Those around us who hadn’t already known my name were now looking at me more intensely than a moment before, and I hated it.
“Give me my schedule back, Beckham.”
There were a few chuckles, and Cami leaned farther into his side. “He goes by Beck.”
“Oh.” I pretended like I hadn’t known. “I’m sorry, Beck. I hadn’t realized.”
He grinned as he read over my paper but didn’t respond. I was trying to get under his skin, but that was impossible. Beck Clermont was impenetrable.
“It looks like your next class is with me.” He tucked my schedule in his pocket and started moving down the hall. He didn’t say a word to anyone else. Not even a goodbye to Cami.
She didn’t look happy about it either. But I didn’t have time to worry about that, I was too busy trying to catch up to Beck so I could get my schedule back and find my next class.
Everyone was watching as I jogged behind him to catch up. “Give me my schedule, Beck.”
“Oh. Now I’m Beck?”
“Just give me my schedule.” I held out my hand, but he made no move to give it to me. He liked having me at his mercy, and he wasn’t going to do anything that took away his advantage.
“Are you having a good first day?” I felt like I was getting whiplash. Was he seriously just asking me about my day after I had just seen him with her?
“Oh, yes. I’m having an amazing time.” My sarcasm was clear.
“Yeah?” He chuckled softly as he walked. “First period was good?”
“Oh yeah.” I nodded and stepped around a guy who was picking up his books off the floor. “I made a new friend who invited me to her party this weekend. I think you know her.” I tapped my chin as he watched me. “You know? Your girlfriend.”
“She’s not my girlfriend,” he said it so casually that I couldn’t stop myself from looking up at him.
“She looked like your girlfriend.”
“And you look jealous.” He stopped by the classroom door and students stared at us as they walked past.
“I am not jealous.”
“You sure?” he asked as he raised his hand and pushed some hair behind my ear.
I wanted to slap that hand away, but I didn’t want to cause a bigger scene. I didn’t need to give these people any other reason to think, talk, or look at me.
I wanted to be under the radar. Off of it completely.
But standing here arguing with their king wasn’t going to accomplish that. It was only going to make everything worse.
But I couldn’t just walk away and let him think that I was jealous. I was, insanely so, but he didn’t need to know that. He didn’t need to know that yesterday had meant anything to me.
If he wanted to treat it as nothing, then so would I.
“I’m positive.” I brushed past him and walked into class.
I moved to one of the seats at the back of the class. I didn’t even care that he still had my schedule. I would be late for my next class and go to the office to get one printed. They wouldn’t fault me on my first day.
Beck plopped down into the desk in front of me and smiled at me over his shoulder. He was perfectly in my line of sight when I would be looking at the teacher, and he knew it. Beck didn’t do anything without a plan.
I stared forward, trying my hardest to ignore him, and I listened to the teacher as she spoke. This was calculus, and I needed to pay attention. I didn’t have time to deal with Beck in this class.
I wouldn’t let him distract me.
He had a notebook in front of him, but I didn’t see him take a single note as she spoke.
My phone buzzed in my bag on the floor, and I quickly grabbed it before she could hear it. She had just gone over her class rules, and no phones were at the top of the list.
I wasn’t trying to get in trouble during the first day.
I pressed my phone between my knees so the buzzing wouldn’t be heard, and when it went off two more times, I quickly checked it.
You were jealous.
But you have nothing to be jealous of.
Me and Cami just have a history.
I clicked the screen off without replying. I didn’t care about his and Cami’s history. That was a lie, I absolutely cared, but I didn’t want him to know that.
As far as he was concerned, nothing about him mattered to me. Not who he was with in the past or present because I was no longer going to be a part of that equation.
My phone buzzed again, and the urge to quickly check it was so overwhelming. Even if I didn’t want him to know, I desperately wanted to know what he had to say.
The urge felt irrational and obsessive, and I tried my hardest not to give in to it.
But I failed.
I tapped the screen of my phone and there his name was again. I had saved him as Clermont in my phone, and I knew that he would probably hate that. I smiled as I read his next message.
Trust me.
Trust him. He wanted me to trust him? I couldn’t think of anything more preposterous. Beck was the definition of untrustworthy. He was the most treacherous boy I had ever met, and I couldn’t be foolish enough to trust him. Even if I desperately wanted to.
After what you said to your father? You want me to trust you?
I tucked the phone under my thigh, and I refused to look at it again.
I could feel him regularly looking over his shoulder to look at me, but I didn’t acknowledge him. If I was going to make it through this class, through this school year, then I had to stick to my original plan.
Put my head down, work my ass off, and forget
