Page 7 of Giving In

Shit.

I quickly look away, but I can see his cocky smile from the corner of my eye, and I want to slap it off his face.

“Should we go?” I ask Em.

“Jake White is looking our way. I repeat...Jake White is looking our way.”

I laugh at her and grab her arm to drag her to class.

???

“Don’t bother taking a seat,” Mr. Ashton’s harsh voice cuts through the students dragging their feet around the class as he walks in. “I’ve re-organized the class this year. I’m too old to deal with hormonal teenagers with a two-minute attention span.” I notice he’s also re-organized the desks and put them in pairs.

“Isn’t he like, thirty years old?” Emily mutters to me. I chuckle but calm down as soon as Mr. Ashton’s cold eyes land on me. Everyone walks back to the front of the class as we wait to be told our assigned seats.

The door opens again right after Mr. Ashton closes it, and Chris and Luke walk in closely followed by Jake and Rose. Chris whispers a quick apology on behalf of the group.

I watch Jake as his gaze locks with Camila Diaz’s, she looks like she’s about to jump him and disfigure him with her claws she calls nails. Not in a good way.

Mr. Ashton looks confused for a second as he watches the group then seems to remember.

“Oh, right, you two are seniors now,” he says irritated. The twins both give him their most innocent, charming smile and he looks down at his piece of paper muttering to himself something that sounds like a very sarcastic ‘fucking great’.

“Alright,” he starts, “Baker and Harris...”

Luke grabs his bag from the floor and walks towards a front desk with Rachel Harris as Mr. Ashton keeps listing the duos. Rose watches them go and Rachel gives her a quick shy smile. Emily nudges me in the ribs to show me she notices their quiet exchange.

“I bet they’re together again,” she whispers low enough for Mr. Ashton not to hear her.

The beautiful Rachel is Rose’s on and off girlfriend. If you can call it that. If I was someone’s girlfriend, I don’t think I would appreciate the countless boys and girls Rose sleeps with in-between their moments of exclusivity but, I don’t know, Rachel seems fine with it? I’m not involved enough to understand their dynamics. I only catch up with these things when Em gets gossipy about them. According to her ‘Rachel is the only consistent thing in Rose’s life outside her group of friends and she never,evercheats on her when they’re together.’ Does this only sound wrong to me? Am I that boring and inexperienced that I can’t understand how us teenagers date?

“...Williams and White...” My heart suddenly skips a beat as I’m brought back down to earth by Mr. Ashton saying my name. Did I hear this right?

“Which one,” the twins reply in unison.

Mr. Ashton rolls his eyes before tracing down a few rows of names on his sheet. He lets out a long huff. Like any other person of authority in this school, he struggles dealing with the twins, and their reputation usually precedes them.

“I don’t know...any...Jake,” he says, lazily gesturing to Jake.

Fuck. My. Life.Is this actually happening?

Emily watches me with eyes as wide as saucers and mouths a silent ‘Oh my God’.

Jake leans towards Chris and I can vaguely hear him asking about a name. Of course he doesn’t know my name. Why would he? Chris slightly leans his head to the side to reply discreetly. Jake nods and his cocky half-smile appears back on his face. Chris notices me looking at them and gives me a sorry smile.Thanks.

My hand tightens on my bag strap as I walk toward a desk, closely followed by Jake. We both sit down, and Jake turns to me smiling. God, does he have to be so hot? I can feel my heart beating a hundred miles an hour from our current proximity.

“Ready to compete with my genius, Jamie?”

I can’t help a scoff escaping from my mouth. It’s a mix of the tension in my body and the ridiculousness of his words.

“Are you even planning on showing up to class?” I ask, “I’m pretty sure you have about the same attendance record as an alumni.”

His smile extends and he leans towards me, his mouthwaytoo close to my face. He smells of expensive cologne. Like pine trees, wooden with a hint of something spicy.

“I think you mean alumnus,” he insists on the end of the word to point out my mistake.

Really Jamie?An alumni? You had to make the easiest kind of mistake in front of Mr. Cocky?

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