I’m unsure which is the better option. Stay under the radar and coast along like I’d been doing until he stampeded into my life? Or just front up to the curious stares?
It’s not like people haven’t noticed his attention already. I did yell at him. He did beat the living daylights out of a phone on my behalf. There are even students who would have seen our exchange in art class. Not many, but enough to get gossip tongues wagging.
Avon
You’re allowed down this end unless you’re ashamed of me already?
Never in a million years. Heads up.
I turn as he envelops me in his arms, barely giving me a second to adjust before his lips claim mine, a kiss that’s long and hard and far more than the passing students probably want to see on a Monday morning.
“Steady on,” Clare teases as she arrives, bumping us along to access her locker. “You’re making some of us jealous.”
“Where is your new beau this morning?” I ask, moving out of Zane’s reach, only to be drawn into a new embrace, an arm spanning my shoulders as he presses my back against his chest, chin resting on my head.
Arriving home on Saturday night, I’d been worried that Clare might have noticed my absence. Instead, she’d been full of tales about her adventures with Wilder. Mostly sitting alongside his derby runs, cheering whenever he knocked an opponent out of bounds, but including a selfie from his rumpled bed.
“In his room, I guess,” she says, chewing on her bottom lip. “Prepping for the day ahead.”
Maddox and Evie arrive at their lockers, giving a nod before leaving through the side exit, opposite the common room.
“I should show you our clubhouse,” Zane says, ruffling my hair with his free hand. “Introduce you to our lair.”
“You have a lair?” Clare’s eyes open wide, and she fluffs her hair. “What does a girl have to do to be invited?”
“She has to do a royal,” he says, nodding at Wilder who’s just arrived.
The boy fumbles with his locker, sporting bed hair and lazy Monday-morning-tired eyes. When he turns around and sees us, he gives a small jump, then waves, dragging out a textbook before coming to join us.
As he walks, his eyes zoom in on the placement of Zane’s hands and he shoots him a smug grin.
“Hey.” His mouth splits wide in a yawn as he slips his arm around Clare. The movement pulls aside his collar, exposing a fresh hickey on the side of his neck.
“Almost forgot.” Zane removes his arm and starts patting his pockets, a gesture that looks suspiciously like a pantomime. “Ah, here we go.”
He pulls out a car fob, nodding at my hand until I hold it out and he drops the keys into it. My thumb traces the trident symbol, recognising it before Zane adds, “Since you keep refusing to take it home, I thought you might like to give it a whirl while we’re in school.”
My eyes open wide, and my mouth tries to come up with excuses, but fails. Especially when Clare’s eyes alight on the same symbol.
“You’re fucking kidding me!” She grabs hold of my arm, shaking me back and forth until I’m laughing. “Don’t you dare,” she says, holding up a warning finger when my expression givesme away. “If you turn this down, you’re officially on the bad friend’s list and good luck ever getting free of that.”
“Okay, okay.” My giggles hit too hard to refuse. “Although I should report you to the counsellor. This counts as peer pressure.”
“Who gives a shit? They can expel me right now and it’ll just give me a longer joyride.”
“But I really shouldn’t during class time.”
Clare hooks her arm around my waist like she’s about to drag me. “Like you care about any class except art. Come on! You’re killing me.”
I hold my hands up in surrender, giving Zane an admonishing frown. “See what you’ve unleashed?”
Dahlia chooses that moment to stroll into the hallway, arching her eyebrows in surprise at the tableau. “Do you need help?” she asks, tapping my shoulder. “Blink once for yes, twice for no.”
“She’s fine,” Wilder snaps, cheeks growing heated. “Maybe stick to your lane since you’ve decided you don’t belong in this one.”
“Wow.” The pinch of hurt is gone almost before it registers, then she turns to Zane. “You going to let your friend talk to me like that?”
“Everyone’s an adult here. You can all talk to each other how you like and leave me out of it.” He leans over to give me another kiss, soft, fleeting. The light caress shouldn’t burrow into my flesh like indelible ink, but it does.
