When the Bad Boy Isn't Bad

Chapter 4: Butterflies

"So, how's it going with the dare?" CJ asked me, grinning widely.

"I've talked to him a bit. I don't know why people think he's such a bad boy. It's his friend, Fletcher, you should be worried about," I shrugged.

"Ooh, who's this Fletcher?" She winked at me.

"No! It's not like that. Just, he acts a lot more like a bad boy than Blaze. To me, at least." I protested.

"Well, Blaze is... It's complicated," She pursed her lips.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked, confused.

"Can't tell."

"Why?!"

"It's a secret. I promised I wouldn't tell," CJ shrugged. I turned my best puppy dog eyes on her.

"No. No, those are not going to work on me, and besides, you look like you're constipated when you do that." CJ scrunched up her nose at me.

"Do not!" I protested, my eyes wide. She just laughed at me.

"It's not right to lie," she smirked, leaning away when I tried to smack her. "Hey, don't injure me, I have cheer tryouts today."

"Ooh, I forgot. You'll make it for sure. You always do." I assured her.

"Yeah, thanks. If only Kassy wasn't the captain. She's such a bitch." CJ frowned.

"Yeah, but I think she likes you. Me, not so much, but you, hey, you're a cheerleader, she won't mess with you." CJ nodded.

"Get outta here, I'll see you in drama!" CJ said, shooing me out of her car.

"Bye!" I waved.

I looked around for Blaze, but couldn't see him anywhere. Oh, well, we had a lot of classes together. I found myself worrying. Why wasn't he here? Why was I worrying about it? I barely knew him. I shrugged it off and walked into the school, dropping my books in my locker and going to math, aka mental abuse towards humans.

"Jennifer!" A voice squealed as I walked in. Charlotte. I turned and waved back at her.

"Charlotte!" I greeted her. "Are any others of our friends in this class?"

She shook her head. "No. But where were you yesterday?"

"I... I was talking to someone. I don't know, I just lost track of time." Lie. I had kept looking at my phone to see the time and decided I didn't care. Besides, it was math after all.

"Oh, okay." I was glad she didn't push me for details. Charlotte's nice that way. "Oh, how's the dare going?"

Shit. She was in that truth or dare group. "Shh, don't talk about it in school. This stays between those of us who know only. We don't need rumors. Okay?"

She nodded. "Got it." Her eyes widened and she nodded her head to somewhere behind me. "There's Blaze!" She whispered.

I froze. He was in this class? I turned and slowly met his eyes. He was wearing a dark blue button down shirt and dark jeans, and the shirt hugged his torso in all the right places, showing off his muscles, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His dark brown hair was perfectly messed up, and his eyes were the most amazing shade of green I had ever seen. I nearly choked on my breath.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer," he smirked.

"I- maybe I will. Selfie time!" I shouted, pulling my phone out of my back pocket. Charlotte waved a few people over for our group selfie until almost everyone was gathered around, and then I held up my phone and took a huge group selfie with the entire math class, all of us clutching our throats or making a slit throat motion to show what we thought about math, and I laughed as I looked at it. In the picture, Blaze just stood off to the side, staring towards me with a confused look on his face.