“Yeah, sure.” Ty swallows and his eyes are locked onto where I’m touching him. His throat bobs.
Fuck, he probably thinks I’m crazy,I think, before pulling my hand away like he burned me.
“Thank you,” I say with a blush and hand him his sketchbook back. Ty’s quiet and staring at me with an expression I can’t recognize.
He nods before sitting back in his chair and watches me.
“Who are you?” he asks in a whisper.
I move my hair over my shoulder, and rest my head on my hand in a way I hope looks attractive.
“No one special,” I say with a self-deprecating tone. “Don’t get too used to me, big guy. I don’t plan on sticking around for long.”
His lips quirk up in a smirk and he shrugs his shoulders.
“We’ll see about that.”
CHAPTER 2
15 years old
The bell rings,and she gets up, clutching her sketchbook to her chest and basically runs from me.
I feel…like I’ve been struck by lightning. My mind is running slower than my body on auto-pilot, so I barely register that I’ve grabbed my stuff and left the room.
Roxie Westin.
Roxie.
Walking out of the room, I’m kind of surprised Jones doesn’t try to talk to me. He’s been busting my balls all year. But today I could kiss that dumb bald head of his because if he hadn’t told me to take the hood off, I wouldn’t have gotten to talk to her.
Don’t get me wrong, I saw her the second she walked in. Black curled hair, pale Snow White-esque skin with dark browneyes. She was–is–beautiful. Like…wow. I saw her, felt myself immediately catch feelings, and did everything in my power not to watch her like a creeper.
But she was already staring at me.
I knew I had to introduce myself before she slipped through my fingers. I’m not letting someone else snatch Roxie up.
Fuck. That.
I’m getting better at fighting, building muscle and learning tricks, so I have no problem knocking one of these skinny fuckers out for trying to take her from me.
My eyes search the in-between class crowds. I just need to see her again.
Slipping through the hallway, I see her looking around the lockers, trying to find the one they assigned to her. I can’t help it, I watch her. Hiding at the end of the row of lockers, watching her struggle. The black curls bounce against her back with each movement.
She’s so hot. Talented, too. Hotandtalented? I can already tell I’m going to be thinking about her all day.
After a few moments of mouthing the numbers she sees, she walks towards the one that must be hers. She double checks the code written on a paper in her hand, and starts to open it, struggling with the lock. Her lips screw together in frustration and I can very clearly see her mutter ‘fuck you’ to the inanimate object. That makes me smile, laugh under my breath and lean my shoulder on the locker I’m hiding behind.
Tina, a freshman girl I’ve known since grade school, looks at me with shock. Her eyes trained on my smile and she gasps
My smile immediately drops.
“No way, Ty Hernandez can smile. Who would’ve thought?” Tina jokes, but that pisses me off.
“Fuck off, Tina.”
“Still so touchy. I thought after the party last week and our seven minutes in heaven, you’d be a little nicer to me.” I knew that party would come back to bite me in the ass. Iknew it. I’m really surprised that Tina didn’t run her freaking mouth about how I wouldn’t actually kiss her.
