Page 30 of Dangerous

The words were whispered, but still loud enough for me to hear as a group of students brushed past me. Despite my best efforts, I felt the heat crawl up my face. Not wanting to stick around and see if either Peter or Mr. Taylor heard them, I rushed into the classroom. Why couldn’t people leave me alone? What did I do that was so bad to bring all this sort of luck onto my shoulders?

I dropped into my seat, refusing to acknowledge my fellow classmates. Not when the tears I’d worked so hard to repress were threatening to make a renewed appearance. I thought, no hoped, that Mr. Taylor and Peter hadn’t heard those comments, but after Mr. Taylor shut the door, he squeezed my shoulder as he walked to the front of the class. And just like that, my tears made one last push to spill, but his silent act of comfort and support lent me enough strength to keep them at bay. The students could say what they wanted, but I’d continue to hold my head high. There was only eight months to get through and then hopefully I’d be done with this type of bullshit. College had to be better than this.

But by lunch, as I stood outside the cafeteria doors, I seriously wondered if I could last. Maybe accepting Ethan’s proposal of a fake relationship, we’d help each other survive. It was something worth considering.

“Here goes nothing,” I said quietly, needing to hear the words audibly and not just in my brain. I pushed open the door and strode in as if I didn’t have a care in the world. I looked neither left nor right as I crossed the room to our usual table, dropping into the empty space beside Ethan.

“Good, you’re here.” Ethan slid his container of French fries over until it was between us. French fries weren’t exactly on his diet, but he loved the way the cafeteria made them. So, he purchased them once a week—sometimes more than that but I promised that I wouldn’t ever tell on him—ate a few and then gave the rest to me. Not that I needed them, but it was nice to eat some comfort food when I was dealing with so much crap. The only better would have been to have chocolate, but the desserts at the school weren’t the best and eating a chocolate bar a day wasn’t something I ever planned on doing no matter how messed up my life was.

“Thanks.” I picked up one of the crispy fries and placed it in my mouth, stifling the moan that wanted to break free as the salt, garlic, and parmesan cheese hit my tastebuds along with the grease.

Talk swirled around me. But my friends, in an act of kindness, seemed to ignore me by talking about everything but the latest rumours about me. It gave me a chance to just calm down and relax a little because acoustics in the cafeteria made it so that I couldn’t really distinguish individual spoken words at the other tables. As I sunk into myself, using the hum noise around me as a barrier for my mind, I ate my food mechanically, just following the motions without giving them a single thought. Every time my thoughts strayed to the possible fakerelationship; I pushed it away. The same with Peter, Jason, and Jarrod. Only Liam was spared, but I tried not to dwell on him, preferring to think about the various homework assignments I needed to complete, preparations for our fundraisers to help with Christmas, and the upcoming Harvest Dance.Wait. That’s not my thought.

My barrier wall crumbled. I glanced around the table, blinking rapidly as if I had just woken. Eyes filled with silent laughter met mine as I took in everyone’s faces.

“Welcome back, Katy. Did you enjoy your trip?”

I fought the urge to blush as being caught out. It wasn’t my first trip into the land of daydreams that I’d taken in front of my friends, but it still made me a little uncomfortable when they knew I wasn’t paying attention to the conversation. Something that would have vexed me to no end if someone were to do it while I was speaking to them. “Sorry, I, uh…”

Sasha waved away my stammered apology. “It’s fine. We know things have been rough for you.”

I couldn’t tell what surprised me more: Sasha ignoring my apology or her acknowledging the tolls that the rumours—of which she’d been a part of—had been taking on me. But none of that mattered when a table full of upset faces met me. Upset at what I’d been experiencing instead of being upset with my actions. It reminded me why these people were my friends. They might have had their flaws, wanting to be a part of the gossip chain, but, even if it took some time, they always returned to what’s important… friendship which including caring for one another.

“Yeah, and we’re sorry we haven’t been telling people to shut up as loudly as we should have been, but that stops now. It’s been long enough for their stupid talk.” Deena glared at the students at the tables around us.

Wow. Of the twins, Deena was usually the quiet one, preferring to sit back and let her outspoken twin, Sasha, do all the talking. So, to hear her say all that, use more words at one time than most of the people—Sasha and myself excluded—at the table had ever heard her speak at once, had everyone at the table turning their gazes onto her instead of me.

“I agree,” Sasha declared, backing her twin. “We all know that Liam isn’t yours. It was just a surprise to find out Mr. Evans had a secret child. Although, considering his reputation before he announced he’d switched teams, it really shouldn’t have been one. What should be surprising is that he only has one.”

And as much as it hurt a little to laugh at her statement, I did, along with everyone else at the table because she was absolutely telling the truth.

She held up her hand and the laughter stopped. Kailee might try to be the pushy leader, but really Sasha was the one people listened to in most situations like this. Although mom liked to tell me that that only happened when I remained silent. She liked to say that I was the quiet leader, allowing others to shine, but stepping in when things were about to go off the rails. I wasn’t sure if I believed her, but it might be true when you think about how far they’d strayed this time when I wasn’t able to speak up in my own defense. If the rumours had been about anyone else, I would have put a stop to them in our friendship group a lot earlier.

“Now that Katy’s back in the land of the living with us, we need to discuss the dance. What are we doing? What are the plans? The dates? Everything?”

“Fuck, Sasha. Do we have to talk about this now. We still have about five weeks before it happens.”

“Exactly why we need to start talking, Ian. We don’t have much time.”

Wanting to forestall the impending argument that broke out before nearly every dance, I jumped in. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t sure if I was even going to attend this year or not, I just didn’t want to listen to them fight. If I didn’t know better, I would have assumed that they suffered from unrequited feelings for each other, but I knew better. They were like oil and water when it came to plans. Sasha wanted to plan things to the Nth degree when it came to these types of social situations while Ian acted like a typical guy who felt that just gracing his presence there was enough to make the night. “How about we go as a group? We can pair up within if you want, or bring in others, but let’s make it a group activity.”

“That sounds good.” Kailee clapped her hands together in glee. “I call dibs on Ethan.”

Beside me, Ethan stiffened. Craptastic. I wanted to help him out, but I hadn’t made my decision yet about his earlier offer and I didn’t want to give him any false hope. But none of that mattered because he took the decision away from me.

“Sorry, Kailee, but I already asked Katy. I’d heard how popular this dance was, so I asked her during the summer, assuming people had already made plans.”

Kailee’s gaze darted to me, asking if it was true. I gave her a quick jerk of my head, acknowledging what he said. Maybe it was better this way. Using the dance as a cover would give me extra time to decide about the fake relationship thing.

Ugh. Why did life have to be so complicated?

23

Jason

Ashiver of disgust ran down my spine as I exited my truck in our driveway. I needed a shower. A long, burning hot one to try and wash away that dirty feeling that lingered on my skin. I’d been hit on before at a job site. It seemed to come with the territory even if it wasn’t right. Similar things probably happened to nurses, all thanks to the porn industry. But what happened today was over the top. Far beyond the normal ogling and the odd comment with a slight innuendo.

Fuck. This particular job was going to be the death of me.

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