✖ Chapter 12 ✖

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"Why are you following me?" I asked them as their steps echoed in the hallway.

"What are you talking about?" Lina asked with her best innocent little voice. The one that was a sing-a-song. "We just came out of yearbook club and this is the exit."

I stopped so that I could gift them with my best droll stare. "You, I kinda get. You could have turned to the opposite exit. Whatever. But you," saying this I pointed at Courtney and continued, "Are not part of Yearbook or the Homecoming Committee, so why did you even stay this long after school?"

Courtney batted her eyelashes. "I thought you might need moral support."

It was one of those few times in life when I really wanted to say a foul word. It wasn't that they weren't trying to be supportive, except that their brand included a healthy dose of eavesdropping and yes, they knew the full history between Sawyer and I, which was precisely why their presence was not helping. It only served to make this a bigger deal than it actually was.

I sighed and all I said about that was, "Guys, you're really not helping."

"I just don't feel so comfortable leaving you alone with him," Courtney said with a shrug. She turned to Lina. "What about you?"

Lina grimaced. "Me neither, to be honest. He's so..."

There was a collective silence that was finished with different sounds of aggravation and Courtney's firm, "Hot." She lifted her palms up as I glared. "Don't get me wrong, I have a boyfriend but that didn't suddenly make me blind. If I were alone with Sawyer Logan for extended periods of time I may or may not momentarily forget about Ryan."

I gasped and Lina laughed. My heart did a weird summersault that I didn't appreciate at the thought of comparing Ryan with Sawyer. Yes, both were hotter than flames, but where Sawyer was a complicated mess, Ryan was a wrapped up gift ready to bring home to the parents. There was no argument. This was probably why Courtney had never set her sights on Sawyer and snatched Ryan from the dating pool. This comment of hers had to be lip service.

"I feel you," Lina said. "He does have that air about him as though you were in front of a celebrity. I don't know what it is."

It was seduction, which no doubt was Sawyer's middle name, but I kept my yap shut.

I rolled my eyes at them. "I appreciate your concern but you're making this sound like I'm Little Red Riding Hood and he's the Big Bad Wolf."

They exchanged a glance and Courtney said, "But honey, he is bad. Good girls like you just don't know what hits them when dealing with him. Did you forget about Millie Estrada?"

Who could forget. She'd been a Junior to Sawyer's Sophomore when they'd had a thing. According to rumors, she'd grown so consumed by Sawyer that her grades had slipped. Upon finding the cause, her parents pulled her out of school and transferred her somewhere else.

A couple of months later, Millie showed up in the middle of lunch break looking for Sawyer. Witnesses said with the intention of getting back together with him. Except she found him lip locked with another girl, and after hurling insults and nearby objects at him, she ran away and we never heard from her again. Not even on social media.

"Are you out of your freaking minds thinking I'll be the next Millie?" I laughed at them, harshly. It made them flinch and I was glad, because their low vote of confidence in me smarted. They made me want to go out for blood and out of me came, "Or Toni?"

Lina gasped and by the way she blinked hard I could tell she was holding back tears. Courtney was different, though. She took a step forward and put her grill in mine, looking down at me with barely contained anger.

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