I Don't Like Badboys...Seriously | ✓

Chapter Twenty Three - Racing Heart

Chapter Twenty Three - Racing Heart

Ella squealed. "Stop, stop!" I exclaimed, frantically waving my arms around to somehow silence her.

"So, so, did you hug him back?" She interrogated.

"I don't know. Maybe? No. No, I didn't."

"So, you like him, hey?"

"Where were you at the party? That creep, Alec, came up to me during the party, and I couldn't see any of you guys. Nearly died of a panic attack."

"Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry. I thought you'd have found Ace or Hunter or something."

The bell rang. "I didn't. But when he cornered me, I screamed. I called out Ace's name. Anyway, gotta go," I said quickly, eager to avoid any other awkward questions.

In my moment of desperation and mind numbing fear, I'd called Ace's name. Not another name, nor face had come into my mind. Without hesitation I'd called his name.

Surely, you could call someone's name and it wouldn't mean anything. Even thinking about what had happened made my heart race; it made my insides do loops.

I was shaken from my thoughts when Hunter came round the corner to wait outside chem. "Party this Friday?" Hunter grinned.

"Yeah..." I replied hesitantly.

"Look," he said, wrapping his hand around the back of his neck. "I didn't know you were afraid of crowds. Sorry."

"It's fine," I said. I smiled, as a sign of reassurance. He didn't look convinced, but he didn't push on.

"This Friday, I'll stay by your side. You wouldn't be able to lose me if you tried!" He beamed proudly. "Any other fears I should be aware of? Facial hair? Cups? Socks? Feet?"

I couldn't help but laugh. He was such a dork, standing there pointing at various other things I could possibly be afraid of. I shook my head. "Nope. No crippling fears except strange crowds."

Ace finally arrived and I gave a quick glance in his general direction before rushing in. I darted past the front two rows and headed to the one where Archer and I usually sat. The badboys were coming on time recently, and so did Carla; the front row was always the first to be filled. It was a strange sight.

Archer stumbled in a little later and chucked a lopsided grin in my direction before thumping his books down onto the desk. "Heard you were at the party Friday? Huge fight?" He grinned.

"Pfft. The fight lasted like thirty seconds."

"Plus one me next time."

"I am the plus one. Besides, you never plus oned me to any of your parties."

"I did. Once. You said you weren't going, so it is your fault."

We went over equilibrium and I scribbled down the notes into my book with the occasional graffiti from Archer on the page corners. I finished the notes early and watched as his head flicked up and down to look at the board before writing down his notes. His face looked thinner, his eyebrows more furrowed than usual.

Had he spoken to his dad yet? Had anything happened since last time? I didn't even know if I wanted him to reconcile with his dad or not. What his dad had done was unforgivable.

"Stop staring," he said, pushing my shoulder away.

"Oh please," I muttered, struggling to recover from the embarrassment.

Mrs Smith looked up and we looked down, pretending to be busily writing away. "Okay, you need to finish exercises 4.2 and 4.3 by tomorrow so we can go through it in class. Anything you don't finish in class is homework."