“Hey, I’ll see you in class, okay?”
“Oh, sure. Where are you going?” I asked, stopping in front of my locker.
“The office. I have to turn in papers again for the classes I’m taking at the college,” he replied.
“Oh, alright. I’ll see you in a little bit, then,” I answered with a smile. My heart and mind were still buzzing from holding his hand moments ago. I couldn’t remember ever feeling exactly like that anytime I had been with Landon.
Watching him walk down the hall for a moment, I turned around to open my locker, releasing a small sigh. I wasn’t sure if I was exactly ‘in love’ with Calvin yet, but I was definitely at least falling; and falling hard.
“I sent you a text last night. Didn’t you get it?” Landon’s voice in my ear made me jump ten feet it seemed. Spinning around on my heel, I found myself face to face with him, and we were a lot closer than I had anticipated. My back pressed against the cool metal locker door, I swallowed hard, frantically searching for an adequate response.
“I… uh, yeah. I got it,” I stammered, trying desperately to avoid his eyes. All that time I had spent wishing I was part of the group again, and all of the time I wished to be dangling from his arm again. Here he was now, inches from my face, and I yearned to be anywhere else in the world right now other than right here.
“Well, why didn’t you text me back?” he asked. Forcing myself to look at him, he had the perfect ‘puppy dog face’ expression. His eyes seemed as big as a pair of saucers, and his bottom lip protruded slightly outwards in a pouting fashion. This exact face used to melt my heart and make me give in to whatever he was asking for or wanting, and it wasn’t all that long ago, either. Now, I wasn’t sure how his trademarked face made me feel. Indifferent? Sad? Upset? Angry? I wasn’t sure.
“I…I don’t know. I was just… busy, I guess,” Swallowing hard, I watched his face relax into a more thoughtful one from his ‘puppy dog’ one.
“Hmm,” he said thoughtfully, placing his index finger lightly on his bottom lip. I fought very hard to keep myself from rolling my eyes. I said nothing, waiting anxiously for him to either say something else or lose whatever interest he suddenly had in me again and get on with his morning.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kelsey and the rest of the group standing fifteen or twenty yards away from us. Every single pair of eyes in the group were concentrated directly on Landon and myself.
“Busy doing what?” Landon asked, forcing my attention back on him.
“Studying, Landon. I have a history test this morning,” I answered, finding myself growing more and more irritated with this entire charade the longer it continued. Who did he think he was, anyway? We weren’t together anymore. Even though he had sent me a text, I was no longer under any kind of obligation to respond.
“Oh, I see…” Landon said, deliberately drawing out the ‘e’ sound, his head cocked to one side, his eyes watching me closely, studying me. “So I guess that guy being at your house half the night had nothing to do with it?” he sneered.
Shock coursed from my head all the way to the ends of my toes. How did he know that anyone had been over at my house last night, let alone that it was a guy? Slightly narrowing my eyes, I studied him closely for a moment. Oh, who was I kidding? Landon could find out anything about whatever he wanted. He had an inane ability to know everything about anything, always. Especially if it caught his interest. He would probably be a great asset to the FBI one day, I’m sure.
“I’m not really sure how that is any of your business,” I began, the anger bubbling up in the pit of my stomach giving me a burst of bravery, however brief. “He was helping me out with my chemistry class,” I added, irritation and anger lacing my words. The more I thought about it, the angrier I felt myself becoming. He really did think that he was ’It,’ that every girl should fawn over him, forever and always, no matter what.
“There’s no reason to become so hostile, Jenna,” Landon replied, his voice was calm, seeming to purr when he said my name. I felt my anger subsiding, and I instantly hated myself -- and him. I hated that he knew what he could say or do to keep me from getting (or staying) mad at him. And I hated the fact that no matter what, it worked. Every. Fucking. Time.
“Landon---” I began, combing my mind for an escape route away from all of this.
“I miss you, Jenna,” he interrupted, the puppy dog face instantly reappearing. “Don’t you miss me?” he asked, gazing deep into my eyes.
“I really don’t have time for this, Landon,” I whispered, concentrating on the tiled floor.
“Yes you do,” he said, cupping his index finger around the bottom of my chin and lifting my face up so I had nowhere to look other than at him. “Maybe we should talk later?” he asked, his voice soft.
“Landon, I really don’t think that’s a good idea,” I replied, my voice breaking.
“Yes, I think it is,” he said, his eyes shooting up towards the ceiling as the bell signaling that it was time to go to our first hour class rang. “We’ll talk later,” he said, his lips forming into the quirky smile that used to make me melt into a huge pile of mush not so long ago.
Apparently, it still had quite an effect, the pang in my heart at the sight of it made me realize. Any remaining anger I’d had towards him had dissipated. Ugh, how I hated what he was still able to do to me with little or no effort!
“Fine, Landon, whatever,” I mumbled, trying to come off as impassive.
“Good!” he replied, perking up instantly, “We can work out the finer details later.” Turning to walk away, I felt a wave of relief wash over me. “Oh, and Jenna?” he asked, stopping and looking at me over his shoulder. My heart instantly stopped. “Please don’t ignore anymore of my texts or calls, okay?” I nodded slightly, unable to ignore the slight threatening tone that lined the edges of his voice. Flashing another quick smile, he turned and rejoined his group of friends that were still waiting on him.
Heading towards my first hour class as quickly as I could without actually breaking out into a full blown run, I slid into my seat moments before the tardy bell rang. Releasing a long breath I hadn’t realized that I’d been holding in, I sunk deep down into my seat.
“Are you alright?” Calvin’s voice from behind me startled me, bolting me into an upright position in my chair. If this kept up, I was going to need one heck of a nerve pill by the end of the day. Turning around in my seat, I consciously tried to slow my heart rate and breathing down to a normal pace.
“Yeah, it’s nothing, really,” I asked, realizing that I didn’t want to come right out and tell Calvin what had happened. My eyes darted over to where Kelsey and Amber were sitting. And watching. Averting their eyes when they noticed me looking over at them, I suddenly realized who had told Landon about Calvin.
“Are you sure?” he asked, glancing over at Kelsey and Amber.
“Uh, yeah,” I replied, returning my full attention to Calvin. “I’ll just tell you about it later,” I added, making a mental note that I obviously needed to be careful of what I said or did if I didn’t want it getting back to Landon.
“Okay, later, then,” Calvin said, eyeing me curiously. I smiled my thanks at him, and turned back around to face the front of the classroom just as Mr. H began quieting us down, ready to get the test underway.
Taking the stack of remaining tests from the red-haired girl in front of me, I placed one on top of my desk, and turned halfway around to hand the others to Calvin. He smiled and took the tests from me, our fingers lightly touching upon the exchange. I smiled, relishing over the butterflies his slight touch erupted inside of me. I silently turned in my seat, and wrote my name on the top of my test, a smile plastered to my face the entire time.
We had the entire class hour to complete our tests, and I turned mine in on Mr. H’s desk with about ten minutes to spare. Returning to my desk, I glanced down and saw that Calvin was on his second to last question. Sitting down in my desk, I glanced around the room, my eyes inevitably falling on Kelsey and Amber, still working on their tests. From what I could tell from where I was sitting, they looked to be about three-quarters of the way through their tests. Noticing that they kept glancing down at the floor, my eyes went to where they kept looking. I couldn’t see anything from where I was, but I had this feeling in my bones that I knew what they were doing: cheating.
Any other time, I wouldn’t care whether they cheated or not. Then my mind’s eye flashed back to earlier this morning of my encounter with Landon. And the ’group’ watching from their spot down the hall. Switching to the beginning of class, I remembered the sick, sinking feeling I’d gotten when I realized who Landon’s stool pigeons were. The same girls that had claimed to be my best friends forever. Turns out it was more like ’best friends until Landon is done with you,’ instead of ’forever.’ With a quick glance up at the clock above the door leading out to the hallway, I mustered every ounce of bravery that I could and made my way back up to Mr. H’s desk for a second time.
“Uh, Mr. H?” I whispered once I had reached the front of his desk. Placing my fingertips lightly on the edge of his desk, I leaned in closer, trying to be as discreet as possible.
“Yes, Miss Matthews?” Mr. H replied, looking up from his newspaper he had been reading.
“Um, I think that Kelsey and Amber might be cheating on the test,” I said, nearly inaudible. I prayed that I hadn’t caught Kelsey or Amber’s attention by walking up here, but I didn’t dare turn around to confirm whether I had or not. Mr. H glanced past my right side, in their direction. My heart felt like it was going to pound right out of my chest cavity at any given second.
“Thank you. I’ll take care of it,” he said, his voice just as quiet as mine had been. I nodded, a feeling of satisfaction washing over me. Returning to my seat once again, I braved a quick peek at Kelsey and Amber. They were still engrossed in their tests, and didn’t seem to be none the wiser that I had just tattled on them, much less that I had even left my seat. Landon should really consider investing in more attentive and observant stool pigeons than Kelsey and Amber, I thought smugly, reaching my desk.
Just as I started to settle back into my seat, the bell dismissing us from class rang. I stood, waiting for Calvin to finish gathering his belongings.
“Kelsey and Amber, could I see both of you for a minute, please?” Mr. H called out over the bustling noise of the students exiting his class. My eyes flashed from Mr. H over to Kelsey and Amber. Looking at each other, I saw a brief look of panic in their eyes. As soon as it was there, it was gone. Never once did they look in my direction, though, and for that, I was relieved.
Returning my attention to Calvin, I gave him a small smile as we made our way towards the door. We passed Mr. H’s desk just as he was asking the girls their thoughts on the test they had just taken. Within seconds, we were through the door and in the crowded hallway, anything else Mr. H said to them I was unable to hear.
“I’ll see you at lunch?” Calvin asked, directing my attention back towards him. He seemed to have a sort of ’knowing’ gleam in his eye, but said nothing more.
“Yeah, of course,” I replied.
“Good. See you then,” he said. His hand brushed along my lower backside as he made his way around me, and then continued down the hall in the opposite direction that I needed to go.
Turning around, I walked towards my second hour class. Part of me felt bad for ratting Kelsey and Amber out. I had never told on anyone before for anything. And I wasn’t really a malicious, revenge-seeking person. But really, they deserved it.
I walked into second hour, a smug smile on my face, and settled into my seat, a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment washing over me.
[[A/N: Here it is! Sorry it took me forever to write and get uploaded! A thousand apologies! Don't forget to vote/comment and let me know what you think of this chapter! Thanks again for reading! Much <3!]]