His eyes widen as he takes me in, then he laughs. “I so wish I was there.”
“You’re friends with them?”
“Against his better judgment,” Charlotte cuts in.
“Come on, Charlie, you know I’ll always love you more.” He ruffles her hair and shoots her an innocent smile.
“Come on! Not the hair!” She scowls at him.
After chemistry, Charlotte excitedly pulls me through the halls toward the cafeteria, talking animatedly about everything and anything. As we walk inside, we spot Aiden and his friends immediately. They’re sitting at a table with some girls.
“See that blond girl practically sitting on Aiden’s lap? That’s Kaitlyn Anderson. She’s the one I was telling you about before—the queen bitch around here because she’s gorgeous, scary, and her mom’s the principal. She can sometimes be found at their table with them,” she tells me.
“Even though none of the guys like her—they more just put up with her,” adds Chase, coming up behind us.
“Anyway,” Charlotte says, clearly annoyed at being interrupted in the middle of her explanation. “She’s desperately in love with Aiden, extremely possessive of him—”
“Even though he’s told her to eff off more times than he can remember. She just follows him around and brushes off his insults. She has it in her head that they’d make the perfect couple, and is now trying everything to make that fantasy a reality,” Chase cuts in, and Charlotte glares at him.
“What?” He winks. “I’m friends with the guy—I’m just helping put the whole explanation into perspective!”
“Right. As I was saying. She’s a bitch. Kaitlyn and her second-in-command Makayla Thomas, and their Barbie-wannabe followers are ruthless. Just try to interact with them as little as possible.”
Kaitlyn’s holding court at Aiden’s table, talking to some other girls. From what I can see, she’s the classic queen bitch cliché from every teen movie in existence. She knows she’s hot and she works it, although she’d be a lot prettier without the entitled look plastered on her face.
“I think I could take her,” I say, following Charlotte to an empty lunch table. Charlotte and Chase laugh, telling me that they don’t doubt it.
“You gonna eat with us today, Charlie?” Chase nods in the direction of Aiden and friends’ table.
Charlotte makes a face like he just asked her to eat a millipede. “Nope. You go have fun, though. And don’t call me Charlie.”
Chase hesitates but doesn’t fight her, telling us he’ll see us later before heading over to sit with his friends.
As we eat, we talk about teachers and movies and makeup and almost everything.
Suddenly, Charlotte stops midsentence and looks directly behind me. It’s Aiden. He’s walking right up to our table, looking gorgeous as usual. His T-shirt stretches across his broad chest, accenting it and slightly outlining the abs I’m positive are hidden underneath it. As he gets closer, his eyes lock on me for some reason.
He stops, looks down at me, and says, “Amelia.”
I’m slightly ashamed to admit that my heart flutters a little when he says my name. Why does he have to be so damn perfect?
“Hey, Charlotte.” Aiden glances at Charlotte and she greets him in return. Aiden looks back at me. “I need to talk to you, Amelia.”
All sets of eyes in the cafeteria are on us. Either Aiden doesn’t feel it or he doesn’t care, because he’s just calmly standing there waiting for my reply.
“Oh, so we’re ready to be civil today?” I say it without thinking; it just comes out.
“Already starting with the attitude?”
“Says the guy who snaps at a girl when he walks into her.”
“Look, it won’t take long. Please.”
Interested in what he has to say, and since he seems like he isn’t planning on murdering me, I decide to hear him out.
I glance back at Charlotte. “You okay if I go?”
She nods and smiles, so I shove my lunch back into my bag and stand up. Aiden turns around and walks out of the cafeteria, assuming I’m behind him. It takes every instinct in me not to bolt out of the cafeteria, but I follow him out.
I find him leaning on the wall outside the caf with his arms crossed. “Mason told me what happened.”
“Okay? And?” Mason and his big mouth—his promise not to tell anyone obviously excluded his best friend.
“You’re back at school, so I’m guessing you survived.”
“I’m fine. Thanks for the heartwarming concern.”
“You really should watch where you’re going in the hallway, especially if you’re going to walk that fast with delicate ribs.”
“Was this the reason you wanted to talk to me? To lecture me on my walking speed? Because I’ve been looking forward to lunch all day, and now you’re ruining it with your lack of a point.”
If he called me out here expecting me to apologize for what I said to him in the hallway that day, he has another thing coming. There is no way in hell I’ll apologize—in my opinion, he needed to hear what I said to him.
“Why do you have to make everything so hard and complicated?”
“No, seriously—there’s, like, seven minutes left of lunch and I’m still hungry, so …”
“I didn’t know that I’d hurt you. That wasn’t my intention,” he says hurriedly, looking uncomfortable.
Oh. My. God. Is Aiden feeling bad about my ribs? Is this his lame attempt at an apology?
“You were fine with very rudely telling me off when you’re the one who ran into me. Words can hurt, too, you know.”
“What I’m trying to say is that I didn’t mean to send you to the hospital,” he says, growing visibly more frustrated. “Plus, the shit you said to me was ten times worse than what I said to you.”
“Aw, that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me,” I say in an exaggerated love-struck voice, putting my right hand over my heart.
He sucks at this whole apology thing. So far he’s said nothing that didn’t make me want to punch him in the face for being so aggravating.
“Are you ever not a bitch? I’m trying to apologize here, but you’re making it extremely difficult.”
“Are you ever not an asshole? And that is probably the worst apology I’ve ever heard. It doesn’t even deserve to be in the category of an apology. It was more of a subtle insult with some underlying tones of very scarce concern.”
“There you are, babe!”
Kaitlyn.
She walks past me to stand extremely close to Aiden, then turns and narrows her eyes at me. “You left me to talk to her?”
Technically, we haven’t even really met yet, and I already know I hate Kaitlyn. Up close I can see she has a little stud nose piercing and icy blue eyes.
“I told you not to call me babe. We’re not together. Where I go is none of your damn business,” says Aiden, clearly annoyed.
“You could do better things with your time than talk to this outcast. Why don’t we ditch fourth and go to your house for something much more worthwhile.” She trails her hand down his chest.