Page 17 of Dirty Liars
Not to be deterred, Blair leans down to whisper in my ear as he passes by my desk. “Nice choice.” He runs one hand along the back of my seat, letting the tips of his fingers brush between my shoulder blades. “I’ll be able to watch everything from here.”
Blair leaves and takes a seat in the next row over, two chairs behind me to my right. He leaves behind him a space that suddenly feels empty. So much for ‘out of sight out of mind’. Blair just ensured he’ll be theonlything on my mind for the rest of class.
It takes everything in me to keep any kind of focus on what the teacher is saying. Blair doesn’t help; he drops little nuanced words and phrases in my direction the whole hour long. It gets so bad that even the teacher starts to pick up on it, and keeps looking at Blair funny. I end up having to cover the bottom of my face so no one sees me smiling. I know he’s aiming it all at me, and all I can think is that he is the literal definition of a bad, bad boy, and I hate it’s something that intrigues me.
The second the bell rings, I practically run from the room out into the hall. My sweet escape is ruined when I only immediately smack into the solid wall of Astor Hawthorne’s muscular chest.
He’s knocked backward and drops his books along with mine. I’m not the only person who stops to see what he does next. All eyes are on me as he just stands there, staring, as I slowly get down on my knees and pick up my books. I leave his scattered across the floor.
As I stand back up, he’s right in front of me, glaring down, and his voice is cold.
“Stay out of my way, or I will make every day here a living hell for you.”
I shoot him a dark look and push past him down the hall to get to my last class. As soon as I step away, a younger boy clambers down to collect Astor’s books for him. He really is king.
There are only two empty seats when I finally find the next room, and I take one of them just as Blair Rashnikov saunters through the door and sees the empty chair beside me. He chuckles and takes it, leaning over to me with a teasing grin.
“Thanks for saving me a seat, Bunny.” He gives me a wink and I feel my cheeks burning again. “You aren’t going to get away from me that easy.”
All my attempts to ignore him, angering Astor, embarrassing myself … it’s all been for nothing. Blair sits so close to me, I can’t even breathe without thinking of him now.
It’s all a game this, and I think I’m already losing.
Is this day ever going to end?
CHAPTER8
The first dayof school does end, but it’s only the beginning of all the other days that follow. When I first came to Hawthorne Academy, I had no idea what to expect, really. I had it in my head that I would work hard in my classes, that I would give myself a solid foundation to build a good future on, and that I would hopefully make some friends.
That’s all fine and dandy, but it’s just the beginning. Turns out those were the easy parts.
My run-ins with the boy’s don’t stop. Try as I might to stay out of their way, there’s no avoiding them. Blair is bent on teasing me like I’m his new toy, but I know how that goes. He’ll play with me for a while, but as soon as he’s bored with me he’ll move on to the next shiny, new thing.
Then there’s Wills. He still hasn’t forgiven me for the incident with the boat. I’ve tried to stay out of his way as much as possible during sailing class, and thankfully after the shipwreck earlier our teacher doesn’t try and pair us up together again.
Astor is … he’s just Astor. Thank god we only have one class together, because I think there’s a certain point where shooting daggers with your eyes might actually kill a person. If that is the case, I’ll be found murdered by eye-daggers any day now.
The days fly by and the weather starts to drift into fall by the end of the following week. The leaves have started to turn at the edges and the air has a certain crispness in the mornings. That sharpness still lingers on the lawn Friday afternoon as I’m finishing up a biology assignment with Dana.
Today she’s lost in her own thoughts, not really paying any attention to the fact that the only response I’ve given her over the last hour are a series of half-hearted grunts. She’s gone off on one of her “Victoria” tangents again.
“Did you see Victoria today? It takes all my will not to just … reach out and touch her skin.”
This time I actually glance up. “You know that sounds super serial-killer-y, right?”
Dana closes her eyes and groans miserably for a moment as she’s laying on the grass near me.
“I know. Just kill me please.”
I mime stabbing her several times in the stomach before going back to my work. She just sighs again and rolls over on her side.
“If I was you, I wouldn’t be spending any time with me. Not when Victoria actuallywantsto be your friend.”
Now it’s my turn to sigh. I set down the book and stretch my cramped shoulders.
Truth be told, I’ve gotten kind of tired of the way Victoria tries to show me off on her arm around the school like some kind of keeper of the new girl. I know there’s a brain behind those fake lashes and perfect hair, but she’s still the very definition of shallow and self-serving.
At the end of the day, it’s Dana I can actually talk to … and that means a lot to me. I haven’t had many true friendships in my life. I’ve not been here too long, but I know that Dana is a true friend. It’s for that reason that I refuse to lie to her.
