White is for Virgins (8 page)

“Really?” she managed.

I nodded, feeling my cheeks flush.

Oh, God. That’s why everyone has been staring me down?

“It’s nothing to be embarrassed about
Em…” she said quietly after a while.

“Well they all seem to have a different opinion,” I crush up my half-eaten bag of chips and downed my water.

***

I sat on the counter, legs crossed, singing the lyrics to ‘Untouched’ by The Veronicas while Nina had a word or two with Fox regarding his no-show on Friday.

This made me smile.

However, as soon as Nina pulled the door open and Fox stepped out, my smile faded.

“Emery. Off the counter,” Nina said sternly, and I hopped off before she had the chance to finish that short sentence.

“
Em, you and Fox will be doing inventory today. Stock the storage, since… Carlos is …out,” she informed me awkwardly.

“What about the classes?” I asked, hoping I could get out of being in the little room with Fox.

“I’ll teach them.”

I’d never seen
her this stressed before.

I resisted the urge to run out and beg the Daycare center to give me a few extra days of work, but I couldn’t just abandon Nina with the wild animal. Plus, I couldn’t let Fox run me out of my own haven.

I trudged into the storage room, and my felt my hands get clammy as he followed me in and closed the door.

“So, that was a nice song you were singing,” he smirked.

“Yeah?” I asked, picking up a blow up doll and shoving it at him.

His smirk remained as he stared at it.

“I wonder what this is for,” he laughed. The perve. “You can relate to it, right?” he asked innocently.

“Excuse me?” I asked dropping a box of baby dolls and glaring at him.

“I meant the song.
Untouched
.” He grinned now.

I blushed deep crimson, and bent over to pick up the box of plastic babies.

“You’re really a virgin,” he asked, but it sounded more like a statement as he stepped closer to me.

“And you’re really here on DUI charges,” I countered, thrusting an extremely heavy box at him. He barely winced, even though I knew I got him right in the gut.

“Feisty,” he commented, flipping a wisp of pale blonde hair out of his eye.

I shook my head.

What torture!

“You still
gotta tutor me, Ms. Price,” he states, grabbing a box from my hands before I had the chance to heave it at him.

He’s not as dumb as he looks…

“Well, how do you think you did on the test?” I muttered, passing him a mat.

“I failed,” he put it simply. He folded the mat and threw it up over our heads to the top of the metal shelf. I ducked, covering my head. But it stayed put up there.

I glared at him, and he shrugged.

“You had my list for a whole day, and I’m guessing you didn’t even give it a once-over,” I judged, passing him another mat.

He folded it over and threw it up again; I still ducked, just in case it slid back down. It didn’t.

He laughed.
“Nope.”

“It’s not funny.”

“Yeah, I know,” he said, putting on a very convincing serious face, “You better work some magic, because my dad came home, and he isn’t happy.”

“You act like that’s my fault,” I snapped, tossing him the last mat. It was a pathetic move, because he didn’t catch it. We both ended up bending down to pick it up.

“Smooth move,” he muttered, folding the mat, “He’s the reason why I wasn’t here on Friday. He got back from a business trip down in Brazil, and he was super pissed after my stepmom told him about my DUI.”

“Stepmom?” I asked, letting the question slip before I could think twice.

“Yeah, my mom divorced him when I was like seven. Anyway, I really need to get good marks this year… on just about every subject, but mainly creative writing. Sawyer’s harsh, and you can’t just copy someone else’s work for that class. She’ll notice,” he sighed.

I smirked. “I don’t think I have to inform you that copying anyone’s work is wrong. A
s soon as we finish organizing all this stuff, we’ll work on the vocabulary.”

I picked up another mat.

“Ok.” He grunted, heaving the mat up with the others.

Just as I turned to pass him a fourth mat, I heard material sliding and looked up just as two of the mats fell on top of us. They hit a few of the objects on the shelves on opposite sides of each other in the small room, causing them to fall, as well.

“You dumbass,” I growled, shoving the mats off of me and standing up. I rubbed my bruising arm, and glared at him menacingly.

He ran a hand through his hair and shook his head a little.

“No need to curse, Em,” he smirked, picking up the mats and sliding them under the shelves.

“You didn’t think of that in the first place?”

“Don’t pin this on me, you’re the one with the brains here,” he huffed, picking up a few baby dolls and dropping them in the box.

He’s using a compliment to make me feel guilty now?

I found a few dolls in the far corner and went over to pick them up. I felt his eyes on my butt as I did so, and self-consciously turned to the side so he has less of a view.

“
Aww,” he whined.

I threw a baby doll at him, but to my dismay he ducked, letting it hit the wall.

“Hey!” he called, “Easy there, Em. Babies need to be handled with care.”

“Are you speaking from experience?” I asked, raising an eyebrow as I threw another baby into the box.

He glared at me, and this time I got to laugh.

“You’re just jealous I have experience.”

“Is that what they call it now?” I muttered, picking up the box and trying to place it up and over my head at the top of the shelf.

He came over, standing directly behind me as he helped me push the box over the top.

Awkward…

I shoved him backwards with my back and headed for the door.

“Don’t get any ideas, Fox,” I warned him, my hands clammy on the knob as I tried to turn it.

He walked over to me. “You’re the one rubbing up against me,” he justified, holding his hands up.

Evidently, he enjoyed playing the blame game.

“You’re so full of it.” I smirk, opening the door, “Let’s just study so I can go home.”

My stomach growled and I realized I’d barely eaten anything that day.

Chapter 6

The next day at school, news about my V card had spread like wildfire; alerting everyone within the school vicinity. If anyone had - by some miracle - missed the gossip, they were informed by the end of lunch.

It bothered me.

And who wouldn’t it bother? The fact that the entire student body knew about your virginity and how you still had it... Having them stare you down because you’re supposedly a prude and you’re inexperienced
… It sucked.

And there was nothing I could do. That’s what bothered me the most.

All I wanted was to go to school, get good grades, get into an Ivy League college, make lots of money, have a family, and live happily ever after. The American Dream. But I never expected to become this…
infamous
because I’d decided to get good grades rather than get guys in my bed.

Somehow, with the help of my trusty companion Lily, I made it through the day.

***

“Ok, you know most of the words,” I sighed, placing the flashcards down on the counter and pulling out my Calculus book, “Let’s move on before we both fall asleep. You have Mr. Sutter?” I asked him.

Fox nodded, grinning.

“What?” I asked, running a hand through my hair.

He shook his head, “We are in the same class for math.”

“
Nuh-uh,” I argued out of habit, giving him a weird look.

Maybe we were…

“Yup. We are. Where’ve you been?”

Staying up all night dreading school.

I shrugged and rubbed my eyes, starting on the assignment.