He lets out a heavy sigh. I pull my cell out of my purse and peek at the time— and sure enough, just as I thought— they’re both supposed to be in class right now. Jeremy spots my approach before Cheyenne does, but I’m quick to side up to Cheyenne and put on my best smile. I’ve never seen them talk before, but I’m not surprised they know one another considering their connections to Forsaken.
“Going to see Dad?” Cheyenne asks with a wiggle of her brows as she jerks her chin at my purse on my shoulder. She’s good at this— trying to distract people from the task at hand. It worked the first few times we’d met, but I’m onto her game now.
“Heh,” I say and try to stop my eyes from rolling into the back of my head at the suggestion of seeing her father. “No, pharmacy. I have a killer headache, and I wonder why.”
“The more difficult you are, the more he talks about you,” she says wistfully.
“That’s great, but really,” I say in exasperation. “You two are going to be the death of me. Do either of you realize how much Mr. Beck wants you both kicked out of this school? Do you?”
Cheyenne bites her lip and her eyes shift to Jeremy’s. He folds his arms over his chest and scowls down at me. I hate it when the students get taller than me, which unfortunately, happens a lot with the boys. It makes it difficult to feel like I’m really an authority figure when I have to look up to scold them.
“We’re just talking. Chill,” Jeremy says. His eyes cut to Cheyenne briefly and she gives him a soft smile. Oh, hell. She’s got that look on her face that all teenage girls get when they have a crush on somebody. I wonder if her dad knows about this development. Speaking of her dad, I might be able to use the club to diffuse the attitude and get their asses to class before someone else realizes they’re just lingering around campus.
“Hey,” I say and raise my finger to Jeremy. “Close your mouth and get to class.” He doesn’t move, but he does smirk down at me and roll his eyes. Okay, he’s more hard-headed than I gave him credit for. He knows I work here, but apparently he doesn’t care. Either that or he’s just trying to show off in front of Cheyenne. I’m betting it’s the latter. So I go with my old standby when a student doesn’t listen. I pull my cell from my purse and nod my head. “Wilcox, right? Joshua Wilcox? That’s the name of your sister’s boyfriend?”
Joshua Wilcox was a year behind me in school, but he and his two buddies, Ian Buckley and Ryan Stone were legendary around campus. Josh now goes by Duke— for a reason I’m not aware of— and like his felonious friends, he’s a member of the club.
Jeremy’s face falls and his arms drop to his sides. He clears his throat and scratches the back of his neck. Silently, I thank Mindy for gabbing about work so often. Apparently Nic used to have a hard time with Jeremy, but since she started seeing Josh, the boy has straightened up a lot. Mindy says all Josh has to do is give him a look and the kid behaves.
“That’s what I thought,” I say and put my phone away. Thankfully, Jeremy doesn’t call my bluff. I don’t have Josh’s phone number, but even if I did, I’d never call it. I only know him by proxy and what I know of him tells me that I’m better off not getting to knowing him. “Class. Now.”
Jeremy gives Cheyenne “the nod”, pulls a cell out of his pocket, and quickly sends a text message. Just as he shoves the phone back into his pocket he disappears in the direction of his class. Now that I know mentioning Josh really does work as well as Mindy says, I’m going to use it liberally. Cheyenne tries to step away and sneak off down the hallway, but I’m not having that. I’ve gone to bat for her— I’m still going to bat for her— and she’s ditching class.
“Oh no you don’t,” I say and snap my fingers. She stops in place, turns around, and walks back to me.
“He’s cute, right?” she says. Her eyes are big and dreamy and her cheeks are a dark pink. Crap. She doesn’t just kind of like him, she’s got full-blown love-face going on.
“Adorable,” I grumble. “But seriously, do you have any idea how hard I’m trying to keep your butt from getting expelled? I thought we talked about this, Cheyenne.”
“We did and I am being good. I was on my way back to class from the bathroom and Jeremy was standing here. He was really upset and I didn’t want him going to class like that! He just needed a friend to listen to him.”
“Mr. Beck is not going to give a rat’s patootie why you weren’t in class if he catches you out here,” I say. I mentally kick myself once the words are out of my mouth.
“Did you just say rat’s patootie?” Cheyenne asks. Her eyes are wild like I’m some kind of alien or something. Mindy and her damn phrases are rubbing off on me and making me sound like an imbecile.