh, Marc wants you to go?” she questioned, flipping her blonde hair over her shoulder and stalking over to her dresser. “Hmm, is there a possibility he likes you?” She didn't give me time to respond, though. “You should totally come, Jemma!”