Page 8 of The Playbook

She snorted. “You flung the door open.You.Not me. I’m innocent, but since you think you’re God’s gift to the human race, allow me to apologize. Forgive me. I forgot to bow to you and kiss your ass.” Taking a step closer, she glared up at me from a fringe of dark hair.

My heart thudded madly at her stare.

“Do your worst, Walker. I’m not scared of you,” her voice wobbled.

I peered down at her and frowned.

“Do you want to shove me into the garbage cans or something for daring to run into you when it was clearly your fault?” When I didn’t answer her, she let out another snort, shook her head, and marched away from me without a backward glance.

I stared after her, completely confused.

What the hell just happened?

* * *

“How’s it going?” Ryan asked as I sat at our table during lunch rubbing my eyes. I hadn’t seen Grace since our morning encounter.

“Bad,” I muttered. “I ran into Grace today. Or rather, she ran into me.”

I told him what happened, and he let out a laugh.

“Looks like you have your work cut out for you. I, on the other hand, got paired with Melissa Reynolds for my chem lab.”

I raised my eyebrows at him.

“She was wearing some weird headgear, dude. I don’t know what that was about, but she gave me a spit bath every time she spoke. I’m not down with spit baths. My morning sucked.”

I laughed and gazed out to the full courtyard. I caught sight of Grace sitting with her head down by the dumpsters, surrounded by the school’s losers.Why did she sit there?It wasn’t like she was some sort of wildebeest or something. She wasn’t bad to look at. I imagined if she’d take a little more pride in her appearance she might actually rival Nikki.

Ryan followed my gaze over to where Grace was now staring down at her phone, no lunch in front of her.

“Why don’t you go and offer her something to eat?” Ryan asked.

“Yeah, like your jock,” Andy’s voice called out.

I groaned inwardly.Man, I hated him.

“How’s it going, Walker?”

“Fine,” I returned. “Already started working on my list.”

“Yeah? I got Marissa’s number already.” He smirked at me, a challenge.

I scowled and shook my head. I couldn’t let him win. There was no way he was going to hold this crap over my head all year if he beat me. Rising to my feet, I scooped up my tray and shot a look at Ryan who smirked up at me.

Drawing in a deep breath, I moved to where Grace sat alone.

“This seat taken?” I asked, standing in front of her with my tray.

She peered up at me, her brows crinkled like she didn’t understand what language I was speaking.

“Yeah, but this one isn’t.” She rose to her feet and indicated her seat. “I’ve suddenly lost my appetite.”

I stepped in front of her before she could walk away. Her green eyes wavered uncertainly as she gaped up at me.

“Maybe we could work up an appetite together,” I flirted, my voice low and suggestive.

Holding my tray with one hand, I brought the other up to push a tendril of her hair away from her face. It was a signature move of mine. Girls ate it up. If I thought it was going to work, I was dead wrong. Her hand flew out, flipping my tray, covering me in spaghetti and chocolate milk.

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