Page 54 of Billionaires Don't Date Cheerleaders
Jude
???
I don’t know
They’re doors
Sloane
All the doors in school have a number over them
In a yellow square
Jude
OH
Door 5
Sloane
K I’ll be there in a minute
There was nobody in the halls since it was the middle of a class period, so I jogged to the back of the school without concern about getting yelled at. As I approached the doors, I could see Jude through the glass. I paused for a second to watch him as he paced back and forth while staring at his phone with a grin on his face. I wondered who he was talking to. One of the other boys? A fan on Twitter? A girlfriend? My stomach turned at the thought, even though there was no reason it should have. So what if he had a girlfriend? It didn’t matter to me. Sure, he flirted a little on Twitter, but that was just part of his public persona, not something that I should have taken seriously. He probably was dating someone but was keeping it out of the public eye. Who wouldn’t want to date him, right?
I squeezed my eyes shut and shook my head, trying to push any thoughts of Jude being in love with another girl out of my head, then walked the last couple of steps to the door and pushed it open.
“Hey,” I said. I tilted my head toward the school. “Come in before I change my mind and leave you here.”
Jude smiled and swung an arm down to pick up his backpack before practically skipping inside. I giggled at the sight—that was probably what I looked like most of the time.
“My savior!” he proclaimed. He stepped in line with me and threw an arm around my shoulder as if he had known me forever. “Whatever can I do to repay you?”
I had a little trouble responding because I was a little too busyhyperventilating.
Jude Turner’s arm was around my shoulder.
In, out. In, out.
Yeah, the breathing exercises weren’t helping—Jude-freaking-Turner’s arm was around my shoulder! As if we were friends. As if we were more than friends. As if… I couldn’t even let myself finish that thought.
“Not losing your student card would be a good start,” I managed to say. Thankfully, it didn’t even sound like I was struggling to breathe, which was good because, let me tell you, that was not the reality. Had my heart always beat this fast, or was that new? Was my heart supposed to beat this fast? I tried to subtly glance at my smart watch, acting as if I was just checking the time—and look at that, my heart was over 150 beats per minute. That couldn’t be good.
“I told you,” Jude said, “I never got one.” His hand that was over my shoulder shifted as he talked, and for one long moment, I had a feeling that it was going to land somewhere that I did not think he was aiming for, but then it settled back down against my shoulder.
In, out. In, out. You will not faint in front of Jude Turner.
“Well, let’s get you one now,” I said. “It’ll be easy. We just have to go to the office.”
And when we get there, you’ll have to take your arm off my shoulder… But why do I not want that?
Jude made a face. “I don’t want to have to get my photo taken.”
“Somehow, I think you’ll live.”
Jude stuck his tongue out at me and then dug his phone out of his pocket with his free hand.
Call Me Jude@judeturner
