Why You Shouldn't Lend A Bad Boy Your Clothes

Chapter 32

The next day, after catching Nathan up on everything that had happened with Hunter, he told me, "Hey, my parents are out tonight. I was thinking we could have a sleepover or something at my place? We could also invite Alexis and Liam and Adam. Oh, and Hunter, of course."

A smile spread across my face. "Can you ask him?"

Nate nodded, but there was a weird look on his face as he did so.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Uhm... it's just..." Nate huffed and ran a hand through his hair. "Every time I tried to talk to him over the last few days, Victoria was with him. And Alex told me that he spends most afternoons with her, too..."

My jaw hardened at the thought of that. "Apparently she's taking what she can get, now that she has some control over him."

Nate opened his mouth and said something, but his reply got drowned out by the sound of the school bell announcing the start of the next period.

I groaned and adjusted the strap of my bag on my shoulder. The next class was Biology. I had spent the better part of last night working on the presentation and had read it so many times I knew the words by heart by now, but the thought of presenting it in front of the others made my skin crawl.

"You coming?" Nate asked and pointed at the school entrance.

I followed him inside wordlessly, going over the text once again in my head.

My loathing of presentations and speaking in front of strangers in general had started around the same time as my anxiety: after Luke's death. The shrink I had been seeing back then, Mrs. Meyer, had said that an anxiety disorder wasn't rare after a traumatic experience. I had been dreading this day for the past week now, knowing that I would have to speak for at least five minutes with everyone listening and staring at me.

When Nate and I slithered into the classroom only seconds before Mr. Smith waltzed in, my eyes darted to the last row immediately. As usual, my heart skipped a beat when I spotted Hunter, and then continued to beat twice as fast. I wondered if it would always be like this, or if I would someday get used to this feeling.

Hunter was on his phone, strands of dark hair falling into his eyes while he cradled his chin in one hand. His mouth was curled into the tiniest smile, making me wonder what he was looking at on his phone.

As if he had sensed me staring, he looked up just then. Our eyes met almost instantly and Hunter's lips broke into a secretive grin.

I smiled back timidly and started to walk towards him, when I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder, gripping so hard that I spun around with a startled yelp. To say that I was surprised to see Victoria would have been a lie.

As always, there was a cruel sneer playing around her bright red lips. "Watch where you're going," she said, nodding towards Hunter, who was watching us warily. He looked like he was about to get out of his seat to break us up, so I lightly shook my head at him. "I don't think that's where you're supposed to sit."

I slapped her hand away and walked off to where Nate was sitting without another word. When I turned around again, Hunter wasn't looking at me, too busy glaring at Victoria.

The first few minutes of class went by and the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach grew, accompanied by a nervous fluttering in my chest. It wasn't only because of the knowledge that Victoria was sitting next to Hunter, so close that she was almost in his lap, but also because I knew I had to give my presentation in the next few minutes.

By the time my name got called, I felt like I was about to choke. I went up to the front of the class without looking at anyone, keeping my head down and my eyes on my notes.