I’m here. I didn’t need anything from my locker, so I came on to first period so I would have a chance to go over my homework.
Now I was a liar. Fantastic.
I slipped the phone back into my pocket before I got caught, and made a mental list of things I should work on. Things that had nothing to do with West. Like I should start practicing the piano again. My mother used to love hearing me play. She would have wanted me to keep playing.
By the time Mr. Trout had polished off his Egg McMuffin and drunk his coffee, I was in a better place. I had goals, and I was not going to get attached to West Ashby.
She Didn’t Belong to Me
CHAPTER 16
WEST
When first period was over, I headed straight to my locker to wait on Maggie. Not seeing her this morning had made me edgy. I should probably get a grip on my need to have her around, but right now I had too much other shit to deal with. I was attached to her. It wasn’t a bad thing.
As I walked down the hallway, an arm wrapped around mine, and I felt tits press into my arm. I knew it was Serena before I even glanced down at her. She was determined to move in on me now that it was really over with Raleigh. Serena and Raleigh had been competing with each other for as long as I could remember.
When Serena had met me at my locker this morning, I had considered letting her distract me. She was sexy as hell, and all that blond hair was hot. But in the ten minutes she’d flirted with me at my locker, she’d already started getting on my nerves. Her voice was too high-pitched, and she batted her eyelashes so damn much, I was afraid they’d come off because those jokers were too long to be real.
“We have next period together. Sit by me. I’ll make class so much more enjoyable,” she said as she leaned into me.
I knew the kinds of things Serena did in class to make it more enjoyable. I’d seen it in action more than once. But I wasn’t feeling it. Not today. I just needed to see Maggie.
“I’m sure you could,” I replied. I wasn’t going to be mean. I just needed to get her to back off.
She giggled and held on to me tighter. It was making me feel claustrophobic. I didn’t like the feeling of not being able to take a deep breath. And where was Maggie?
I scanned the crowd as I walked to our lockers. Serena was talking, but I wasn’t listening anymore. Maggie wasn’t at her locker again, and my edginess was getting worse.
I stopped and looked back to see if she was anywhere in this hallway. But no sign of her. “Who you looking for?” Serena asked, still locked on to me.
I wasn’t telling her. She’d be on Maggie fast. I knew how girls like Serena worked. She’d make sure Maggie understood she was claiming me, and sweet Maggie couldn’t say a word back to her. Serena didn’t understand guy-and-girl friendships. She’d assume I was moving in on Maggie. Not that the idea of kissing Maggie again and holding her didn’t appeal to me . . . I thought about it often enough. It was just that I wasn’t good enough for what Maggie needed. I couldn’t be that guy. I didn’t do relationships well, and Maggie deserved the best.
But I could be one hell of a friend.
Glancing back at the locker and seeing there was still no Maggie, I shook Serena loose. “I gotta go. I need to do something. I won’t be in next period,” I said distractedly as I kept searching the halls. Then I moved toward Brady’s next class, because he’d know where I could find her. It wasn’t like Maggie not to go to her locker. What was she doing? Just carrying all her books around today?
As soon as I turned the corner, my eyes locked on her. She was bent over by the far wall, pulling books out of her overstuffed book bag. My relief at just seeing her should worry me. I’d started needing her too much.
For the first time all day a smile pulled at my lips.
She was biting her bottom lip, and a frustrated frown was wrinkling her brow. She let out a huff and stood up to tuck the hair that had fallen in her face behind her ear. Just as she slipped the strands back and sighed, her eyes found mine.
Her eyes briefly flashed with happiness and only made my smile bigger. But then she shut it down fast and gave me a tight smile before bending back over her book bag and quickly jamming all the books she’d just taken out back in. What was the girl doing?
I made my way over to her and dropped to my haunches until we were at eye level. I watched her study my feet for a moment before she slowly lifted her gaze to meet mine. Her cheeks turned pink.
“They have these things called lockers. It keeps us from having to carry around a shit ton of books all day. You should check yours out,” I teased, wanting that tight fake smile to become a real one.
Was she feeling weird about us talking until we’d fallen asleep last night? I couldn’t figure out how the girl I’d gone to sleep talking to was now avoiding me. Because now that I’d found her and saw the way she was trying not to look at me, I knew she hadn’t come to her locker because of me.
“Seriously, Maggie, let me take this bag to your locker and unload this stuff. It’s too heavy for you to be carrying around. I’m gonna have to take you to my chiropractor if you do this all day.”
She zipped up her bag and then stood up. I did the same. But before she could pick up her bag, I grabbed it. “Come on,” I said, putting my hand on her lower back and moving her through the crowd toward our lockers.
She let me guide her, and I liked the way it felt to put my hand on her this way. I’d put my hand there on other girls before, but it had never felt like this. Almost as if I were making sure everyone knew Maggie was mine. Which was ridiculous, because she wasn’t mine; she was my friend. She didn’t belong to me.