Fate's Return (Twisted Fate, Book 2)

Chapter Thirty

Whatever the case was, my appetite for food vanished with the very new, very real, and very demanding need I had for his attention. God, I was such a fickle girl. I liked Mike but went with Brenan. I have Brenan, but realize he's not who he claims, thus not what I need. Now I have to get rid of Brenan and decide who I like—Mike or Gabe? —because I was sure they wouldn't let me have it both ways. Heck, they both probably thought of me as nothing more than a sister they had to look out for.

"So what class do you have next?" I asked as I pulled out of the parking lot, rolling my window down all the way as if that would somehow alleviate my senses of his influence. It didn't, the fresh smell of rain only serving to deepen the attraction.

Would he tell me where to go and how to get there if I grabbed his hand and held it without the intention of letting go? It was right there, just next to the gear shift. He wouldn't even realize until it was done.

"I have a spare," he said, pulling me from my thoughts.

Now he was lying to me? Taking a deep, calming breath, I licked my lips and nodded, repositioning my hands on the steering wheel. "I thought you said you didn't want to be late."

"I don't."

"But you have a spare?" The confusion of the conversation replaced the compulsion he'd had over me, leaving me feeling cold. I rolled up my window and blasted the heater.

Did all guys come equipped with a How to Screw with a Girl's Head catalogue? Maybe they take little tests and are matched to the method they are best suited for. Or maybe... It was just in their freaking DNA and couldn't be avoided.

He looked over to me and smirked at my obvious overreaction. I knew what he saw: a clenched jaw, narrowed eyes, and a grip of steel on the wheel. But he didn't know everything, and what he couldn't see is what mattered. I'd overheard them, which meant every step they made would be compiled as I tried to decipher what they meant, and that wouldn't be possible if I slipped up. They couldn't know I heard.

"Mike has the car this afternoon, which means that my next class could start at six tonight and I would still be late." He sighed. "If you hadn't come, I would've had to walk."

"O-kay." I rolled my eyes and loosened my grip. He had earned a point in favour of being the first with a believable explanation. I was really becoming paranoid, questioning everything anyone did. "Why? Mike is always going on about being responsible. You'd think he'd get you there so early, it would be embarrassing to admit."

He laughed, and I was once again engulfed by warmth. Damn. I unrolled the window and switched the heat to air conditioning. There was one block left to school.

"Mike is responsible." He nodded and looked at me sideways with a grin. "For himself. High school is nothing to him. You don't pay for it like college, and since nobody expects me to go to college next year, it doesn't matter to him if I wind up a senior again."

"But you were accepted. That should count," I said, remembering our conversation after I'd thrown coffee in his face. "I'd tack your letters to the fridge and tell them to stuff their opinions where the sun won't go."

"Maybe I'm full of sunshine."

"Oh, you're full of something, but I doubt its sunshine."

I laughed along with him, forgetting that a moment before I couldn't breathe through the overwhelming attraction I'd been feeling. With Gabe, I realized things had always come easy: conversation, hatred, laughter, fighting, and now... a crush? It was just too easy.

We reached the entrance to the parking lot and I eased my foot off the accelerator without turning in.

"Why are we stopping?" Gabe looked at me and then the school in confusion.

"You said that you have a spare?"

He nodded.

"What's your favourite subject?"

"History. Why?"

He twisted in his seat as the car behind us beeped its horn, the sound tinny and distant in my ears as I stared forward at something I didn't want to see, let alone face. To be fair, I was stopped in the middle of the road with my left blinker on to indicate turning into the parking lot, and there wasn't oncoming traffic to halt me.

I turned off my blinker, straightened the wheel, and continued down the street, waving my hand through the air in front of my rear-view mirror in apology to the vehicle behind me. Turning to Gabe, I smiled. "We're making our own spare, and I am kidnapping you for help in history. For a, uh... research paper, which is actually true as of our assignments this morning."

"Why?"

My phone began to sing Girls Just Want to Have Fun, indicating a message from Suzie. It was cut off by a generic beeping—I hadn't gotten around to saving a ringtone for Brenan yet, but right now it didn't matter. I turned my phone off and leaned across Gabe without taking my eyes off the road to throw it into my glove compartment, unanswered.

It was the first time I'd skipped since last year, but I was sure my parents would understand. At least my dad would, if I told him before the school called, and so long as I let him believe I was feeling off. It would be true if I said I had to get away from the scrutiny, only it was Suzie and Brenan rather than everyone else.

But that was just semantics.

I chuckled as I pictured the surprise on their faces when they'd seen me, watching as I drove away. Had they seen Gabe was with me? Did I care? Not really. When I'd looked up to the school before turning into the parking lot, they had been what stopped me, Suzie with an impatient scowl of annoyance, and Brenan... I didn't know how to describe how he looked. Pissed off? Jealous?

It was nothing that I wanted to face.