Chapter Two ⢠Making Deals
I've never been in a situation like that before. I've shared kisses with guys prior to him, but never in the sense of it being random or the guy being insanely hot. And of course, the first time it happens, I punch the guy in the face. It's like my brain didn't know whether it prefered fight or flight, so it choose both.
How brilliant.
I had already slowed my run down into a walk about a minute ago when I was certain the guy wasn't following me, but I cringe at the fact that I'm slightly out of breath after only running for a short period of time. Damn, am I out of shape.
I knock on my classroom door after pausing in front of it to take a few deep breaths. "Come in."
Pushing the door open, I roll my eyes as everybody's head snaps toward me like someone being late is the most interesting thing that has happened to them all morning. Which, to be honest, is probably true. School sucks.
Mr. Lowell, my English teacher, turns to me, so I smile. "Sorry, for being late Mr. L."
He lets me off the hook without asking for an explanation, which is one of the reasons why he's my favourite teacher. He doesn't ask questions, and if he does, it's usually in private. Which is unlike some of the other teachers here, who literally go out of their way to embarrass you in front of class. Arseholes.
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Despite English usually being my best subject, I couldn't keep my eyes open or my mind alert enough to pay attention in class. I vaguely wonder how the hell I'm going to stay awake in U.S. History, seeing as it isâunfortunatelyâ my next class. Yay. After getting a few things out of my locker, I walk in and sit down in my usual seat, saving the seat next to me for my best friend, Amber. I knew she wouldn't be here for at least a minute though. We normally walked to our classes together, but her boyfriend of six months, Lincoln, caught her by the door and they started making out. Bleh.
So, out of sheer boredom, I decide to start doodling little mustaches on my notebook while I wait for her. After about a quarter of the page is covered, I finally see movement by the door. Assuming it's Amberâbecause most of the class was already seatedâI look up and instead see the same guy who kissed me earlier in the hall. Our gazes lock and he starts walking towards me. All the seats around me were taken except for Amber's own, which was to the right of mines.
"Hey, is this seat taken?" He asks, his deep, husky voice making even that sound hot.
"Well, that depends; if I say no will you kiss me again?" I raise my eyebrow at him. If he thinks for one second, that I'm going to ignore the fact that he kissed me against my will, he is dead wrong.
He holds my gaze. "Probably."
"Then yes, this seat is definitely taken."
His eyes finally leave mine to look at the girl sitting on the left side of me. He walks past me to lean down and whisper something in her ear. I feel my stomach clench. Just as I'm about to look away, I see him slip her a twenty dollar bill. What the hell?
As she stands up and moves to another seat, I realize what might have just happened. He bribed a girl to move to another seat so he could sit next to me. Once again. . . what the hell.
He sits down and turns to face me, as if I didn't just see him bribe some girl. "What's your name?"
"Emmaline." "Your full name."
"Emmaline Shay Jones."
"Emmaline Shay Jones," he repeats, biting his bottom lip so sexily that I internally swoon. "You have a beautiful name, it suits you."
I mentally roll my eyes at the corny line. "Thanks. What's your full name?"
"Ryder Augustus Williams," he says as he holds his hand out for me to shake. Who the hell shakes hands in high school? When I don't take his hand he frowns.
"Look, I'm sorry about earlier. I'm not sorry that I kissed you, because if I had an opportunity to do it again right now, I would, but I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable or unhappy. That's the last thing I want." He holds out his hand againâthis time as more of a peace offeringâand I take it, feeling a warmth trail up my arm when our hands make contact. Ryder makes a small noise that sounds suspiciously like a moan.
"You're forgiven. . . but only if you tell me why the hell you kissed me in the first place."
His eyes, which haven't left me since we've been talking, darken. "Why do you think I did it?" He asks, not unkindly, but curious.
"I don't know. Do you usually walk around kissing random unsuspecting girls?"
A cute smile made its way onto his face. "No, Angel, just you," he sounded genuine, but damn, pet names already? This guy moves fast.
Before I could get any more answers from him, Amber walks into the classroom.
"Em! Why did you leave me? We always walk to class together," she frowns.
"What else was I supposed to do? Stand there in solitude while you dry humped Lincoln against the wall?"
"Okay, you may have a point," she laughs and then glances over at Ryder, "who's the hottie?"
I shoot her a look which she ignores. "Ryder, this is Amber, my crazy best friend that I love to bacon bits." "Hi," he waves to her.
"Amber, this is Ryder, the guy who violated my personal space this morning," I sit back, barely hiding my smile as I wait for what I know would be Amber's overprotective response.
"What!?" She immediately grabs him by the front of his shirt. "Did you violate my best friend!?"
Ryder's eyes widen. "No! I mean yeânot reallyâkind of?"
I burst out laughing. "I'm just kidding Amber, let him go."
"Oh," she lets his shirt go and smooths out the wrinkles with her hand, "so he didn't touch you?"
"No, he did," I see the look on her face and stop her before she goes after him again, "but it's okay, he apologized. I'll tell you about it later."
She raises an eyebrow at me as if to say 'if you say so' and I shot her a look that says 'I do.'
"You're new here, right?" She's still glaring at him a little bit as she says this, unsure of whether or not to trust him until I tell her what happened.
"Uh-huh. Emma here will have to show me around," when he turns to look at me, Amber waves a hand in front of her face and mouths, "he's so hot!"
"Really? I don't remember agreeing to that. I'm sure there are people who would volunteer to do it anyway, so I don't need to."
"You're probably right. But you're the only one that I want." I was almost positive that that was a double entendre, judging by the way his voice turned husky and his eyes devoured mine.
"And what if I don't want to?" I raise an eyebrow. If he wants to play the flirting game, I will too.
"Then I'll just have to find a way to persuade you."
"We'll see about that."
"Well, what will it take for you to agree?" I shrug. "What if I get the principal to personally assign you to give me a tour around the school? Will you do it then?"
Wondering how he's going to pull this off, I relent. "Fine, but it's not like I have much of a choice if you do that anyways. I mean it's not like I'm going to tell her no."
"Great, it's decided then," he smiles wickedly at me, "let's shake on it."
As I reach my hand out to him I realize how stupid I am for agreeing to his deal. It was his idea so I highly doubt he would set himself up for failure. Like he could sense that I was hesitating, he quickly slipped his hand in mine. The warmth from the first time we touched was there again and I see Ryder's eyelids flicker like he's fighting not to close them.
Mustering up confidence I don't have, I smile, release our hands, and look him straight in the eyes. "It's a deal, then."
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I'm not even going to bother asking for votes or comments because I feel horrible for taking so long to upload. BUT, I do have to say in my defense, I really suddenly had to move into a new house, so I hope that gives me some leeway? Anyways, if I doesn't then I still apologize!
( ಥÙÙÙÙÙÙÙÙÙÙಥ) Forgive me