Page 6 of Take My Hand

“It’s just the truth.” She slipped her polish into her bag and then turned toward the main entrance of school. “Let’s go bitches. Collard will have our arses if we’re late for Maths.”

With a sigh we all turned to follow her. It was then that I got full sight of Zak in all his glory. Today he was dressed all in black with his dark hair ruffled at the front. I’d like to think it was because he’d run his hands through it in frustration at not being able to rush up to me and ravage me in front of the whole school. It was more likely he’d fixed it like that on purpose because he knew it made him look good.

“Just put one foot in front of the other, Mads,” Emma whispered in my ear. “Don’t give him eye contact and you won’t turn to a mushy jelly.”

“Funny,” I hissed. “I have no clue where you got it from that I think he’s hot.”

“Oh, come on, Mads,” she replied with a grin. “Every girl in this school thinks he’s hot. You just happen to deny it too much and too often. And, get this, I heard a couple of first year girls talking about who was hotter, Zak or your dad.”

I burst out laughing. “No, you did not.”

She arched her eyebrows and shrugged, daring me to argue. I linked my arms with hers and followed Ana and Liv down the path. As we got closer to Zak my heart rate increased and I just hoped that Liam Jeffreys who was standing with Zak didn’t speak to me because my voice would definitely give the game away as to how Zak made me feel.

Liam and I had gone all through school together and were like family. His dad and my dad were friends and me and Dad had spent a lot of time with him and his family.

“Maddy.”

Shit. Now I had to talk to him. Fuck it.

“H-hey Liam. You okay?” I flashed him a smile, trying hard not to catch Zak in my line of vision.

“Mum asked if you wanted to come for tea on Friday night, seeing as our dads are hitting the town.”

It was the stag night of one of their friends, so they were going to Leeds for the night which was why I was going to Emma’s.

“That’s really kind of her but I’m staying over at Emma’s.” I pulled on Emma’s arm, bringing her into the conversation.

“You could come over though,” she said.

What the actual… why the hell did she ask that? We never had boys over on sleepovers. Never, ever, and we’d been having them since we were eleven!

“It’s just a stupid girl’s night,” I added.

“Er, my mum is out. We’re getting booze, don’t forget. What’s stupid about that?”

I gave her a stare to warn her to take the invitation back, but she didn’t.

“So, come. I mean, it’s not a party or anything like that, but we’re getting pizza, maybe watch a movie.”

I wanted to kill her. She knew that since he’d moved here, Zak and Liam were joined at the hip. If Liam came to her house on Friday night, then so would Zak.

“What do you think?” Liam asked, and although I wasn’t looking directly, I knew he was talking to the suckadickable boy.

“Yeah, alright. Sounds good.”

His deep, accented voice sent a heat through my body—a heat that lodged itself deep in the pit of my stomach. I risked a peek at him, and he was just as handsome as he’d been yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that. From the way he stood, tall and straight, how he rolled up the sleeves of his shirt to show off his forearms, the tiny beauty spot on his neck just below his left ear, how he carried his backpack off one shoulder, to the thick silver rings on his thumb and ring finger and the chain around his neck—all of it made him spectacular. He even smelled good. Nothing like the rest of the seventeen-year old balls of hormones in our class who reeked of cheap aftershave and candyfloss vape. No, Zak Hoyland didn’t do stupid things like vape. He smoked real cigarettes. Well, I’d only seen him smoke once at Liam’s party when his parents had gone away for the weekend to visit his grandma.

“Should be decent,” he said, looking directly at me. “Booze, pizza and films sounds cool. Thanks for asking.”

I loved how he pronounced asking, it was more like arsking, and it was sexy.

“Top, Zak,” Liam said with a laugh. “It’s top, not decent.”

“Whatever.” Zak grinned back and hit Liam on the arm. “Come on then, you wanker, let’s get to class.”

Wow, there it was again, clarse, not class. I could listen to him for hours.

As they walked off, Emma sighed. “Oh, dear, oh dear,” she said, falling into stride with me. “What are we to do about you?”

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