Page 38 of Take My Hand

“Are you listening to me?”

Ignoring her, I pushed the door open and took a huge breath. Right inside was Zak, leaning against the wall, looking down at his phone. Everything about him was beautiful—his fingers tapping at the screen, his thick lashes fluttering, pouty lips that his tongue licked seductively, and his long legs crossed at the ankle. When he coughed, he put a fist to his mouth to cover it, which made me smile. So many of the boys in our year just spluttered their germs over everyone. He was full of rizz, and so different, so gorgeous, that I doubted there was any chance he liked me.

“Bloody hell, Maddy.” Ana banged into me from behind, almost sending me flying. As I stumbled forward, Zak looked up and grinned.

“Falling for me, Maddy.”

“Christ, Zak,” Ana groaned. “That’s the shittest line I’ve ever heard.” She shook her head and walked towards the table where the rest of our friends were sitting. Liv was smiling at something on her phone, while Emma chatted to Liam, who was leaning over the back of her chair.

Pushing lazily off the wall, Zak grinned at me. “Hi.”

“Hi,” I replied, clearing my throat, putting a hand against the butterflies swarming my stomach. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Not bad. You?”

“Good, thanks.” I looked over his shoulder to see Ana joining the others. She said something and Liam threw his head back and roared laughing.

“Something has amused him,” Zak commented, glancing over his shoulder before bringing his gaze back to me. “You look nice today, by the way.”

I blinked and ran a hand over the front of my leather jacket, grateful that I’d worn my newest jeans with a crop top. Not like I hadn’t planned it, because of course I had.

“Thanks. So do you.” I groaned inwardly, wondering whether I’d said the right thing. Was I being too obvious? Would he think I was an idiot for saying it? Blooming heck, fancying boys was hard!

A beautiful smile lit up Zak’s face, and he took a step closer to me. “How long do these meetings go on for, anyway?”

His hand reached out, and he lifted my bag higher on my shoulder, from where it had slipped down my arm.

Trying to ignore the way my stomach was doing somersaults, I shrugged. “Depends on whether anyone has been caught vaping in the toilets or with weed in their pocket.”

Zak raised an eyebrow. “Does that happen a lot, then?”

“Not really. Well, the weed not so much but the vaping probably once every two weeks.”

“And if they have been caught?” Zak asked, shoving his hands into his jacket pockets.

“Then we have to watch a video about the effect vaping has on your lungs and we’ll be here for almost an hour. If not, then forty minutes tops, and we get to go home early.”

With his blue eyes firmly on my face, Zak nodded. “Looks like it might be an hour then because Mr Anderson caught me smoking coming into school this morning.”

His smile was carefree, and his relaxed stance said he wasn’t worried one bit about it. If I’d been caught smoking I’d have been shitting myself in case they told my dad.

“What did he do?” I asked. “Has he called your mum or dad?”

Zak shook his head. “Nah. It was on the street outside the gates, I’m not that stupid to smoke on school property. I still reckon he’ll give us a lecture about it, though.”

“Do your parents know you smoke?”

“Dad does, but he agreed not to tell Mum if I gave up.” He grimaced because he clearly hadn’t.

“Does he think you have?”

“Yeah. And I will. Maybe when I’ve finished the pack I’ve got left.”

I rolled my eyes and grinned. “Then there’ll be another excuse.”

“Nope. No. There won’t. I’ve got six more left, and then that’s it.” When the muttering behind him went quieter, Zak turned around. “Looks like it’s starting. We should get over there.”

Mr Anderson, our head of year, was standing in front of the food counter where the shutters were down. He had his hands on his hips and was looking around expectantly, waiting for individual conversations to finish.

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