“Naw,” Cole said. “It ain’t like that.”
“Really?” Coop pressed.
Cole said, “Nope. Hey, do you remember if she was here today?”
And just like that, my pride and my ego took a one-two punch. The first from Coop, who’d just described me as a piece of ass, and the second from Cole, who clearly wasn’t at all interested in me. I was left hurt and rejected even though Cole should’ve meant nothing to me. I mean, I’d talked to him for, what, two minutes the day before? I wasn’t just losing my mind; I’d now become pathetic as well. Pulling the last book out of the locker, I shoved it into my backpack and slammed the door.
The voices, which had been approaching, abruptly stopped, and out of the corner of my eye I saw them turn the corner almost right next to me. I made eye contact with Cole and a boy I vaguely remembered sitting an aisle over in Rennick’s class. I thought his full name was John Cooper. I glared at both of them to let them know I’d heard everything they’d said.
Cooper nudged Cole with his elbow. “There she is.”
“Whoa,” Cole said, his jaw dropping and his eyes widening as he stared at me.
I pivoted on my heel and walked angrily away. A furious dialogue started in my head. Boys! Stupid, dumb, asshole boys! “It ain’t like that.” You bet it ain’t like that, you asshat!
“Hey!” Cole called after me.
Ignoring him, I quickened my pace.
“Lily!”
I kept walking.
“Hey!” he said again, trotting forward to come up next to me.
I lifted my chin a little higher and refused to look at him. “What?” My tone was sharp enough to cut glass.
He chuckled. “Seriously,” he said, “you walk crazy-fast.”
I halted and glared hard at him. “What do you want, Spence?” And then I covered my mouth. Oh, shit, I’d done it again. I’d called him Spence.
Cole didn’t seem to mind the slip. “Uh, it’s Cole, remember? The guy who saved you from being marked late yesterday?”
I tossed my hair and rolled my eyes. Angry as I was, I had to admit that I was a tiny bit pleased he’d come after me.
“What can I do for you?” I said, throwing my backpack over one shoulder so I could cross my arms. No way was I letting him off the hook.
He cocked his head at me the way a puppy does when he’s unsure why you’re mad at him. “First of all, I’m sorry about Cooper,” he said, waving his hand back down the hallway. “He’s a douche.”
I continued to glare at him, refusing to let it go. Lack of sleep and the terrible day I’d had could’ve been a factor in how mad I was.
“Second of all…” He looked me up and down slowly. “Wow.”
I blinked. “What’s ‘wow’?”
Cole shook his head as if he were amazed or a little chagrinned. “For real, Lily, I’ve been looking for you all day, and the whole time I was searching for a blonde, and now I find you and you’re…this…” He waved his hand at me again, his gaze darting all over me as if he couldn’t quite believe it.
I tensed and my brow lowered to the danger zone. “What’s. This?” I demanded, mimicking his hand motion.
Cole’s gaze stopped roving. Looking me dead in the eyes, he said, “Hot. Like…yesterday, you were…you know…whoa, but today…I mean, damn, woman. Damn!”
I burst out laughing. I totally hadn’t been expecting anything like that. He started to laugh, too, and then all that tension and anger I’d been feeling just melted away.
I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and said, “Were you really looking for me today?”
He nodded. “Yep.”
“Why?”
It was Cole’s turn to become a little shy. “I…uh…”
“Yeah?”
He shrugged. “I wanted to know if you were up for hanging out sometime.”
I blinked again and my pulse quickened. “Sometime?”
He made a funny face and tried again. “Today. I wanted to see if you wanted to hang out today.”
A rush of fluttery adrenaline pulsed through my veins. I was flattered and excited and nervous and still trying to remind myself that I’d basically just had my heart broken.
“Or, you know, tomorrow,” Cole added, and I realized I hadn’t answered him.
“What’d you have in mind?” I asked, aware that I seemed to be far more interested in Cole than I should’ve been.
“Uh…” he said, and his face turned red. Clearly, he hadn’t thought his plan all the way through. “We could get a couple of slices at Sam’s Pizza.”
I hitched my backpack up a little farther on my shoulder. “That could work,” I said.
He broke into a broad grin. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Cool,” he said. I stepped forward, and he tucked in next to me. We emerged from the school to find all the busses gone and most of the parking lot empty. Cole pointed to the back of the lot. “I’m at the end of the last row.”
“Get here late this morning?” I asked as we began to walk. Mom’s car was in the middle of the lot.
“Nah, I just like that spot.” Cole then changed the subject. “How’s it going at school?”