Page 52 of Science Project

For once, I wanted to be important to someone. And not for my body.

“Akio, it’s fine,” I said to get this over with and to stop feeling so upset about my shitty life. Nobody was coming to save me. Nobody would ever care about me for more than just my body. “I don’t mind hooking up with you.”

“You don’t mind?” he repeated.

I shrugged. “I don’t mind.”

Suddenly, Akio tensed and looked away from me. “I know that I’m not as good as Jace Harbor at stuff, but I don’t want to be pitied.”

Akio had always been soft and sweet, and I had rarely ever seen this side of him. The side of him that snapped.

“I don’t want you to hook up with me because you feel like you need to so I’ll do our project.”

My eyes widened. “No, Akio, that’s not what I?—”

He pressed his lips together. “How was he?”

“What?”

“How was Jace on Saturday night?” Akio asked. “I saw you two together.”

H-how does he know? He saw me talking to him, but how does he know I was with him Saturday night?

“Akio, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, curling my finger around a strand of my blonde hair and tugging on it nervously. How the hell does he know?! “I wasn’t with Jace on Saturday night.”

Akio clenched his jaw. “Why are you lying?”

“Where did you see us?”

“At your house!”

As soon as the words left his lips, Akio snapped his mouth shut and cursed underneath his breath. The librarian shushed us, and a couple of students looked over, including Sakura Sato, the class valedictorian.

I grabbed Akio’s hand and yanked him toward the back of the library, my mind racing.

Akio was at my house on Saturday night? Did he see … everything that happened between Jace and me?

It hadn’t been anything, but from an outside point of view … it could’ve looked like a whole lot more than what actually happened.

The bell rang through the library, and Akio tried to leave, but I tightened my grip.

“Forget I said anything,” he mumbled, pulling on his wrist.

Instead of releasing him, I continued to march to a secluded area with hundred-year-old encyclopedias, and I cornered him, standing between him and his escape route. If he wanted to get past me, he’d have to push me out of the way.

And Akio wouldn’t do that.

“You were at my house?” I asked, nerves bubbling up in my stomach.

He stared at me so harshly for a few moments, and then his gaze softened. “Sorry.”

“Were you at my house?”

His lips turned into a frown, and he dropped his head. “Yes.”

Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.

“For how long?” I whispered, tears building in my eyes.

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