Great. I’d given her hell about cutting Jared’s electricity to shut down one of his parties. I was never going to hear the end of this.
Another from Tate. Heads up. Jared will be calling when he gets time. He needs to ask you something.
Hmm … okay.
Nik: Bored. Sooooo bored. Where are you?
I giggled quietly, missing my friend. I was about to dial her but decided to check my other messages first.
Mom: We need to meet for lunch this week. Call this evening.
Lunch? I grabbed the bag, swinging it over my shoulder as I walked out of the room, staring at my phone. Why did my mother want to have lunch?
When I got in trouble, she did nothing to help me. She had spoken to me only as much as she had to to let me know that I was not staying at home while I completed my community service. I’d felt alone and abandoned.
Now dread sat in my stomach like a ton of bricks, and the last thing I wanted to do was call her.
Checking the last message, I halted in the middle of the hallway.
Liam: Jax jumped me last night. Keep your new boyfriend away from me, or I go to the cops!!
Huh?
I dropped my arm and just stood in the empty hallway, probably looking as confused as I felt. Holding up the phone, I read the text again.
Jax jumped Liam?
Why? And why was Liam complaining to me about it?
Fisting the phone, I shook my head. Whatever. This was their problem. Not mine.
If Jax wanted to act like a child, that was on him. If Liam wanted to have the police laugh in his face, since they were obviously in the palm of Jax’s hand, then let him.
Dumping the phone in my purse, I grabbed Tate’s iPod, tuning it to Bananarama’s “Cruel Summer,” and stormed down the stairs and down the corridor to the rear of the school. Exiting through the back was a shortcut to Tate’s house, and since I was already annoyed, I figured I might as well book back to the house and get changed for the one o’clock kickboxing class.
Looking down the hall, though, I stopped, seeing bodies scurrying through a door. I yanked out my earbuds.
“Hurry, hurry!” one of them whispered, but it was so loud I could still hear it yards away.
And even with the blur of short shorts and tank tops, I still recognized the girls.
Christa, Sydney, and Ana.
“Hey, are you all all right?” I headed up to the closed door that Sydney had just disappeared through and saw the sign that read ATHLETICS.
Ana and Christa had spun around and were now staring at me wide-eyed, the blush of getting caught red all over their faces.
I smiled. “I’m not a teacher. Relax.”
And they pinched their lips together, trying to hold back smiles while they snuck glances at each other.
“Where’s Sydney?” I ventured, knowing damn well she’d gone through the door.
The sign didn’t say that any specific gender was prohibited, but I did know that tutoring was over. The girls weren’t supposed to be roaming the school.
“She’s—,” Christa started, but Ana nudged her with her elbow.
“She’s …?” I pressed.
When neither of them came clean, I turned to leave. “I think Ms. Penley is still here….”
“She’s in the weight room,” Ana blurted out.
I turned around, narrowing my eyes. “Doing what?”
Both of the girls smirked, avoiding eye contact.
“Jaxon Trent,” Christa deadpanned.
I froze. The softness from my face hardened into steel. “Go to the parking lot,” I ordered. “I’ll send her out.” When they didn’t move, I lost my cool. “Now,” I ordered.
They covered smiles with their hands and veered around my immobile body, heading back down the corridor.
Heading through the ATHLETICS door, I walked down the dim, carpeted hallway with offices to my left and right. Coach Burns, the football coach and a history teacher. Coach McNally, the girls’ tennis and soccer coach who also taught driver’s ed. There were a few more offices, but I kept my eyes focused straight ahead on the big, heavy-looking wooden door that read WEIGHT ROOM.
I shook my head, trying to ignore the pounding of my heart in my chest. Jax wasn’t really having sex with a seventeen-year-old girl in here. No, he was smarter than that, right?
And then I remembered the two girls I’d seen him with a couple of years ago. And I thought of Liam, who definitely wasn’t as smart as I’d thought.
With my stomach clenching, I pushed lightly through the door and spotted both of them right away.
Separate and clothed. Thank God.
I let out a small breath and relaxed my shoulders. I didn’t know why the hell I cared, but … I swallowed.
Just not her. He couldn’t go for her.