“So, what? You’re gonna not be with this guy you’re crazy about who clearly likes you too because of Nathan?” I turned and faced her. “I’m the queen, and I formally decree that you and Alistair are allowed to be together.”
Avery raised an eyebrow. “You know that’s not how that works.”
“Why isn’t it?” I growled back. “I’m in the same position as he is.” Avery just stared at me, and I relented. “Yeah, okay, I know that I’m not, but whatever. I’ll take the fall. Just go for it, and let me deal with Nathan.”
“Really?’ Avery asked.
“Of course, really. This is why I’m sticking it out, isn’t it? I can’t be happy, so at least the two of you should be.” I glanced over Avery’s shoulder and saw a familiar head of long hair making its way toward us. “Oh, speak of the devil.”
Avery’s head whipped over, and she came face to face with Alistair. They were damn near glowing as they stared at each other. “Hey,” Alistair said.
“Hi,” Avery replied with a wide smile.
Alistair poked a thumb at her neck. “I thought you said you could cover it.”
She wrinkled up her nose at him. “I thought you said you could keep from leaving one.”
Alistair laughed. “Fair.” He turned and grinned at me. “Morning, Cherri.”
“Hey, Ali!” I slipped backward. “Don’t mind me. I was just going.”
Neither Avery nor Alistair complained as I shut my locker, keeping only the things with me that I needed for my first couple of classes, and slid away. I greeted a few more people on my way back to the main hallway to head down to my first class, but when I turned the corner, my good mood evaporated. I finally spied Nathan, and he was smiling and laughing with none other than Miss Jessica Abrams, the history teacher he’d been caught screwing last year.
I stormed down the hallway and over to where he was standing and grabbed his arm. He looked at me and seemed surprised at first, but quickly changed his expression to his go-to arrogant smile. “Hey, babe.”
“Don’t, ‘Hey, babe,’ me.” I shot a glare at Miss Abrams, who continued to smile back at me as if nothing was wrong. “Can I talk to you for a second?”
“Sure,” he replied before giving Miss Abrams a quick final glance. “See you later, Jess.”
“Bye,” she responded before turning and heading back into her classroom.
It sent a chill down my spine. She shouldn’t even still be a teacher, but when you’re a tall, model-adjacent, black-haired, blue-eyed beauty with breast implants and a padded ass, it’s pretty easy to talk your way out of anything.
I dragged Nathan over to a corner where Miss Abrams’s class wasn’t visible anymore and turned to face him. “Seriously? You can’t even wait one day?”
Nathan reached out and pulled me into a hug. “Come on, beautiful. Don’t be like that. She’s a teacher. I can’t not talk to her.”
With my hands on his chest to wedge between us, I pushed him off of me. “You can not call her Jess.”
“That’s her name,” Nathan retorted.
“You know—”
Nathan cut me off before I could get any more words out. “Hey, Avery.”
Avery looped her arm through mine, looking leagues happier with her relationship than I was with mine. “Hey, Nathan. Did Avery tell you that Alistair and I are gonna start dating?”
Whether Avery had read the situation or actually overheard part of the argument, I wasn’t sure, but her timing was perfect. I stared back at Nathan, daring him to refute the relationship. His cocky smile faded a bit, but he looked into my eyes, and in the few silent moments that passed between us, he understood the deal I was offering.
Finally, his smile came back, though with an irritated crook. “That’s awesome,” he replied. “I’m happy for you guys.”
Avery and I exchanged satisfied looks, and to let Nathan know that the deal had been cemented, I leaned forward and kissed him. The little bit of irritation that was there left his face, and I was pleased with how the silent negotiation had gone.
“Hey, have you guys seen that new guy?” Avery asked. “He looks terrifying.”
Nathan and I both looked at her, confused. “New guy?” Nathan asked. “I should know if there’s a new student.”
Avery shrugged. “I don’t know much about him. All I know is he sticks out like a sore thumb.”
The bell that signified the five-minute warning for class screamed throughout the halls, and all the students started to shuffle toward their homerooms.
“I’ll have to ask Jaxon about it,” Nathan said. He leaned in and gave me another kiss. “Love you.”
“Love you too,” I replied. “See you at lunch.” He nodded and then turned around and headed off down the hallway. I looked at Avery. “See? I’ve got your back.”
“And I’ve got yours. This new guy is hot.” She sang the word hot, and her eyes rolled back in her head. “And he’s in our homeroom. Methinks it’s your turn to have a little side-action.”
“Yeah,” I said, rolling my eyes with a laugh. “I’m sure that would turn out great.”
We stayed arm in arm until we were walking into our homeroom class, and then we parted so that we could sit down at a couple of desks near the front. We settled in, and then Avery pulled on my arm to get my attention. She motioned over her shoulder toward the back corner of the classroom, and I looked back.
At that moment, everything around me seemed to come to a halt. Time slowed, and I could hear my heart pounding faster and faster in my chest. My breathing hastened as I looked over the new student. He had a full face of facial hair and tattoos that peeked out of the top of the collar of his black t-shirt and out from under the sleeves to curl all the way down his arms and up over the back of his hands. He had his head down, causing some of the tips of his red-orange hair to fall into his eyes.
He looked so different from the last time I’d seen him, like much more than four years had passed.
“Hot, right?” Avery asked, snapping me back to reality. “I think you should go for it, but that’s just me.”
Focusing during homeroom was downright difficult. Despite the fact that I kept throwing glances over my shoulders at him, he didn’t seem to notice me. When I wasn’t looking at him, I was glancing up at the clock to count down the minutes until it was over. What was only meant to be an hour and a half felt more like a month. When the bell finally rang, it actually made me jump. I stood up suddenly, bringing Avery’s attention to me.
“You okay?” Avery asked.
I didn’t respond. I started to thread my way through all of the students filing out of the classroom and made my way toward the back. When I got to the desk he was sitting at, I took a deep breath before speaking.
“Deon?”
His head shot up, and when his eyes landed on me, they got wider and wider, along with his mouth that went agape. “Oh, wow.” He smiled. “Cherri.”
I nearly started crying because it felt so good to see him. “Hi.” The way we’d parted ways didn’t matter to me. There had to be something else to the story if he was so happy to see me too.