Page 87 of Make You Beg

Why does my body heat up at the thought of doing other things with Kayden?

It was supposed to be only once.

It pains me to type it, but I need to make it clear.

I’m not his dirty little secret. I’m not his whore.

Maddy:

Hard pass.

Maddy:

That was a one-time thing. A present. Hold onto that memory if you want. It’ll never repeat itself. Stop wasting your time.

There are plenty of apps for hook-ups if that’s what he wants. I’m going to make it my mission to be the only thing he can’t have.

Together, we’re bad.

Together, we’re chaos.

There’s no future for us.

There never was.

***

Walking into class next Friday has me full of nerves. I’ve got a presentation to nail. I keep scratching my arm and leaving red marks.

When the professor calls my name, I rise, ready to give it my best.

The class is made of rows of long desks and chairs, with stairs on the sides. A couple of hundred faces focus on whoever’s in the front.

Kayden’s in this class too, and I’ve got no idea what he’s planning to present. I never asked.

He sits on one of the seats closer to the stairs, and as I climb them down, I hear him murmur Good luck.

I don’t turn to face him and keep walking with my head high. I’m not going to let Kayden ruin what I’ve been working so hard for. Ignoring him is the best thing I can do, just as I did with his messages.

I’m not feeding his ego anymore. Not giving him the attention he craves.

Now, I focus on what I came here to do.

It’s a pretend lesson on why reading is important for our development. I need to teach it as if they were my students and I was the teacher. The professor said this is something we’d have to do much later in the semester, but he wanted us to start early so we would get used to it by the time we’re tested on it. It’s an exercise. Yet, the nerves are all the same.

I stand in front of everyone, as the professor hands me a small remote that’s meant to skip forward the slides of the presentation on the projector on the wall.

“Do you have a USB drive?” he asks.

I hand it to him, and he pushes it into the laptop on his desk.

Faces I recognize from every day spread across the room. Jordan, whose eyes don’t want to meet mine, is among them. Kayden is smiling, as if he’s about to watch a freak show.

I swallow and look at someone else at a far corner. Someone whose face I can’t make out.

Taking a deep breath, I start.

“Hello, everyone. I’m Madelyn De Luna, and I’ll be your teacher for the day.” Pause. “Today, we’re going to be learning about the importance of reading for our development.” My heart is beating hard with each word I say. “There are many reasons why reading is important. Does anyone have any idea why?” Silence. “O-okay. Let me give you some examples in the following interactive presentation.”