Until the End (Sea Breeze #9)(31)

Right now, however, I was ready to ask my friends to rescue me. “Help,” I mouthed at Davey, and he was instantly moving through the crowd toward me.

Rock and Ginger were still chatting about the party, and the things she could do to him, while I kept my focus on Davey. When he finally approached, I wanted to sag in relief.

“Hey,” he said, looking up at Rock, then back at me.

“Hey, you’re headed my way to the next class. Would you mind carrying my bag?” I asked him in a lower voice so as to not draw attention to myself. Rock was listening to Ginger talk right now.

“No,” Rock replied before Davey could say anything. He slipped his arm around my hips, careful not to touch my waist, and rested a hand on my hip. “Don’t need your help. I got this,” he told Davey.

Well, crap. I was trying to get him free of me. He was not helping at all.

“You can stay and talk to, uh . . . Ginger,” I replied, motioning to her, “about her bathing suit choices. And I’ll go with Davey. There’s some stuff I’m having problems with in trig that he can help me with.”

“No,” Rock repeated in a more firm tone. “You can ask him later. I’ll get you to class. Let’s go.”

And then he started to walk, gently guiding me along with him. What the heck? I looked back at Davey and shrugged. I’d talk to Davey today at lunch when Rock dropped me off. Because apparently, Rock wasn’t going to allow that at the moment.

His hand stayed firmly on my hip as he moved us up through the hallway. It never ceased to amaze me how the crowd just split for him as he moved through it. I hated to admit that I felt secure at his side, tucked in safely.

“You were trying to get rid of me,” he finally said as we got closer to my next class.

“You looked like you’d rather be alone and have more time to discuss her special bikini. I was trying to help you out,” I snapped, without meaning to. Cringing, I mentally slapped myself for being an idiot.

“Don’t care about her bikini,” he replied in a hard tone.

Instead of nodding and letting this go, I moved away from him and turned to glare up at his too-handsome-to-be-fair face. “I am not your responsibility. I hate feeling like I’m this burden on you that you can’t get rid of. I have other friends who can help me. I don’t like putting a kink in your social life.”

Rock stared at me as if he didn’t understand a word I was saying, and then he frowned. “What?”

What? Was that seriously his response? I hadn’t spoken another language. He had to have understood the words that just came out of my mouth.

“I didn’t stutter,” I told him.

A smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. “No, you didn’t,” he agreed, then took a step toward me and lowered his head close to my ear. “But you look hot as hell when you’re jealous.”

It was my turn to be confused. “What?” I asked, backing up.

He reached out and grabbed my hip and pulled me closer to him while glaring at someone behind me. “Careful,” he snarled to someone. “You almost ran into her.”

“She was the one walking into me,” a male voice argued.

Rock’s eyes flared and he tucked me close to his side. “Then move the f**k out of her way next time.”

The guy was Felix Hardgrove. He had a 4.0 GPA and was about the size of my brother two years ago. He backed up and scurried away.

“It was my fault. You didn’t have to scare him,” I said, tilting my head back to look up at Rock.

He was clenching his jaw as he stared straight ahead. “I never wanted to go to her party. I don’t want to go to any f**king party you aren’t at. Accept the fact that all I see is you, Trisha Corbin. Then decide what you want to do about it.” Rock walked past me into the room and put my bag beside the desk where I sat every day.

I stood there and watched as he got out my books and a pen, then placed them on my desk. He always did that, too. He didn’t want me bending over. When he finally turned to leave, his gaze locked with mine. It wasn’t a teasing grin or a flirty wink. It was intense, and somehow it was as if he was pleading with me.

Rock

I had taken a chance. I knew girls pretty well, and from her sudden sass I was almost positive Trisha was jealous of Ginger. It was the only reason I let Ginger keep going on and on about her bikini. Anything to get Trisha’s attention. I’d almost missed the fact that her spunky ass had signaled her friend over to get away from me. Hell no was that happening. No one else was carrying Trisha’s books. That was all me. I was taking care of her.

Getting through the next class wasn’t easy. I couldn’t focus on anything the teacher was saying. I was planning out how I was going to fix this with Trisha. My being her friend was over. I wasn’t taking her to that damn lunch table she sits at with her friends and leaving her today. She was going to sit with me. She was mine and she needed to admit that shit now.

Before she drove me crazy.

I was at the door to her classroom when the bell rang, and I made my way inside to pack her books back into her bag.

She sighed when I took the first book from her hands. “I can do this, Rock. I’m not completely helpless.”

I didn’t respond. I tossed the backpack over my shoulder, then held out my other hand to Trisha. “It’s lunchtime.”