I groaned and buried my head in my locker.

“Hope your nooner was worth it. I heard you guys were supposed to be at the library instead.” Corrigan leered knowingly.

“We skipped because you were hungry,” Bryce pointed out.

The leer disappeared.

Becky Lew chose that moment to stop with her usual crowd of minions behind her. She smiled seductively at Bryce and ran a hand down his chest while she purred, “Hey, guys.”

No one knew what to do.

It was common knowledge that Bryce was off-limits when I was around. There

was a reason why Stephanie Hills scampered off his table when I arrived. It wasn’t because I turned sudden bitch, it was just because Bryce really did choose me first. Girls just got humiliated when I showed up.

I frowned and watched Corrigan instead.

He tensed and looked at me.

I burst out laughing, which earned a few puzzled looks.

“I’m sorry.” I tried to hide my smile behind a hand. “It’s just…you were all after Corrigan this morning and now you’re into Bryce?”

The seductive gleam vanished from Becky’s eyes. They narrowed in anger at me instead.

I caught a relenting glint of amusement in Bryce’s eyes so I moved forward and leaned my back against him.

Bryce tensed a moment and then slid his arms around my waist to dip his hands inside. I felt his thumbs caress against my thong, but that’s all they did.

Becky frowned and stepped back.

“What are you doing here, Lew?” Corrigan leaned against my locker now.

She paused and studied him a moment. Then she glanced at Bryce and myself.

She’d tried the girlfriend bit with Corrigan, which hadn’t worked and now…I couldn’t understand her thought process. She probably wanted to make Corrigan jealous.

And I had ruined it because I had laughed at her and then stole the show as Bryce had his arms around me, not her.

I looked up and caught an appreciate gleam in Mena’s startling green eyes before she turned and sauntered away.

Becky was flushed, but she retorted, “I thought I’d say hello to Bryce since you’ve ignored me all day.”

“There’s a reason for that,” Corrigan said swiftly and bounced on his heels. He was ready for a fight. The malice was mixed with enjoyment.

Bryce chuckled in my ear and I leaned fully against him. The two continued when I let my head fall backwards to his shoulder and I asked, my mouth beside his ear, “Truce?”

Bryce pulled away slightly to look at me. His eyes searched my face before he sighed and murmured, “I was just touchy before.”

“Yeah, but…,” I pulled away and turned so my stomach rested against him.

“I don’t get what you were mad at before,” I reasoned, ignoring the warmth that spread over my body.

This was just how it was between us.

“I wasn’t. Can we drop it?” Bryce straightened and I pulled away.

“I’m the one who avoids. Why are you avoiding this? I don’t even get what you’re avoiding.”

Neither of us were aware that Corrigan and Becky had stopped to watch us. The entire hallway watched us too.

“I’m not avoiding anything. I just don’t…”

“What?” I cried out, more annoyed that I didn’t understand. If I understood what I’d said to piss him off, then I could understand what he was avoiding. I just didn’t understand and…we were nearing one of those ‘near emotion’ events.

I’d had enough. My red flag had been thrown up.

I pushed through the group and shrugged off, “I’m out.”

A second later, I heard Bryce curse.

I ignored the principal’s heed and headed to my art class. The teacher was cool.

Mr. Sayword wouldn’t say a word, even if the principal did track me down. Seriously, though, how can one truant student be so important?

I managed a grin to Mr. Sayword when I entered the room and swiftly entered the darkroom. I clicked the switch that let others know now not to interrupt because I’d be working on films. Instead of grabbing some film, I pulled out my drawing pad and started a portrait.

No, I wasn’t upset. No, this wasn’t a self-coping mechanism. I just wanted to avoid any and all. The darkroom gave me that.

After ten minutes, some students pounded on the door and I called out, “What?”

“Are you almost done developing? We have some pictures we need to develop too, you know. You’re not the only one.”

I stood and opened the door.

There were three students and all of them took a step back, startled when they saw who it was.

“Oh. Sorry, Sheldon. Seriously,” a girl said quickly as she grabbed her camera and hurried to a corner.

The other two gaped. One was a boy with wire-rim glasses and messy black hair.

He used gel to make it stick out on its ends. It looked trendy, which was accentuated by the plaid vest that was snug over a black silk shirt. The other boy was tall, lanky, and wore a Suns tee shirt.

Neither looked familiar.

“What are your names?” I asked since they still hadn’t moved out of my way.

“Um…I’m Teddy.” The plaid vest guy mumbled and pointed beside him, “This is Brent.”

“Hi.”

They didn’t move.

“Move,” I spelled it out.

“Um…” Teddy began again.

Just then I looked up and saw Bryce enter the room.

He glanced at Mr. Sayword and then scanned the room. His eyes stopped on mine and he approached me.

“We’re supposed to be at the principal’s office. I’ve told you twice,” he snapped.

“And I said that I was out.”

“Then you should’ve left school. They know you’re here so we gotta go and pay our penance or something,” he growled and skimmed his eyes over Teddy and Brent.

Both snapped to attention and ran off.

“Were you talking to them?”

“No,” I sighed and moved back into the darkroom for my drawing pad. Bryce followed and looked around.

“I’ve never been in here,” he murmured and leaned against the counter.

I eyed him up and down and made my decision. I shut the door again and flipped the same switch.

“What is up with you today?” I demanded to know. Enough was enough.

“Noth—” he started to say, but I interrupted.