Love and Other Diseases (bxb)

Chapter Four

"Leave," I blurted.

He made an annoyed noise and that mouth of his pulled down at the corners. I hated that look, it was so pouty and I just wanted to hit him. "Dude."

And he always said dude. Why did he do that? Why did he do that?

Christi laughed. "Hey Blake." She smiled. Her smile had a thousand stars in it, it was so dazzling. It was the, Oh, Blake, stop it! smile that girls always gave him.

"Hey." He gave it back a thousand times better. His kind of bushy, but not too bushy, eyebrows even quirked up a little. His left cheek dimpled. His slightly crooked, but not too crooked, front tooth showed. The light, light splash of freckles on his nose rippled with his grin. His green eyes sparkled.

He was so unbelievable.

Literally. He was so fake. There was no way that was real. Black Beckson was a big show for the rest of the world. A privileged little asshole who pretended to be so sweet.

"Oh look who it is!" Ben looked positively delighted. "Blake! Good to see you!" I tried to glare a hole into the back of his skull, but it unfortunately didn't work.

I turned my attention to Blake. "Why are you stalking me?"

He seemed genuinely confused. "I just want to sit here. Why is that about you at all?"

"Yes, of course it is. Before today, you sat there." I pointed to his usual seat across the room, next to Kelly and Claire. They were only two of his excessively large group of friends. People tended to flock to Blake like he was a light and they were a ton of fat, ugly moths.

Blake's eyes did their weird light-up thing. It was some odd combination of his eyes widening and then some underlying glee that filled his usually neutral expression. "You noticed where I sit?"

"Yes. Do I win a metal?"

"Oh shut up. You don't have to be such a dick all the time." He plopped into the chair right when Dr. Clark and Kay walked into the room. Kay waved at us and sat down.

I glared at Blake as Dr. Clark turned on the classroom lights, causing everyone to groan. "I'm not a dick. You're a dick."

Blake stared me right in the eyes. He hesitated, then raised his pointer finger to his lips. "Shh."

He was the worst.

"Okay, as you all know, we're going to be starting our projects in class today," Dr. Clark said, pausing to blow her nose with a tissue.

Project?

I scootched closer to Ben, farther from Blake.
Wait a minute. Oh no. Oh no.

"You have to move," I whispered to Blake. He gave me a ridiculous look.

"Why?"

Oh no. This can't happen to me. Not today.

What kind of evil cliché was this?

"I'm going to parter you up by location in the classroom," Dr. Clark droned on. "Then you can get in your groups and begin to discuss the aspect of the book you'll like to present on. The options will be on the board. Okay, I'll start. Kevin, Kate, and Gavin, you'll be working together. Alana—"

No.

My hand shot up. "Can I go to the bathroom?"

Dr. Clark's eyebrows raised. "Right now? Jake, you just had your morning break."

"I know, but I was a little late and I needed to grab my book instead," I blurted. Which wasn't actually a lie. Thanks, Blake, for not letting me leave my house.