When Our Worlds Collide (Our Worlds #1)(23)
“What did you do last night? I tried texting you, but I never heard back from you.” Violet peers over at me turning up the radio.
I debate back and forth between telling her about Graham and keeping it a secret. “I worked on homework and passed out pretty early,” I lie deciding to keep it to myself. The rest of the drive to school is spent in silence except for Carly Rae Jepsen’s song “Call Me Maybe” playing in the background. Violet sings along without missing a beat. She sings off key and still continues to belt it out like she can’t hear how horrible she sounds.
The parking lot is full of students loitering around their cars. They are likely discussing the latest drama that has managed to be passed through the rumor mill. Hopefully my accident has moved down that list. I throw my backpack on the hood of the car as I struggle to get my crutches from the back seat. The muscles in my shoulders ache from using the torture devices. If anything, I’m going to have the buffest shoulders that will put an Olympic swimmer’s to shame.
I shift my eyes around the parking lot. I know what I am doing and I silently chastise myself for being this na?ve. My eyes land on him in an instant. He is easy to spot. Graham is standing by what I assumed is his car. It’s sleek and stylish. The body is jet black and looks to be nearly brand new. His family is wealthy and not in the ‘don’t worry about how much grocery cost’ kind of way, but more in the ‘own the whole town’ kind of way. He would be driving around a brand new vehicle unlike the rest of us who get the family vans and clunkers that our older siblings left behind when they shipped off to college.
I try to keep myself from looking back over his way. I divert my eyes as impossible as that is. Taking a chance I look behind me where he is still standing. He’s leaning against the bumper of his car with Amanda standing between his legs. He has on a pair of faded jeans that sit sinfully low on his hips. They are worn in at the knees. His baseball t-shirt is tight across his chest. Damn, he really is gorgeous.
Amanda runs her hands down his stomach and throws back her head laughing. It practically echoes through the parking lot. Graham runs his hand through his hair and I can’t dig up the will to look away from him. Watching him and Amanda together gives me a small kick to the stomach reminding me where I belong.
Amanda Drims is the type of girl who always gets what she wants. Her claws are currently sunk into Graham and I don’t see her relenting any time soon. Of course, he would be into someone like her. They make sense together. She’s too beautiful for her own good with this long platinum blonde hair and catastrophically blue eyes that can be spotted from where I am standing. I don’t stand a chance. Not that I want a chance. Everyone knows that Graham and Amanda will end up together at some point. People like them always do.
Graham turns in my direction as if he can feel me watching him. Our eyes lock. There’s a look in his that reiterates everything that had happened last night. Graham didn’t smile, but he didn’t need to. Amanda is what broke our contact. She’s trying to talk to him and he isn’t paying her the attention she thinks she’s earned. She shifts her eyes to see what has stolen his attention and swats him across the chest to draw him back in. He rolls his eyes at her reaction. Luckily she hadn’t noticed that it was me that was drawing his attention away from her. Even if she had seen, she wouldn’t have believed it.
“Why do you look like you’re in a deep thought?” Violet snaps me back to reality as we continue our walk into school making our way through the halls to my locker. “You were just staring into space.”
I put my things on the ground to free my hands to put my combination for my locker in and managed to get it the first time. “Just got a lot on my mind, that’s all,” I explain to Violet.
“Mmm hmm…” Violet scoffs and makes her way down the hallway to her own locker. I reach down to grab my backpack, but someone beats me to it.
“Need some help?” The familiar voice whispers in my ear. He leans in front of me, grabs my bag and places it in my locker before I can even answer. His eyes never drop from mine. Now that he is standing close I can smell his cologne. It smells natural, not too chemically like some guys. It’s a masculine scent, a mix of sandalwood and citrus. Burying my nose in his shirt seems way too appealing.
“People are watching,” I say in a hushed tone. I turn to face him thinking that he doesn’t realize that the entire hall is filled with his nosy peers.
“And you care what people think?” Graham smirks causing my heart to skip a few beats. That smile can bring an entire town to their knees. I am beginning to not like the way he gets a rise out of me so easily.
“I don’t, but we both know you do. How are you going to explain slumming in the hallway with me to your buddies?” I get naturally defensive. I’m not being fair to him. I know that, but I can’t stop my insecurities from pooling out of the corners of my mouth.
Graham laughs under his breath. “You’re clueless. You know that right?”
What’s that supposed to mean?
Just as I am about to say something one of the senior football players, I think his name is Deacon, stops dead in his tracks to look at us. “What’s going on here?” he points between the two of us letting his eyes carry over my entire body making me feel uncomfortable as if I am on display. His voice carries through the hallway bouncing off of the concrete walls gaining the attention of everyone nearby. Great as if we already hadn’t grabbed their attention, now they are all staring at us in fascination.