Page 77 of Collision
Thomas looks at my hand clasped around the blond boy’s forearm. He shifts his angry gaze back to Logan, who is now visibly uncomfortable. “I’m not going to tell you again,” he threatens him, furious. I see Logan turn pale.
“Vanessa, listen, maybe it’s better if I—” he murmurs, but I don’t let him finish his sentence.
“He. Stays. Here.” I turn to Thomas challengingly. We glare at one another for a handful of seconds, each of us waiting for the other to give in. Between us sits Logan wishing, I’m sure, that he was anywhere else right now.
“Miss Clark, outside,” Professor Scott declares.
“Excuse me?” I ask incredulously.
“Get out of my classroom right now.”
I can’t believe it. I’ve just gotten kicked out of class because of this idiot!
“Thanks so much!” I whisper sourly as I get up.
I leave the classroom and am about to walk down the hallway when I hear the professor’s muffled voice, “Collins, where are you going?”
I don’t believe it.
I walk as fast as I can, hoping to lose him.
“Ness!” I hear him shout as I head out of the building, but I don’t turn around and continue walking briskly. “Will you fucking stop?”
He catches up to me and grabs me by the arm, forcing me to look at him.
“Do you realize this is the second time this week you’ve ruined a class for me?” I shout, smacking him on the shoulder with the notebook I was holding tightly in my hand.
“Fuck the class. You wanna tell me what’s going on with you?”
“I could ask you the same question! You were so rude to Logan for no reason!”
“You left me no alternative,” he says with an unruffled air that enrages me.
“Just because I didn’t want to be near you?”
“No, because you keep acting like an immature child! Instead of running away, tell me what the problem is.”
I’m immature? That’s rich, coming from him.
“There is no problem.” I snort, ignoring the insult, and trying to wriggle out of his grip. But Thomas won’t let me escape.
“You sat next to Logan so you wouldn’t have to talk to me. So I’ll ask you one more time: What is the problem?”
“You seriously don’t know?” He doesn’t answer. “For as long as I have known you, you have done nothing but mess with my head. First you play nice with me, then you say you don’t like me. You defend me to Travis and then you call me pathetic. You show up at my house, we have sex, you make arrangements to meet another girl, and then you disappear in the middle of the night without a word, leaving a lousy little notethat sayssee you around. You’ll see me around? Really, Thomas? And, to end this farce on a high note, I see you wrapped around some other girl like I don’t exist,” I yell. I realize too late that we have attracted the attention of some nearby students. Perfect.
“And that’s your problem?” He seems surprised and annoyed at the same at the same time.
“My problem is that I don’t understand you!” I lash out, a twinge of pain in my temples warning me to calm down. After taking a deep breath, I look at him. “What game are you playing, Thomas?”
He runs a hand through his hair, as if struggling to get his thoughts in order. “No game.”
“Then what do you want from me? You keep hanging around me but you won’t ever stay for good.”
“I don’t know,” he confesses in a half-whisper.
“You don’t know? Really?” I shake my head bitterly and make to leave, but he stops me.
“No, Ness, I don’t know.” He takes a deep breath. “When I’m with you… I do things I shouldn’t do.”
