"I'm doing mock quizzes for my college classes."
He winced. "Jesus, Grace. You haven't even graduated high school yet."
"So? I have high expectations for myself, and college is nothing like high school. It doesn't hurt to get ahead of the herd."
He flicked his hand in the air, gesturing lazily. "What about having fun? Getting laid?" His knowing gaze roamed my body in a slow caress. I felt my cheeks heat as his attention zeroed in and lingered on my bare legs. He shifted his body on my bed.
"I have my whole life to do that. Unlike you, I don't plan on peaking in high school."
I sat back at my desk and stared at the paper I had been working on. The words swirled in front of me. Even though Harrison had said way harsher things to me, I still felt a pang of guilt at the bottom of my stomach. It wasn't in my nature to be mean, but I would be devoured like prey if I didn't fight back.
"You think you're so much better than me, don't you?" he sneered.
"No," I whispered. "IknowI'm better than you."
The silence stretched painfully.
Finally, I heard my bed squeak as Harrison jumped up. Without a word, he stormed out of my room.
Good riddance.
***
"Texted you again but remembered that you blocked me so of course you're at the first place I think to look."
My brow furrowed in disbelief as Harrison sat down opposite me.
I was in the school library, still not working on our assignment. Not to be conceited, but I could smash that out in less than two hours. Since it wasn't important, I was working on other papers.
I looked around in feigned confusion. "May I help you?"
"Look....I know you can get this shit done in thirty minutes, but I wanna help you. When Miss Singh reads our project and sees our names, I want to have earned the right to have it on there."
"I spoke with Bobby Fenwick, and he told me you only contributed the intro to your Junior year science project. It was worth a good chunk of your grade."
Harrison's face reddened, and he shrugged. "So I've turned a new leaf."
"Debatable."
"Look." He held his hands up in surrender. "I'm not here to be an asshole to you."
"That's a change of pace."
"But," he stressed, "I want to help out. Give me a chance?"
I looked into his warm brown eyes; for once, they were sincere instead of mocking. He was such a handsome boy. I'd forgotten how gorgeous he was sometimes because all my thoughts of Harrison were usually murderous. But looking into the familiar eyes I had known since childhood, my heart softened a smidge.
"Fine," I sighed. "But you are definitely doing more than just the intro. I don't know why Bobby let you get away with that. Entitled prick," I muttered under my breath.
"I heard that, but I'll let it slide. Okay, what should we do first?"
For the next hour, we chatted about our assignment. We picked a topic and traded opinions about the outline of our essay and any accompanying materials we needed.
I was surprised by Harrison's intelligence. He brought some really good ideas to the table. All that taught me, though, was that on top of being an asshole, he was also lazy—because there was no excuse for him slacking off in class if this was the kind of output he gave when he actually put in an effort.
He was focused and serious and hadn't once tried to make a snarky comment at my expense. All this concentration and work from him for a project worth zero points. What a waste. I almost felt sorry for Bobby.
Still, I became so wrapped up in our surprisingly pleasant dialogue that I almost let my guard down.
