The Bad Boy's Sleepover

Chapter 21

The tense atmosphere seemed to follow the girls to their next Math's class together. Nalini marched to her usual seat in the front while Lola and Hanna sat in the middle where they were not likely to catch the teacher's attention. 

Damien and Tyrone walked in together and headed to the back where they usually sat. He smiled at the girls but their previous conversation made it impossible for Lola to smile back. She looked down at her book and then up at Nalini. 

Her friend had given the same reaction, barely acknowledging Damien's presence. Out of curiosity Lola turned sideways to sneak a peak at him and sure enough he was frowning at them in confusion. 

She pretended not to notice which was easy because Eva and her friends suddenly marched in. Eva's eyes immediately fell on the seat next to Nalini and she sat down next to her arch nemesis. 

"So I see you've made new friends," She spoke to Nalini in a low voice and Lola had to strain her ears to listen in. 

"I've always been a friendly person," Nalini countered without looking up from her book. That seemed to anger the queen bee even more. 

Eva reached forward and grabbed Nalini's book. "Damien is off limits, everyone seems to know that except you."

Lola bit her lip. She knew this was going to happen and she was praying that Nalini would back down for once in her life. 

"Excuse me, he's gone out with practically the entire grade after dating you. And most of them have been your friends," Nalini whispered back ferociously. 

"That's only because I allowed it," Eva snapped. 

"Well too bad. You're not my mother. I don't need your permission to do anything," Nalini said and then she snatched her book back. 

"You will regret this," Eva warned and Lola could have sworn she saw her body tremble with rage. 

Their teacher walked in just as Lola cast a nervous glance at Hanna, who had been watching Nalini's heated exchange with Eva as well. 

Mrs. Harriot began explaining about computing and compounding limits and it came to a point where Lola's mind drew a blank. She began day dreaming, mostly about her conversation with her friends. 

It disturbed her more than she had realized. Was the way Julian had been acting with her all in her head? Why did he interrupt her potential kiss with Tyler? Why did he say those words to her in the woods? 

Lola shifted uncomfortably, could it be that he was just using her like her friends thought? She couldn't deny that Julian had never paid any attention to her until this incident. They had been close as kids but after he came back all hot and indifferent they'd barely spoke a word to each other.

Lola didn't want to believe it because the thought of Julian using her was just too painful. 

Her friends were right. There was a chance that these boys were being nice to them just for the sake of it and Lola needed to protect herself. 

She needed to protect her heart and that meant not thinking too much about Julian's actions or his words. She was just going to help him out and once this was all over she would forget about him and maybe things would go back to normal. 

Lola nodded to herself, her newfound resolve giving her the clarity she needed. 

Tyler was the one she had liked until now. Julian and his annoyingly gorgeous eyes was just a distraction. 

Lola snapped back to reality when she realized Mrs. Harriot had stopped teaching and was looking at Eva and Nalini, her face filled with exasperation.