“Exactly... what?”
He laughed again. “Just joking. Let’s go.”
He walked with giant strides. His backpack hung over his shoulder. I should’ve gone back. But for the love of blueberries, I couldn’t. I wanted to know what this guy’s deal was.
He could have anyone in this school, including Chloë Bishop, but he chose me. Why?
We walkedto the nearby forest, and my heart skipped a beat. The ground was still soggy, but thank heaven it stopped raining.
“Are you planning on killing me?”
He turned around, frowning at me. “What?”
“Where are you taking me?”
“The woods. I love trees.”
“I’m telling you now. If you have any funny ideas in that mind of yours—”
“Relax, will you? It’s just trees.” The curve in the corner of his smirk didn’t put me at ease.
“I told you, I’ve never done this before.”
“What, go to the woods?”
“No, skipping class with a guy I don’t know.”
“And I want to fix that.”
“You do not know the amount of shit we will be in when we get caught.”
“Relax, nobody will catch us.”
“Were the famous last words of anyone before they got caught.”
He chuckled as he kept on walking.
Everything in my being yelled at me to turn around and go back to school, but like I’d said, he was a magnet and pulled me right in, so I followed.
The path was muddy, and my feet kept on skidding.Please, don’t let me fall and make an ass of myself. Not now?
He led me through weathered trees rising out of the earth to brush the sky. Sun-dappled leaves creating flickering shadows made the setting creepy.
Why was I doing this to myself? I was smarter than this. My dad didn’t raise an idiot, yet I found myself alone in the woods with hotness-on-legs—Meg’s name for him.
My heart thumbed behind my ribcage as we sauntered deeper into the woods, and in my mind’s eye, the guy that greeted me this morning, waited somewhere with a few of this idiot’s friends.
The slosh of dead leaves and pine needles caught in furred clumps of moss reached my ears with every step we took.
I skidded on the mud and grabbed his coat.
Laughter bulged out of him as he tried to keep me on my feet. Mr. Smooth didn’t even lost his balance once.
When he got me back on my feet, I could feel the heat spreading to my cheeks. “Sorry. Thanks for not letting me fall on my butt.”
Another chuckle escaped his lips. “You want me to carry you, or are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I’m sure I’ll manage now.”
