"I smell cookies," Bee sang as I slid into the back seat next her, she tried to take the foil wrapped cookies from me and I smacked her hand away.
Bee's mom sat up front. After sneaking out on Saturday, Bee lost just about every privilege her mom could think of taking away. Car, phone, laptop. Even the library card she never used.
"Hi, Rachel."
She glanced at me in the rearview mirror, lips pursed as she pulled out of the driveway. "Don't 'Hi, Rachel' me. I know you helped Bianca get away with lying to me all this time."
"Mommy, I told you. Jade had nothing to do with it," she said, flashing me a look to keep quiet.
Rachel didn't look convinced.
Bee leaned between the seats, trying to reach the radio and kill the silence of the car. Her mom popped her hand, causing Bee to whimper.
"Why is everyone hitting me?"
"You're lucky I don't put a belt to your behind," her mom said. Her light brown skin reddened, clearly not over all the sneaking around Bee had been doing lately. "Shaking your half naked ass. For pizza!"
Bee made me watch that commercial dozens of times. Not once did she shake her butt and she was definitely fully clothed.
I raised a brow at Bee. "Was there a second commercial?"
"No," she groaned, falling back in her seat. "She's being dramatic."
"You think this is dramatic?" Rachel scoffed as she pulled into the student parking lot. "You ain't seen dramatic, yet. I should sit in with you during all of your classes after you missed a whole week of school. For pizza!"
The car hadn't even come to a full stop before Bee hopped out, shouting a dry "Bye, Mom. I love you" as she left.
I followed once the car stopped moving, thanking Rachel for the ride. "Is that going to happen every day?"
"Yes!" She crossed her arms over her chest, pouting. "She's overreacting. It was just one stupid commercial."
"And a week of missing school," I pointed out as we stopped by my locker. "And you snuck out to go to a party."
Her eyes narrowed. "No one asked you."
While I got my textbook, Bee held up her thumbs, staring at them. "What's the point of these if you don't have a phone?"
I snorted. "You'll survive."
"You know what'll help?" She grinned. "A cookie."
"They're for Nolan."
"You're making him cookies?" Her face lit up, green eyes sparkling. "Jade, what exactly happened in that guestroom?"
"We fell asleep. Nothing else," I told her. "The cookies are because he let me paint his face."
She squinted her eyes suspiciously. "If you say so..."
I shut my locker. "I have to get to class."
"Whatever, I know where you live!" She shouted after me. "This conversation isn't over!"
* * *
When lunch rolled around the anticipation of seeing Nolan grew. We didn't talk after he apologized. I wanted to know if he figured out who he kissed or of he remembered anything else from that night.
He was at his locker, carelessly stuffing his books inside. Before I reached him, someone else did. A short girl with long black hair and dimples that deepened the more she smiled up at Nolan.
I slowed my pace, pretending to be engrossed in my phone while stealing glancing at the two of them. Was she who he kissed?
No. She was handing him something, a notebook. He must've left it in his last class and she was returning it. I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt despite the flirty way she touched his arm and giggled.
Nolan smiled, leaning in. He was clearly engaged in whatever she was saying to him.
A rock settled in the pit of my stomach. I needed to get a grip. They were talking, being friendly. Nothing to feel threatened by. Not that I had a reason to feel threatened. We weren't together.
The girl walked away with one last smile. Nolan tossed the notebook in his locker before slamming it shut.
I slipped my phone into my back pocket, walking up to him like I wasn't some jealous girl with a crush.
"Hey."
He looked up at me, shrugging his backpack over his shoulder. "Hey."
Unsure of where to go from there I held out the cookies I made. "As promised."
The side if his mouth lifted into a half smile. "I didn't think you were serious."
"A deals a deal," I said. "Plus, I thought you could us a pick me up after what happened over the weekend."
"Yeah." He rubbed his the back of his neck. "I've gotten one too many compliments in my ass."
A laugh passed through my lips. "Good for you."
"My father would be proud," he joked, peeling back the foil on the cookies, pulling one out.
"So, have you remembered anything else from the party?" I asked casually.
He leaned back against his locker, swallowing the bite of cookie he had in his mouth. "Bits and pieces."
What bits? What pieces?
As if he could hear my thoughts, he continued, "I remember playing beer pong with Hannah and she kicked my ass. Then I watched you dancing with your friends."
I tried to remember if I saw him somewhere on the sidelines as I was dancing. The dance floor was packed, though. A blur of faces and people in costume.
"I mean I wasn't watching you," he said quickly, pulling me back to the present. "I just meant that I saw you. Anyway, after that was the fireworks and that's when my memory really goes to shit."
"You still haven't figured out who you made out with?"
He shook his head, tucking some hair behind his ear. "Maybe I dreamt it or something."
"Maybe."
He pushed himself off the locker. "We should probably go—"
"Chambers!"
We turned in unison to the voice that boomed through the hallway. A burly black guy barreled down the corridor, his sights zoned in on Nolan. Behind him was Candi, gripping his arm and trying to pull him back.
"Justin, baby, it was just a game," she said, begging for him to stop.
My gaze flicked back to Nolan whose eyes had gone wide. "Is it possible you kissed Candi?"
"Maybe." He took a step back as Candi's boyfriend got closer. "You think he just wants to talk?"
"Yeah. With his fist."
Nolan's hand wrapped around mine and suddenly we were running down the hall, pushing through the other students with Justin right behind us. Everything around me went by in a blur. People shouted at us from bumping into them. Nolan and I shouted excuse me and sorry so much they began to lose meaning.
"I'm going to kick your ass, Chambers!" Justin growled.
We took a left down an hall full of doors that lead to classrooms. My heart raced with adrenaline and the feel of Nolan's hand in mine. He glanced over his shoulder and I was shocked to see it full of amusement. Like being chased down by a linebacker was hilarious.
Then I realized I was smiling, too.
He pulled me into an empty classroom, quickly shutting the door. We pressed our backs against the wall, out of view in case Justin peeked through the window in the door.
Two sets of footsteps echoed outside the door. One pair of sneakers squeaked on the linoleum and one pair of heels clicked close behind.
I didn't dare breath until their footsteps, along with Candi's pleas for Justin to calm down, faded in the distance. Even then Nolan and I kept quiet, the silence filled with us trying to catch our breath.
"Spin the bottle."
I looked over at Nolan, brow raised. "What?"
"After the fireworks I went to find the bathroom and got dragged into a game of spin the bottle." He pushed his hair from his face as he sat on top of one of the desks.
I took a seat at the desk across from him. "Being chased by our peers is becoming a bad habit."
He nodded in agreement. "I'm starting to think we won't win that prize."
Guilt poked at my insides. The whispers and gossip about me had pretty much died down, but that didn't mean I was on people's good side. It just meant they were neutral. Neutral wasn't going to win us anything.
"Maybe you'd have better luck with someone else." The words left my tongue before I could stop them. It was true either way. "You need someone higher up on the social ladder. A cheerleader or something."
He shrugged, picking another cookie from the foil. "I told you, I asked you for a reason."
"But there's tons of people who want the scholarship just as much," I argued. "And are actually well liked."
He looked up at me, brow drawn together. "Really?"
I'd been broken up with twice in my life. Neither were as painful as the way his eyes brightened at the thought trading me in for a better girl.
"Yeah," I said, choking down whatever hurt I felt. "You're already pretty popular with everyone. It shouldn't be that hard—"
I was cut off by a laugh. Nolan's face lit up with amusement. "To what? Find someone to put up with my shit the way you do? Someone to call me out on it like you do? The only reason this works is because of you."
Heat pooled in my cheeks, my gaze darting down to the rip in my jeans. "Wow, Nolan Chambers is being nice and we don't even have an audience."
When I looked back up at him he had a slight smirk on his face.
"You've seen me naked, hungover and just run away from a fight like punk," he listed off on his fingers. "I doubt my "cliched badboy" act will fool you anymore."
I scoffed, a smile playing at my lips. "It never did."
"And that why I chose you."
My chest swelled at his words. The feelings I tried to suppress filled every inch of me. He chose me. He didn't care about the rumors or the lies. He believed we could still win despite all of it.
Maybe he knew something that I didn't? Whatever it was must've been exceptional, because I couldn't imagine us coming out on top.
But at that moment winning didn't matter all that much to me.
He smiled back before turning to the cookies. The blue from the M&M's bleed on to the tan color of the cookie. He took a bite of it, chewing before his eyes went wide.
I felt my face curl in disgust as he pulled something covered in spit and chewed cookie. "This is an eggshell," he stated, looking down at me.
"Never said I was good at baking," I said sheepishly.