Page 12 of Finding Her
Tino put on an innocent expression that was so fake, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.
“When did I say anything about that?” He asked innocently.
“You didn’t need to. I know you well enough by now. Do not use her in any way, shape, or form. You understand me?”
“Getting a little protective there, Bear?” Crossy asked from the other side of me.
I glowered at him then at Tino again. “Do you understand me?” I repeated.
Just then, Coach blew the whistle, telling us to all come into the middle. But when Tino tried to skate off, I grabbed his arm harshly and pulled him back, glaring at him until he bobbed his head and said, “Understood.”
I let go of him and went along to line up in front of Coach as well. But my head wasn’t on the hockey practice anymore. Suddenly, it was focused on the sunshine girl. Why did I care at all what Tino did with her? I’d never given a second thought toany of the girls he fooled around with. But I did care. And that scared me more than anything.
CHAPTER 9
poppy
The moment Lilahshowed up at my locker on Friday, I knew it had been a bad decision to tell her where it was.
I should have known. It should have been my first thought that the girl who had been asking me about Levi Barrett before she even was certain that he was in my class would freak out when she realized that my locker was right above his. I should have known, but I didn’t even think about it. So when she appeared at the end of the hall and her eyes lit up as she took in the scene before her, I knew that I should have just told her that I would meet her at her locker instead. I had made a critical mistake, but now I was stuck.
“Poppy,” Lilah said, dragging out the name as she walked up and threw her arm around my shoulders. I stumbled a little into the touch and almost kicked Bear on the back of the head. Whoops. But he did tell me that he was okay with having the bottom locker, so I guess he was just going to have to deal with moments like that.
“Hi, Lilah,” I mumbled. I pulled my books out of my locker at lightning speed, doing my best not to drop any on Bear’s head. This was my first time having the top locker and I wasn’t used to maneuvering around somebody below me.
Now, I had to worry about not concussing the guy every time I tried to grab anything.
“How are you?” Lilah asked, squeezing my shoulder tight.
“I’m fine, Lilah,” I mumbled. I barely zipped up my backpack before I swung it around on my shoulder and said, “Come on, let’s go.”
When I started walking away, she was automatically dragged with me from the way that her arm was around me. But she dug her heels in like she was trying to keep me in place. I knew without looking over my shoulder at her that she must be staring at Bear, and I didn’t want to stick around here and see what she was going to say to him.
“Come on, Lilah,” I urged. “All the good tater tots will be gone if we don’t get there soon.”
Tater tots were her favourite food, and I was sure that would get her moving. And when she didn’t, I knew that I absolutely could never let her come to my locker again.
Apparently, she wasn’t on the same wavelength as me because she pulled her arm off my shoulder, walked up to Bear, and said, “Hi, I’m Lilah.”
She stuck a hand out like she actually expected him to shake it. Bear tilted his face up to look at her, squinted for a second, then looked at his locker again and kept putting books away.
“Come on, Lilah,” I said, grabbing her hand and tugging her.
“Wait,” she hissed at me. She turned back to Bear. “So, you’re partnered with Poppy for the semester, huh?”
She was one step short of twirling her hair around her finger with the voice that she was putting on. I’d seen Lilah flirt before, and normally it didn’t make my full body cringe, but right now, I hated what I was seeing. I would do anything to get her to stop, although I wasn’t sure why it was bothering me so much. I guess because there was no way Bear was going to be into her and Ihated to see her embarrassing herself like this. That’s what it had to be, right? I was just worried about my friend.
Bear didn’t respond to her or even bother to look up, and I felt a little bit of satisfaction at that. I guess it wasn’t just me he hated.
“Lilah,” I said again. “Can we go please?”
Lilah looked put out but after chewing on her lip for a moment, she nodded and began to follow me. We only made it two steps before a voice stopped us in our tracks.
“You dropped this.”
Bear had spoken to me so infrequently in the last few days that I barely even knew what his voice sounded like. I was so shocked by the words that I immediately spun around, only realizing once I was facing him that he probably wasn’t even talking to me and I was embarrassing myself by looking so eager. But he was looking at me—and in his hand was my pink scrunchie that I’d taken out after gym class.
“Oh,” I said dumbly. I slowly slipped it from his grip, my fingers brushing his for a moment. Sparks shot up my arm. I expected him to yank his hand away immediately, but he held on for a couple more seconds than was necessary before finally letting it go and allowing me to take it from him.
