Summer's Desire (10 page)

"So," he finally says when I
don't react to his compliment, "I was thinking we should have lunch today.
We can go to a cool place off-campus."

Naturally. That way, nobody sees you
with the dowdy frump and your cool reputation doesn't suffer.

All right, I've had enough of this. I don't
know what Mr. Player wants from me but he's obviously in cahoots with Jessica somehow,
so it cannot be anything good. Safest to nip this in the bud; it's time to make
use of the ignore-strategy. Better late than never.

I finish organizing my books, shut my
locker, and without deigning him with another look, head for class. Unfortunately,
I hear him following me. Drat!

"Summer? What do you say? Where
would you like to go?"

Where would I like to go? Gosh, he's
modest! So it's a given that I'll go out to lunch with him, the only detail
still to be decided is the destination. I walk faster.

"Summer!" I suddenly feel his
hand on my shoulder, trying to restrain me, and I turn on my heels like a
scalded cat, dislodging his hand.

"Don't touch me!" I hiss. Who the
hell does this guy think he is? "You don't know me and I don't know you.
You have no right to put your hands on me!"

"I just wanted to talk to
you." He raises his hands a bit, in an exaggerated expression of innocence,
and makes a confused face as if my reaction were all out of proportion. And
maybe it would be, in the normal course of things and for another person, but I
have a real issue with strange people intruding on my personal space and
touching me without my permission.

So I tell it to him straight. "I
have no interest in talking to you, and I have no interest in having lunch with
you. I'm not interested in you, period. And you're making me late for my class,
so back off!"

I stride away quickly, but up until the
moment I turn a corner, I continue to feel his gaze on me. Drat, this guy won't
be giving up easily!

Unfortunately, I'm not paying attention
to where I'm walking, and just after I pass the corner, I bump hard into a muscular
chest. On impact I bounce back comically, my books flying out of my hands in
all directions, and I'm about to fall ignominiously on my butt when strong
hands grip my upper arms and stop my fall.

By the butterflies going wild in my
stomach, I already know against whom I've bumped, so it is with a resigned expression
that I look up into Seth's deep blue eyes and say, "I'm sorry. I was
walking too fast and didn't see where I was going."

He's not alone but accompanied by his
jock friends, the two from World History and one other, and they've all stopped
and are staring at us.

Seth is still holding me, almost in an
embrace, and his touch is making me giddy.
Great, Summer, way to be a
hypocrite about people touching you without permission!
Truthfully though,
Seth is
the
exception. I've always liked his touch and the feeling of
complete security it's given me. Right now, I feel just as safe as I always did
in his arms, but paradoxically, at the same time I get a sense of danger.

Well, that's new! Maybe it's because of
the fierce intensity with which he's watching me? God, when he looks at me like
this, it's like he can see straight into my soul. Fiery arrows of pure
sensation shoot through me, dissolving with a burst of sparks in my belly. Yes,
he's definitely dangerous to me.

Still, it takes the voice of one of his
friends to release me from under his spell. "Seth, dude, let's go! We're gonna
be late for class."

For a moment longer, Seth's body leans
toward me, corded with a terrible tension. "You should take better care
where you're going," he tells me huskily. "So you don't get hurt."
Finally, in a slow motion I'm tempted to misconstrue as reluctance, he steps back
from me.

The jock with coffee-colored hair and, I
see now, green eyes, advances to hand me my books. I didn't even notice him
picking them off the floor.

"Here you go, Summer; these are
yours." His lips are curled in a pensive smile and he's regarding me as if
I'm a curiosity he hasn't quite figured out yet.

I accept the books, chagrined. Great,
now all the popular people suddenly know my name and want to figure me out!
This is so not good.

"Thanks," I whisper, then walk
away from the group as fast as my legs can carry me.

* * *

My already shitty day turns to complete
crap after Algebra 2 (to which, thanks to my encounters with Josh and Seth,
I've arrived late, earning myself a glare from Mr. Werner). As I exit the
classroom, who do I find but Josh leaning against the wall opposite the door. The
moment he notices me, his sizzling grin surfaces.

I ignore him and head for the cafeteria.
I have a standing invitation to sit with Marcie's friends, so I'll go eat my
sandwich at their table. Heck, I've already broken most of my rules—lay low,
stay invisible, don't get noticed by the popular and powerful crowd—so why not
break another one? It beats spending lunch period hidden in some dusty corner
of the library, with only my thoughts for company. I'm not willing to
acknowledge even to myself that my sudden interest in the student cafeteria may
have something to do with my wanting to see Seth again.

I realize that Josh has fallen into step
with me.

"I think we've started off on the
wrong foot." He sounds contrite, but all I want is to snap at him that
there is no "us" and there is definitely nothing to start. With
difficulty, I manage to refrain from doing just that.

"Truth is I noticed you this
morning and wanted to meet you. Sorry if I came on too strong, I just wanted a
chance to get to know you better."

Yes, I know the exact moment when he
noticed me this morning—it was when
Jessica
pointed me out to him.
Jessica, my declared enemy, who already hates me with the blazing fire of a hundred
hell planes! But he sounds completely open and truthful, which makes me even
more suspicious. If he's capable of conveying this amount of sincerity when
he's clearly playing a game with me, then he's a devious boy indeed.

Or am I completely misjudging him?

"So please let me make it up to
you. Have lunch with me," he says with compelling puppy eyes and a smile that
embodies pure temptation. I know his game
(or think that I do), and
still I succumb to a momentary flutter. He's really pouring on the charm and if
I weren't so wary of his intentions, I would probably find him attractive.

Not that I'd do anything about it.

Luckily, we've reached the cafeteria,
and I enter with Josh still close on my heels. Instantly, I feel Seth zeroing
in on me. He's already sitting at his table, only he's changed his former seat
for one that leaves him facing the door.

Josh gets closer to me and lowers his
head to make himself heard over the din. "What do you say? Wanna sit
together?"

So he's upgraded his strategy and
playing hardball if he doesn't mind being spotted with me now. My eyes still on
Seth, I recognize the exact moment when he notices Josh beside me; his jaw
turns to stone, his gaze frigid. A chill passes through me and I check my arm
in curiosity. Yep, that boy's glare is definitely goose bumps–inducing!

I ignore Josh again—come on, take a hint
already!—and walk to Marcie, who's waving at me. I feel Josh's eyes digging
into my back but he doesn't follow me this time.

I sit down at the table, murmuring a weary,
"Hello".

Then I notice that there are only three
people there. "Where's Robbie?"

Will grins. "He's got band
practice. But jeez, Summer, don't overwhelm us with your enthusiastic greeting and
all!"

I shrug. "Sorry. It's just been a
long day, and it's not even over yet." Though feeling Seth's eyes on me does
perk me up considerably. My usual seat now puts me in his direct line of vision
and him in mine.

Marcie gives me a sympathetic smile. "Yep,
you look really tired. You had trouble sleeping last night?"

Wow, that's a major understatement!

Well, if I'm going to be spending any
time with these guys, they're going to see me often sporting my trademark puffy
eyes and bruised look. I should probably tell them something now, to avoid
later questions.

"I sometimes have a bit of trouble
with insomnia," I say, "so I don't always get enough sleep at night."
Then, at their kind glances: "It's okay, guys, really! I've gotten used to
it." I smile weakly and hope they'll let it go.

They do, for Dana has another bone to pick
with me. "Wanna tell us what you were doing with Josh Hendrix just now?"
she asks me with a frown.

I furrow my brow. "Honestly, I have
no idea what his deal is. He approached me earlier today out of the blue,
invited me to lunch, and won't take no for an answer."

"So you refused him. That's good."
Marcie nods approvingly.

"Who is he, anyway? Care to impart any
secrets about him?" I need to know with what I'm dealing here.

I notice that Josh has sat down at the
popular table, though at the opposite end from Seth's group. I want to keep
looking at Seth, but the sound of laughter draws my attention back to my own
table. Will and Dana are outright laughing, and even Marcie is grinning.

"What is it?" I ask in
bemusement.

Will shakes his head. "Sorry,
Summer, but 'impart secrets'? Who talks like that?"

"High school kids—not so much,"
says Dana, smirking.

I frown. "Well, I'm in high school
and I talk like that; therefore, your statement is inaccurate."

Dana's grin becomes wider. "Hey,
don't get mad! Having a big vocabulary isn't a bad thing—especially with the
SATs and all."

"What I've noticed, Summer, is that
you have an amazing voice," says Marcie. "Usually when you're talking,
your words... Well, they sort of flow, like in a melodic rhythm or something.
And even when you use old-fashioned words, like earlier, they sort of feel
natural coming from you. Anyways, I like it and you should just ignore the
haters." She shoots a reproving glare in her boyfriend's direction.

I feel both flattered and mortified by
her comment.

Will, though, seems to only feel
mortified. "Come on, I'm not a hater! Summer, I'm not! I was just wondering,
you know, because the way you say things sometimes... It makes you seem older,
somehow."

Jeez, I'm a dork! I mean,
I
knew
that I was a total geek, but nothing beats having others confirm it. Embarrassed,
I say, "I read a lot of books." There's little else to do at night
when I wake up from a nightmare and don't want to risk falling asleep again.

Plus, during the last five years I've
hardly ever talked to my age peers, so it's not as if there was a lot of
opportunity for teen language to really rub on me. But I don't tell that to the
others.

I also don't tell them about Grandma;
that the way I speak now was greatly influenced by her because it was she who
raised me. I—and Seth too, for that matter—just naturally absorbed Grandma's old-school
vocabulary and even some of her old-fashioned speech patterns. Seth could even,
by the time he was thirteen, sound as eloquent as a grown-up (quite aside from
being able, at a much younger age than thirteen, to curse like a sailor—though
never around me). But then he's always been brilliant. How I used to envy him
that he constantly got Bs and Cs in school with practically no effort! I had to
work much harder to keep my grades up.

I refocus on my table companions and
luckily they seem satisfied even with my shortened explanation; my disclosure
that I am basically a book worm must have acted like some kind of magical charm,
clarifying everything in everyone's mind. Time for a change of subject.

"So you were going to dish on
Josh?" I nudge playfully.

"Hendrix plays wide receiver for
the football team," says Will. "He's all right, but nowhere near the level
of Lewis or even Bradford."

"Who's Bradford?"

"Jacob Bradford. He's a linebacker
and one of Lewis' friends."

"He's the tall yummy one with curly
hair," Dana adds smilingly. Ah. The guy who picked up my books this
morning.

"So the football players are all friends
with each other?"

"Well, no," says Marcie.
"Jacob and Nick and Seth are pretty tight with each other, and they also
hang out with Alex and Carter, usually." She points them out to me
discreetly. "But they don't really get along with Josh and a couple of his
friends. They sit at the same table because they're all in the football team, I
guess, but everyone knows there's not much love lost between them."

"And why was it good that I refused
to go out with Josh?"

Marcie seems to hesitate. "Well,
the thing is there've been some pretty bad rumors about him, and you know what
they say: there's no smoke without a fire."

"Agreed," says Dana. "Like,
Josh had a girlfriend who, after they broke up, said that he had gotten violent
with her a couple of times. But she's not here anymore, she graduated last year.
Plus, there were rumors that he was using drugs."