After I picked up the books, I held them even tighter to my chest. I couldn’t even raise my head to look the bullies in the eyes.

One of the downsides to wearing Gabby’s dresses was the way they showcased my body. But for some reason, I had to wear them.

“No need to read when you got a rack like that. I can teach you all kinds of things,” the head bully said. One of the others called him Brad. I felt his eyes roaming across my body and I shifted myself away from him which made me run into another. Didn’t they have better things to do on the first day of school? Like, maybe going to class?

“Just one taste,” one of the guys muttered as he moved close to my ear and rubbed his hands against my shoulders before the rough sound of a teacher’s voice filled all of our ears.

“All right, all right. That’s enough. Get to class.” The voice ran through my ears as my head was still down. I watched as all of the feet of the ass**les scurried away. A hand came near me and I flinched.

The need for a shower washed over my skin. Violated. The boys’ words and rubs had violated me and made me feel as if I’d just been touched all over in the most callous way. I wanted to go crawl back to Chicago, where at least I knew who the bullies were. I wanted to go home.

“You dropped this,” the voice said, handing me my schedule. When I looked up, the paper in his hands floated to the ground and he gasped. “Ashlyn.”

Beautiful.

Breathtaking.

Brilliant.

Blue eyes.

At first, a weird sense of comfort washed over me from knowing that he was the one who’d dismissed the ass**les. But then the facts sank in. He’d dismissed the ass**les.

“What are you doing here, Daniel?” He looked so…grown up. So different than when I’d seen him at Joe’s bar.

His tan pants were attached to a brown belt that matched his shoes. A light-blue button-down shirt covered his toned body, and his hair wasn’t free. It was tamed, combed back, held in place.

“Don’t,” he hissed. His lips frowned. I watched as he glanced down the hallways and the back of his right hand found his neck. “Don’t call me that, Ashlyn,” he whispered.

A locker slammed nearby, and I jumped out of fright. Everything twisted inside of me, and I fought back the tears that were pushing their way to the fronts of my eyelids.

How could this be?

Daniel cleared his throat and picked up my schedule once again. This time, he studied it, his eyes growing more and more worried. “You’re a student.” His hand formed a fist and he repeatedly tapped it against his mouth. “You’re my student.”

My eyes widened in confusion and horror. Mostly horror. The bell rang loudly, the noise rocketing through the hallways.

“And you’re late.”

He placed the schedule in my hands, and I looked up and saw Ryan jogging down the hallway toward us. He smiled. “I’m here, I’m here. Don’t throw a fit, Mr. D. My gym class is all the way across the building and shit.” He paused. “I mean, crap.”

He scooted past Daniel and me as we were both frozen in time and space. Ryan turned around, gave me a wide, toothy grin, and nodded my way. “You coming, Ashlyn?”

My lips tightened together as I looked up to Daniel—Mr. Daniels. I edged my way into the classroom and sighed as I heard the door slam behind me. Ryan smiled to me and tapped the seat directly across from him, and I mouthed, “Thank you,” to him.

When I looked up, I saw a disjointed Daniel trying to pull his thoughts together. He faced the class and I swore he stared each student in the eyes except for me. There was not one moment where we locked eyes. All I needed was a look to let me know that this was okay, that we could figure this weird situation out.

Not one look.

I felt nauseated.

He went on teaching the class, pulling out a dry-eraser marker and writing all across the board about what we would be covering in the semester. Flash Fiction. The Odyssey. Macbeth. I didn’t care. The air was thick and dirty—filled with misunderstanding. I couldn’t breathe.

“Okay, so for tomorrow, I’m looking for a one-to-two-page paper answering these three questions. Three questions that will pretty much shape our semester. We’ll be referring to these a ton, so think hard about them.”

The classroom groaned. I blinked my eyes to look up to Daniel’s words. He had written three questions on the board that made me even more ill.

1. Who are you today?

2. Where do you see yourself in five years?

3. What do you want to be when you grow up?

My feet wanted to run, and I didn’t know how to stop the feeling of wanting to escape from overtaking me. I shot up from my desk and stood still. Daniel’s voice froze mid-sentence and all eyes turned to me.

Daniel arched an eyebrow and closed his dry-eraser marker. He gave me a baffled stare. “Yes, Ashlyn?”

“I…” I what? I couldn’t think. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t stop wanting him to hold me. I what?! “I-I need to use the restroom.”

The bell rang, and I could hear the snickers throughout the classroom at my sudden burst from my chair. Daniel gave me a strained smile and nodded toward the door.

“All right, everyone. That’s it for today.”

My eyes shut and I listened to everyone shuffle around me. Only I would declare that I had to use the restroom in front of the whole class exactly before the class ended. My hand ran across my face as I sighed heavily.

Ryan playfully slapped me on my back and grinned. “Rumor has it that people are calling your boobs watermelons.”

My mouth hung open. “How is that even a rumor?! It just happened before class!”

He held his cell phone showing me a picture of me and my chest. “Technology is a bully’s newest bitch. Maybe you shouldn’t wear such sexy dresses every day that show off your chest and legs.”

I frowned at the picture of me frowning. How embarrassing. “The dresses were Gabby’s.”

Ryan grimaced. He shoved me in my shoulder. “Come on… Don’t let them get to you. Besides, it’s a pretty great rack.” He gave me another kind smile and tossed his backpack on. “You’re not a part of Edgewood high school until someone tags you as something you’re not.”

“What were you tagged as?”

“Womanizer who has too much sex,” he said effortlessly.