My heart pounded.
“Prada,” she yelled and giggled. “You really think a guy like Blake is going to go for a geek. Please, she doesn’t even know how to dress properly.”
I closed my locker.
“Oh, shit, sorry, I didn’t see you there,” Chloë said, and they both snorted, walking away.
I closed my eyes. I should’ve known.
“Hey, don’t for a second believe what comes out of that witch’s mouth.” A tall girl with dark brown hair and tanned complexion leaned against the locker next to mine.
“Excuse me?”
“Blake is crazy about you. From what I hear, he actually blocked her number,” she said. “I wish I knew what your secret is. I overheard them in the bathroom this morning, the shit they were going to pull off. It’s not the truth.” She smiled and walked away.
The warmth returned to my core, but it mixed with the yucky feeling again.
Where the hell was he?
The first period was English, and I tried to pay attention, forcing Blake and everything he’d told me a few days ago to the back of my mind. It was hard to get what Chloë and her friend said out of my mind, too.
The class got interrupted by three boys serenading to a girl. It was the only day of the year that the teachers allowed the interruptions. I was ready to kill myself with Duncan’s paper shooter.
When the bell rang, I looked for Blake, but he wasn’t in the hallways. I wondered if he was ever going to come back to school. Guys like him didn’t get rejected. It was usually the other way around.
I drifted to the second class, which was economics. A few girls in this class spoke about the angelic voice coming from the band room this morning. The song was so beautiful, and they couldn’t wait to see who serenaded it. They all melted at the way his voice made them feel.
When the bell rang, I looked for Blake again, but no luck. It carried on like that till lunch. Blake avoided me.
He actually pissed me off, taking my words so literally, but I knew if he didn’t, it would’ve broken me when the time came to leave again. I didn’t need to be more pissed at my father than I already was.
I still endured the occasional shit-face comment as we transferred from class to class. The tears were close by. I had prayed so hard not to have Chasmore High over again, and something told me it was going to be worse this time.
I walked into the cafeteria, hoping that I would see Blake, and my eye caught Chloë staring at me and then bursting into laughter at something her friend said.
I couldn’t believe that she made up what she said this morning. She was pathetic. Thank heaven for the girl that overheard them.
More shit-face comments came from her table and I ignored it as most of the girls laughed. The jocks looked at each other and chuckled. I really wished that Blake was here, but I would’ve seen him already if he was at school today. He was not the type you just glanced over.
I walked to my regular table at the back and sat down, taking out my lunch and my book and reading while I ate.
I could feel eyes on me, but I didn’t dare to look up from my book.
The chair scraped next to me and one jock, who was dating one of Chloë’s friends and hung around Blake, plopped down in the chair.
My heart stammered and my eyes flickered to Chloë’s table. She had a huge smile sprawled on her lips.
Oh, fuck. What the hell did they want?
He smiled at me as I looked at him.
The chair on my other side screeched, and another big guy with short black cropped hair plopped into that chair. They were boxing me in.
What the hell is going on?
Chloë’s comment from this morning jumped into my thoughts.What if that girl were wrong? What if they were texting each other? Why would a guy like Blake even be interested in me?It was so much easier to believe Chloë than the girl who told me it was a lie.
“Hey, Elena.” The tanned guy with dark cropped hair said. He was really handsome, but not in Blake’s category handsome.
