Chasing Sin

25

"They're in love."

"Convince me."

"When she writes, My arm always falls asleep when you do because I just want to be able to hold you, even in your dreams, you just can't help but melt," I explain. "It's such a perfectly sweet sentiment, describing her love as something that is so strong even sleep can't dilute it."

"I agree, Miss Walker. It goes to show the depth of their love, and its innocence, you might say." Mrs. Hall paces across her classroom as she praises me for analyzing the poem correctly.

"But what about the line, Your voice is the only alarm that I'll actually wake up to? Comparing someone to an alarm clock doesn't seem like a compliment," another student, a guy named Mark, I think, says.

"You've got to look at the context here, Mark," Mrs. Hall replies. "Rather than considering an alarm to be an annoyance, she's stating that his voice is such a wonderful thing, something she would hate to miss out on, so much that she would wake from her deepest sleep to hear it. It's just as Haven said—their love can't be controlled even by sleep."

Mark nods, accepting the answer and moving on. Mrs. Hall, also seems done with this poem, and announces we should pair up.

Taylor turns around in her seat with a smile. English is not her favorite subject, so whenever we get to pair up, she's usually relieved.

We start annotating the poems Mrs. Hall assigned, but quickly get distracted.

"So how are you and Kace?" I ask her. "I'm really sorry I made you two fight. I never should have brought up Archer, or dragged you into that whole mess."

After the events at Peyton's house, we all went out separate ways, with Sin giving me a ride home as he promised, but not saying much the rest of the day. Kace and Taylor rode home together, but I could tell it was still a bit tense.

"We're fine, really. I swear, you did nothing to cause that. Kace has always been way overprotective. That's why Clint loves him so much," she says with a little laugh. "But that's always been an issue for me. He tries so hard to keep me out of that side of things."

"What do you mean by 'that side of things?'"

"Well, you know. He and Sin are best friends, and I still have no clue what Sin's job is. Or where he lives. Or who that Archer guy is. Or anything." She shrugs. "Sometimes I feel like he doesn't trust me, always keeping me in the dark."

I give her a sympathetic look. The few things I know about Sin only make me more curious to find out more, and I can't imagine going months without learning any secrets. I'm too damn nosy. Plus, Kace knows them all, and still won't give anything up.

"Aw, Taylor, no. I'm sure he trusts you," I try to convince her. "Kace is probably just trying to be a good friend, not spilling Sin's secrets without his consent. They've known each other a long time, and he's probably got a lot of dirt on him."

"Yeah, probably. It just sucks being out of the loop," she says with a glum look. "But really, there's nothing for you to apologize for. Kace and I did not fight because of you. Although, we were both thoroughly entertained by the show you and Allison put on."

She beams, amused at the memory of our mini-fight, and I groan, hiding in my hair. "That was one of the cringey-est moments of my life. I still can't believe I had a bitch fight with a little girl."

"Boy, when you were upset over the Cady Heron gossip last week, I had no idea you felt so passionately about it," Taylor continues mocking me, laughing at her own comment.

"I'm just glad Peyton wasn't mad. I would have felt even worse."

Luckily, Peyton was more amused than angry at me for arguing with his sister. I suppose it helped that I had just convinced his mom to let him go on the trip to Lake Tahoe next weekend. Or maybe he felt sorry for me after I revealed I had been attacked.