Girls Chase Girls | #1 [COMPLETE]

Chapter 9 (new)

Xia

Xia and the rest of the student body—the unlucky many who hadn't snuck out the back—sat through a protracted assembly on date safety, featuring vague demonstrations on safer sex, advice on choosing designated drivers, and weirdly victim-blamey suggestions for avoiding being ruffied. Xia was offended and confused in equal measure. At least they tried? She wasn't sure she wanted to give the guidance counselors who'd arranged this display even that much credit.

The assembly let out with the end of day bell. It was a veritable stampede to the exits. Nobody wanted to be the last one sitting to be singled out for individual attention. Xia was no exception; she braved the shoving horde to find daylight soon as she could.

She shouldered through the afterschool ramblers to get snacks from the tissue paper bedazzled vending machines. Rhinestones and glitter everywhere. The Student Council was a decorating menace that couldn't be stopped. Trail mix and Big Red were Xia's feast of champions for the hour and she consumed them ravenously at an outside picnic table. There was an ASA meeting in thirty minutes, she was killing time till the classrooms emptied out to the buses and the parking lot.

The smell of jasmine and myrrh reached her well before a lean shadow stepped into her light.

"Hey, cutie. You wanna drag?" Phae tucked her hands in her jeans and crossed an ankle behind her leg, looking like she'd stepped out of GQ and Vogue at the same time. Xia wiped her hand on her skirt. Sweat or crumbs? Both.gif.

"Like smoking or drag racing? I don't really drive much anymore." At all. She didn't touch cars. She didn't want to be a passenger, cargo, unconscious, dead in the trunk; none of it. Xia Qi was over the automotive experience.

"I don't smoke anymkre. My dad would have a cow if he caught me at it. You could drove with me, though. Sit shotgun, if you wanted. Me and some buddies are gonna get together Friday night. Just some fun. No betting. Come with?"

'Is that legal?' was on the tip of Xia's tongue before she bit it back. She didn't really care if it was legal if she got to do it with Phaedra.

"What time?" she asked because Phaedra looked at her liked she was dying a little inside every second Xia didn't say yes

"Eight. I could pick you up."

Xia was positive her mother would know. If not her mother, her grandmother or her aunt. Somebody would figure out that Xia was climbing into the souped-up coupe of a Webber Wild Girl and that would be the end. She wasn't ready for things to end, not when things were starting to go her way.

"Could we maybe meet somewhere? My parents have a thing about meeting my friends. They'd want you to come inside and talk about yourself. It'd be a job interview and a twelve-page background check."

"I'd do it if that's what they want."

"I—wha—you'd...for me?" Xia was squeezing the salt out of her bag of trail mix.

Phaedra sprung a smile on her and Xia's knees went weak even though she was sitting down. Phae had a smile like the earth moving under Xia's feet. Maybe that was just her heartbeat racing down interstate, chasing a feeling.

"You're easy peasy, sweet as pie. I'd do anything you ask. Just ask."

Just...okay.

"Meet my parents," Xia asked.

"Okay." Phae's husky voice cracked on the second vowel and though it wasn't  obvious she flushed in embarrassment. The most badass girl Xia had ever seen has been scared she'd say no.