I See You (complete)

Chapter Two

I sat ramrod straight in my chair. So much for relaxing. I swear every cell in my body was standing at attention. I was prepared for fight or flight. Or maybe neither. Or maybe whatever Cade Miller asked me to do. Oh boy.

Mr. Regan started going over what he expected from all of us, but I barely heard a word he said. All I could think of was the fact that Cade Miller was seated right behind me. I heard every movement he made, every rustle of his leather jacket, every shift of his legs under the desk that was assuredly too small for his giant frame. The tap of his fingers on his desk signalled his boredom.

And then, the unthinkable happened.

Tap. Tap. Tap. On my right shoulder.

I froze and waited. Surely it was just my over-active imagination. Did I imagine it? Because who wouldn't want Cade Miller to tap tap tap on their shoulder?

But there was it again.

Tap. Tap. Tap. A little harder this time.

Ever so slowly, I turned in my desk seat and looked at him. He was staring at me. He was probably reading my thoughts. I was doomed.

"Hi." His mouth curled up in a crooked grin.

I swallowed. "Hi," I whispered back.

"Do you have an extra pencil?"

I nodded and spun back in my seat to grab my pencil case. Pulling out my pencils, I realized they all had bite marks on them – every single one of them. How humiliating! How grade three of me! I didn't even realize I did that. Who still bites on their pencils in grade twelve? And how in the world had I managed to bite every single one of them on the first day of school? I bit my bottom lip and picked the least bitten one I could find before spinning back to him.

"Here you go. Sorry — about the bite marks."

He chuckled, shrugging like it was no big deal. "It's all good. I'll give it back to you at the end of class."

"No, that's okay," I said with a wave of my hand. "You can keep it."

"Ok, thanks." He smiled, and I saw a hint of his dimple emerge. Gasp. And then I heard Mr. Regan.

"Ms. Morgan, would you care to share with the rest of us what you and Mr. Miller have found so fascinating in that you would disrupt my classroom lesson?"

I blinked once and looked at the ceiling before I looked back at Cade. He was grinning from ear to ear. Sure, of course he was fine with this. He was used to getting into trouble. I, on the other hand, was not. Cade winked at me and I slowly turned back towards the front of the class.

"I was just giving Cade a pencil," I explained quietly.

Mr. Regan gave me a stern look as a warning and then continued on with his lesson. I let go of the breath I was holding and slinked down in my chair. What was it with teachers always referring to students with their last names when they were in trouble?

And why in the world was I getting all this attention from Cade Miller? Sure I thought about him from time to time, and every so often I'd see him, but all of a sudden, he's looking back at me?

By the end of class, my body ached from sitting so still. I hadn't moved a muscle after our pencil exchange. As the bell rang signalling the end of the day, I heard him get up and watched him walk past me. As he neared the door, he turned, took the cigarette that was behind his ear and placed it in the side of his lips, and then smiled right at me.

Right. At. Me.

And then he was gone.

What?