Page 51 of Oh, Hell No

Had he just referred to me as a bone? I stared at him for a moment, then cleared my throat, not sure how to tell him that I’d gotten drunk and deleted the texts and had no idea what he’d said.

“Just been busy. I’ve got a lot of unread texts I haven’t had time to catch up on. Too many things at once to juggle.”

Hopefully, he didn’t know me well enough to know the little round red circle with a number over any of my apps drove me bonkers. I felt unorganized and behind on my tasks. They weren’t allowed to stay there long.

He nodded, looking embarrassed for asking. “Right. Like I said, I get committed to something sometimes, and I can’t stop. Sorry about all the texts. When you hadn’t responded on Sunday, I should have left you alone. I swear I will wait until you can catch up.”

On Sunday? He hadn’t texted me since Saturday.

My small laugh was so forced that a child would know it was fake. “Right, well”—I held up the papers in my hand—“gotta get this done.”

He nodded and looked like he was going to say more when I bolted into the room, letting the door close behind me. Jeez, he was hard to shake off.

I met Meg’s curious gaze and hadn’t realized anyone was in there. Seeing as all of the second grade was currently in PE, it made sense she’d be getting some things done too.

“Hey,” I replied.

She studied me as if I were some new creature she had never seen before instead of the teacher who worked across the hall from her.

“Hey.” She said the word slowly.

What was going on?

“So, was that Toby you were talking to in the hallway?” She asked the question as if this were a piece of juicy gossip.

Good Lord, I did not need folks thinking we were dating because we had gone to the festival together.

“Yes. He was just getting here, and I passed him the hallway. He likes to talk,” I explained.

“I see,” she replied, but I didn’t think she saw at all. Her eyes scanned my body, as if trying to find something new about me.

What was her deal? She’d never acted so strange before.

“Are you done with the copy machine?” I asked.

She took the stack of papers from the machine and nodded. “Yep. All yours.” Her voice still sounded as if there were some secret she knew that I didn’t.

“Okay,” I said, watching her as she gave me a tight smile.

A flash of pity in her eyes had me frowning and watching her leave.

Why had she looked at me like that?

I took the first math sheet I needed to get copies of and tried to think of what that could have been about. I’d thought that Holly had given me the same look this morning when I passed her in the hall, but I decided I had misinterpreted it or that it wasn’t about me. Now, I wasn’t so sure. Was this about me and Toby? Did I have to get on the intercom and announce that we were not dating? Jeez, they all needed a hobby if that was the gossip today. And why now? It was Wednesday, and we’d not been seen near each other all week.

Rolling my eyes, I chose to forget about the women here and the silly junior-high behavior and get my work done.

Twenty-Four

Oz

“You got in late,” Bane said as he walked into the kitchen while I was making a sub for lunch.

I glanced back at him, then went back to putting the mustard on my bread. What was he, my fucking dad now? He had a kid. It wasn’t me.

“What were you up to until after three?”

I didn’t look at him this time, but picked up the deli cheese instead. “I wasn’t aware I needed to check in with you.”

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