“If you tell me that you brought Bridget in her to make out before, I am going to completely gag,” I say with a small frown even thinking about it.
“No,” he chuckles. “I have never brought Bridget here. In fact, she and I have never made out before. Not really. Not in the way that counts.”
“Really?” I guess I am more surprised by that than I expected to be. “She acts like you two used to have something between you.”
Something like an unplanned pregnancy.
“Nope, nothing. Unless you count her infatuation with me that seems to know no bounds.”
I lean into him and press a bit further. It’s weird that it bothers me to think about him and Bridget together. It’s not like we’re even officially dating or anything. Not with the pressure of the gala looming over all of us—well, all of us who were even invited.
I never thought I’d be so worried about the prospect of getting out of here before. Especially not when the students who aren’t coming, students like my friends Alaska and Clark, would give anything to have a chance like this.
A chance to get out of Ridgecrest and be allowed to move on from this place where someone is breathing down your neck at any given moment.
“So, you don’t like her then?” I ask.
There’s a playful glint in his eyes that lets me know he enjoys the thought that I might be jealous over him kissing another woman.
“No,” he says with a smile. “Not even a little.”
I want to stay in this room all day and do nothing but stay wrapped in his arms kissing him. Well, maybe a little more than just that, but we don’t get the chance to even do that for long before there’s a knock at the door which makes us both jump.
“Who could that be?” I whisper. “There aren’t any classes in here.”
At least, I’m pretty sure of that.
Flashbacks of last term run through my head, and then further back, to the reason I ended up here at Ridgecrest in the first place. It feels like the lump rising in my throat is going to suffocate me.
Or would, if Sterling’s hand didn’t come up to give me a gentle squeeze on the middle of my arm.
“It’s going to be fine,” he hisses at me, levelling me with a stare that makes a blush rise in my cheeks. “If it was a janitor or school staff, they would have a key and just open it.”
But that doesn’t necessarily make me feel any better.
That means someone knows that we’re in here.
“Come on guys,” Chase says in a low voice against the door. “I know you’re in there and you better come out now. Bridget is looking for Aubrey and she looks like she’s on a war path.”
Chase. It’s just Chase.
I don’t remember the last time relief flooded through me like this. “Next time,” I hiss back at Sterling, “we’re going to your room. Any more of this and I’m going to have a stroke from anxiety.”
I sigh, rolling my eyes in annoyance over Bridget and start to slide out from Sterling’s arms, but he pulls me back into him.
“Can’t you just ignore her?” he asks. “Can’t we just stay in here until our next classes start?”
“Afraid not,” I say. “Have you forgotten that I have to share a room with her? If she’s mad enough that Chase came to find us, then that means I need to go see what she wants. Trust me when I say it will be ten times worse if I don’t.”
“Ugh.” Sterling moans as he lets me go and straightens up beside me. “Bridget is a major pain in my ass.”
I giggle and we both go to open the door.
Fortunately, since Chase is on the other side of it, he can also serve as a look-out and tell us when the coast is clear. The three of us are able to slink right back into the normal, crowded flow of student traffic in the hallways as we walk together and chat casually like it’s just a normal commute to class.
“There you are!” Bridget screeches from down one of the corridors. “Where the hell have you been?”
Sterling and Chase both shoot me a look.
Damn, she’s getting a bit too brazen. Maybe I need to up my game with her a bit.
It would be a lot easier to sneak around if she was at least a little afraid of me again.
The three of us all stop walking when she reaches us. Bridget stands in front of me with one hand on her hip and the other haphazardly holding her stack of books—most of which look like they haven’t even been cracked open yet.
She looks every bit the part of pissed-off mean girl.
She eyes Sterling from head to toe. Half of her looks like she is musing about how hot he looks today in his school uniform. The other half of her looks very miffed that he’s standing as close to me as he is. Sterling doesn’t even look at her, which infuriates her even more, and the smirk that is on Chase’s face certainly isn’t helping matters at all.
“What is it, Bridget?” I ask.
“You didn’t return my top,” she scowls at me.
“What top?”
“The burnt orange one that I let you borrow the other day. I need it and you never gave it back to me.”
“Burnt orange?” Chase asks. “Did you light the shirt on fire or something?”
“Ha ha,” Bridget says as she rolls her eyes dramatically at him. “You’re so funny, Chase. I suppose you’re trying to impress your new girlfriend, huh?”
I can feel Sterling noticeably prickle next to me at Bridget’s insinuation that I am Chase’s
