Page 10 of Spite

Chapter Five

Most of the seniors were gone by the time the last bell rang. I took my time walking to my locker, enjoying the semi-quietness, at least until I passed the juniors’ hall. I grabbed my bag, shoved in the few books and notebooks I had homework for, and slung it around my shoulders. I headed out of the school’s front doors, stopping when the sunshine hit me.

That was the thing about being cooped up for so long. It sucked.

I turned along the sidewalk, dodging the freshman and other underclassmen as I walked. I didn’t see Diane’s car anywhere—although I didn’t spend too much time searching. She could’ve been parked right in front of me and I would’ve walked right by her. Try as she might, she’d never be like a mother to me. She was no one. If there was one person I hated in this world more than Christian and the Dick Squad, it was Diane, the woman who’d destroyed my parents’ marriage.

I was about to turn onto the sidewalk near the street when a car rolled up, stopping at the end of the school’s driveway. A brown-haired head stuck out, along with a grinning face. “Can I give you a ride?” Alec asked, almost pleading with the expression he gave me.

Did he wait this entire time to offer to drive me home? What the hell. Stalker much?

I shot him a glare. “Why would I go anywhere with you, Alec?”

The words he said stopped me cold: “Because I know what you’re doing.”

Meeting his bright green eyes, I felt my stomach harden. How in the world could he possibly know what I was doing? It wasn’t like I detailed my plan to anybody but Leah—and even then, things were still more vague than they were clear as of the moment.

When I said nothing, when the cars stuck behind him started beeping, Alec sighed and said, “Please, get in.”

I shouldn’t. I knew I shouldn’t, but I also had to know what Alec thought he knew—if the bastard truly had me so figured out. Somehow I found myself heading around his car and getting into the passenger’s seat. Probably a mistake, but I’d made many mistakes in my life. What was one more?

After I got in, Alec turned onto the road, in the direction of my house. Whether or not he was just aimlessly driving or he knew where I lived, I was a bit afraid to ask. I could’ve gotten into a car with a serial killer for all I knew.

“So,” I said, pausing as I stretched out my legs, “what is it you think you know?” I leaned my head on the headrest, turning slightly to look at him. His jaw was set, one hand on the wheel, the other resting on the window. My backpack rested on the floor before me, and I reached down into the front pocket, pulling out a sucker. I wasn’t allowed to eat candy at home, at least when my dad was around.

Right now though, I needed sugar, mostly because Alec was too cute to be real. The way he concentrated on driving, how the muscle in his cheek kept ticking, his dark stubble…my hormones were going into overdrive, which was so not what I needed right now.

Sugar it was.

I popped the sucker into my mouth, swirling my tongue around it when I saw Alec was watching me out of the corner of his eye. “You going to answer me, or just drive in manly silence?” I posed the question with a shrug, as if I didn’t care either way.

“Christian’s not going to fall for it, you know,” Alec finally said, looking at me only because we rolled to a stop at a red light.

“Fall for what?” I was the picture of innocence, batting my long eyelashes and playing up the sweet, feminine wiles I knew I had. I was no longer the slightly chubby sixth grader Alec knew. He might’ve grown into a good-looking guy, but I was a sexy woman, too.

“Whatever you’re trying to do. It’s not going to work.”

“Why do you assume I’m trying to do anything? Maybe I’ve just changed.” I pulled the sucker from my mouth as I lifted a leg and rested it on the dashboard. He saw how long my leg was, the shape of it. If this were a cheesy teen flick, I’d say I liked the way he was looking at me.

The red light changed to green, and he was forced to take his eyes off me to drive. “No one thought you’d come back, and no one thought you’d look like this if you did.” Alec paused before adding, “You’re up to something.”

“If I am, so what? It has nothing to do with you.” A lie, but one I hoped he would believe. Certainly, I wasn’t expecting to be confronted on my first day back. Maybe I’d glammed myself up a bit too much. I’d have to lower the sex appeal tomorrow.

“Elle,” he started, “look. I know what we did to you…it wasn’t right. I’m not proud of the kid I was in junior high. If I could take everything that we said back, everything we did, I would. I would take it back in a heartbeat.”

I wasn’t sure how to take his words, as genuine and sincere as they seemed, because I couldn’t trust him. “And how do I know that you mean what you’re saying? How do I know this isn’t something Christian is making you do—trying to get a behind the scenes look at my plans? Not that I’m saying I have plans, because I don’t.”

Wow. Smooth one, Elle.

Alec found my house, slowing to a stop on the road before it. He was lucky I lived in a development, otherwise he would’ve been run right off the road. “Christian doesn’t want me talking to you. He doesn’t know about this.”

“Do you always listen to what Christian says? Oh, wait. I already know the answer to that.” I stuck the sucker back in my mouth and went to undo my seatbelt to get out, but a warm hand on mine caused me to freeze.

A warm, large hand that I wasn’t expecting.

“I know nothing I say can make what happened right, and I’m sorry.” Alec’s mouth drew into a thin line, the wind blowing through the open window, tousling his brown hair. “I’m sorry, El.”

El? Why the hell did he call me El all of a sudden? Did Alec think a cute little nickname would make me waver? No, my resolve was firm, and no pet name was going to change it. I would’ve frowned at him, but my mouth was full of candy, and I was still currently frozen under his hand.

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