Jaded (Jaded #1)(10)

I’d had enough. My red flag had been thrown up.

I pushed through the group and shrugged off, “I’m out.”

A second later, I heard Bryce curse.

I ignored the principal’s heed and headed to my art class. The teacher was cool.

Mr. Sayword wouldn’t say a word, even if the principal did track me down. Seriously, though, how can one truant student be so important?

I managed a grin to Mr. Sayword when I entered the room and swiftly entered the darkroom. I clicked the switch that let others know now not to interrupt because I’d be working on films. Instead of grabbing some film, I pulled out my drawing pad and started a portrait.

No, I wasn’t upset. No, this wasn’t a self-coping mechanism. I just wanted to avoid any and all. The darkroom gave me that.

After ten minutes, some students pounded on the door and I called out, “What?”

“Are you almost done developing? We have some pictures we need to develop too, you know. You’re not the only one.”

I stood and opened the door.

There were three students and all of them took a step back, startled when they saw who it was.

“Oh. Sorry, Sheldon. Seriously,” a girl said quickly as she grabbed her camera and hurried to a corner.

The other two gaped. One was a boy with wire-rim glasses and messy black hair.

He used gel to make it stick out on its ends. It looked trendy, which was accentuated by the plaid vest that was snug over a black silk shirt. The other boy was tall, lanky, and wore a Suns tee shirt.

Neither looked familiar.

“What are your names?” I asked since they still hadn’t moved out of my way.

“Um…I’m Teddy.” The plaid vest guy mumbled and pointed beside him, “This is Brent.”

“Hi.”

They didn’t move.

“Move,” I spelled it out.

“Um…” Teddy began again.

Just then I looked up and saw Bryce enter the room.

He glanced at Mr. Sayword and then scanned the room. His eyes stopped on mine and he approached me.

“We’re supposed to be at the principal’s office. I’ve told you twice,” he snapped.

“And I said that I was out.”

“Then you should’ve left school. They know you’re here so we gotta go and pay our penance or something,” he growled and skimmed his eyes over Teddy and Brent.

Both snapped to attention and ran off.

“Were you talking to them?”

“No,” I sighed and moved back into the darkroom for my drawing pad. Bryce followed and looked around.

“I’ve never been in here,” he murmured and leaned against the counter.

I eyed him up and down and made my decision. I shut the door again and flipped the same switch.

“What is up with you today?” I demanded to know. Enough was enough.

“Noth—” he started to say, but I interrupted.

“Bryce. Seriously. I’m here and I want to have this talk. Tell me what’s up with you.”

His eyes locked with mine and I saw that he was considering it, considering something.

Finally, he cut out, “Why’d you bail on my party?”

“Are you serious? This is what that’s about? Because I bailed on your party?”

“Yes and no.” He sighed and pushed off from the counter, but kept a hold of its edge. He bounced back and forth, doing reverse push-ups from the counter. His arm muscles bulged with each movement.

“I don’t know,” Bryce mumbled with his chin tucked downwards. He looked at the floor. “I just…I don’t know. I’m on edge today.”

“Why?” I was dumbfounded. Yeah. I had bailed on Friday night, but so what? He still got laid. Corrigan said he saw Bryce disappear into a backroom with one of the cheerleaders. And Saturday night, Bryce had been all over some cross-country runner.

“I don’t know,” he shrugged. “We should go before we get in more trouble.”

“Since when do you care how much trouble we get into?” They couldn’t do anything to us. Bryce was the soccer team’s captain and recruited heavily. The school needed that attention. And I just didn’t care. The school knew that and had given up on me a long time ago. They just wanted me to continue attending school and classes. At least, that’s what their school counselor had confided in me once.

“I don’t, but it’s a big practice tonight. I don’t want my coach more worked up than he needs to be, you know.”

Understanding finally dawned on me and I felt like smacking myself in the head.

This was the beginning of Scout Week. Those same recruiters and more were visiting the school’s teams. They came to the practices, games, and talked with the families.

“Which ones are coming to your practice?” I asked and I saw I was right. A flicker of tension passed in Bryce’s eyes.

I moved closer and slipped my arms around him. I looked up and grinned, “Which ones?”

He hugged me back, slowly, and murmured, “Brown. Stanford. And Florida.”

“And you want Brown, right?”

“Yeah.”

Just then, someone pounded on the door again. It stopped after someone hissed, “Bryce and Sheldon are in there. Ssshh!”