Chapter Seventeen

Ever

"T hanks for getting me out of there," I say as we enter a deserted classroom. My head drops, and my breath comes in gasps.

Shit.

I flinch as I feel hands touch my shoulders but relax when I realize it's just Rylie.

"Deep breaths, Ever, or you're going to have a full-blown panic attack. Take it easy. I promise you; you are safe right now."

"Thank you," I smile tiredly at Ry.

"No problem. I've been there. I have a feeling you'd do the same for me."

"Abso-fucking-lutely."

"Lunch?" She grins at me.

"You're not going to ask me what that was about?" I ask, genuinely curious.

"You've been through some bad shit, and it's left shit behind that you still have to deal with on the daily. I figure you will tell me when you're ready, just like I'll tell you when I am, and if you never are, that's good too." She shrugs like it's no big deal, and I just gape at her.

I mean, that’s always been my view, but I have never met someone who feels the same. People usually like to pry.

"You are so mother fucking awesome, Ry," I say sincerely.

"Oh, I know. Aren’t you lucky?" She smirks.

We make our way through the lunch line quickly. After my panic attack, I am absolutely starving, but since I have no money and forgot to bring anything from Jenny and Rob’s place, I'm going to have to wait. I do find a dollar and some change in my bag though and I manage to grab a coffee. Once we find a seat, I glance around, there are the normal curious looks I have been getting all day but no more than usual, so I'm assuming those guys haven’t told everyone about my crazy ass. Yet.

"You think those guys will cause me trouble?"

"Normally, I would answer that with the usual, well, they rule the school, no one ever messes with them, and you somehow managed to flip one of the star football players over your head like it was nothing," she pauses as I let my head smack onto the lunch table.

Of course, I would piss off the stars of the fucking school. Dickhead. Rylie smirks at my theatrics.

"As I was saying, miss drama queen, normally I would be saying something along those lines, but none of them looked particularly pissed. They looked more curious than anything." She shrugs.

"That's even worse." I groan. "I don’t need to be on some jocks' radar!" I groan.

She chuckles and shrugs before nodding over my shoulder. I glance back and see all six of them looking at me with expressions varying from confusion, awe, frustration, sadness, and even fear. It’s those last two that I just really don't fucking understand.

“There used to be seven of them. Dude was a scary motherfucker, he transferred in at the beginning of freshman year, and within the week, he was as close to the guys as brothers. Some shit went down over the summer last year, and he just up and disappeared. No one ever knew much about him. He only ever spent time with the guys, and everyone else was too damn terrified to try to get to know him, but we all thought his parents moved him due to what went down with Tomlinson High.” She shrugs.

This school just got a whole lot less boring; I’m tempted to ask what went down, but I’m distracted by the guys at the table again. As I watch them, the one with light, sun-streaked blond hair that curls in gentle waves around his forehead and ears, emphasizing his gray eyes, smirks at me.

The expression seems so familiar that I find myself tilting my head to one side and scrunching my brow, trying to figure out why that expression is so fucking familiar.

I have nearly grasped at the link when queen bitch plops herself down on his lap. She smirks at me, missing the briefest look of frustration and, if I’m not mistaken, disgust that crosses blondie’s face.

Without missing a beat and dismissing my earlier thoughts that he is somehow familiar, I act all shocked and offended when she subtly gives me the finger by scratching the side of her nose.

Blondie is still watching me and looks confused for a split second before he catches on to what she is doing.

He looks ready to explode at her for some reason. I grin savagely at queen bitch, causing her eyes to widen. I hold my finger up to her in a one-second gesture and then close my hand into a fist, using my other hand to pretend to turn a crank like on a jack in a box, slowly raising my middle finger.

Once it's up, my grin turns into a smirk, and I blow her a kiss.

Her entire table erupts in laughter, the guys that the incident occurred with laughing the loudest. I can just about hear her screech over the sound of it as me, and Rylie leave the cafeteria for history.

"You are going to stir so much shit up," Rylie says, linking her arm through mine. "I can't fucking wait."