Page 42 of The Prom King & The Ice Queen

What does he see?

There’s that naked sensation again. Not even remotely pleasant, let me tell you. I don’t feel sexy, by any means. More like a baby bird all bald and awkward….and staring down a predator.

The silence seems to stretch forever. “What do you want?” I finally say. I wish it hadn’t sounded so shaky, but at least I broke the silence.

“Just…making sure we’re on for the party on Thursday,” he lies.

I know he’s lying. He knows I know he’s lying. But we both go with it.

“Yeah, sure,” I say. “I owe you, right?”

His jaw works. He doesn’t like that.

Well, tough. That’s what this is between us. He did me a solid, and now it’s my turn to pay him back.

It’s a transaction, nothing more.

Just when I think I’ve annoyed him enough that he’s going to turn and walk away, he surprises me. He moves closer, that tension fading from his expression, and his eyes going all soft and…

Oh crap. I cannot handle a sweet Leo.

This is just not okay.

I backpedal a bit as he saunters toward me, tucking his hands in his pockets like that’s going to make him seem harmless. “Can we just talk about—”

“No.”

He blinks. “No?”

“Nope.” I start to backpedal faster and I have a horrible feeling that my eyes have gone wide.

He looks a little concerned and that clues me in to the fact that I do, in fact, have a deer-in-headlights routine going on right now. But I can’t help it.

This is not me.

I don’t know how to be me around him. It’s like that split personality is cutting me down the middle again. The princess troupe me and the mean girl me. The trailer park kid and the hot senior who only dates college guys.

I don’t know what’s real right now, and that is…terrifying.

“I’ve got to go,” I say.

“Savannah, wait,” he starts.

But help comes along from an unlikely place.

“Hey, Savannah.” I hear Isla’s voice before I see her coming down the hallway, a smile on her face like she doesn’t realize she’s interrupting a moment.

No. Not a moment.

Leo and I do not have moments.

Still, I take my first real, solid breath when she comes to stand in between us. Her smile never falters but when her gaze meets mine I can see her concern.

It disappears when she turns a sweet smile on Leo. “Will you excuse us? Savannah promised to help me with my homework.”

And then she’s dragging me away, and I can finally breathe again.

“Homework?” I mutter when we turn a corner. “We don’t have a single class together.”

---