Page 93 of Bullied By The Bad Boy

And I am excited to show off my first gift from him, but I am not his girlfriend, so why should I indulge him? Maria drags me from Ben before a reply leaves my lips. I release a shaky but thankful breath and let her lead me inside without so much as a glance at the boy who hates labels.

Fifty-One

I don’t wearthe clip. It remains in my pocket.

“Why do you keep touching your pocket like that?” Maria screams. She’s so loud, thanks to her earbuds.

To avoid further yelling, I retract my hand from my pocket. Maria inserts one earbud into my ear and her melodic voice envelopes me. I press my fingers against it to prevent it from falling off.

“Sorry for taking you away from loverboy,” she offers at my glum smile. “But this is important.” I respond with a snort that earns me the look. The look that says:I know something is going on with you, Tessa, but I don’t want to hear about it now. Ugh. I need to vent. “What do you think?”

We halt at my locker, and she releases the second earbud to me. I can barely hear a word above the cover of the song blasting in my ears. I tap my foot to the floor in tune with the beat. Her voice is insanely good.

“It is the song I want to use for AGT.” America’s Got Talent. Maria believes the shorter version sounds cooler. Kind of. She bounces on her toes, hands clasped together as her big, bright eyes await my evaluation. “I need to send it today. I’m so fucking nervous. What if they hate it, Tessa?”

“They won’t,” I reply.

Forgetting Ben, I close my eyes, and the lyrics wash over me. My eyes sting with hot tears. It’s an emotional song that brings out the best of her singing. As far as I’m concerned, Maria is the best singer in our school and might end up the best on the show if the AGT judges know their jobs.

“Do you have a backup song?” I ask. She leans on the locker with her shoulder supporting her weight and shakes her head. “I love this one. Everybody loves Celine. But try to get a backup.”

She groans. “Any ideas?”

Something along the lines of—give me my label, call me your girlfriend, will be great.

“You can ask Daniel. I’m sure he will have great suggestions for you.” Irritation flashes across her face, and she slams my locker door. I scoot back. “Take it easy on the poor thing, woman.”

Maria bares her teeth, I mimic her, and we are baring our teeth at each other in the hallway like two aged primitives. Her phone’s ringtone echoes in my ears. I flinch for the second time in five minutes. She peeks at the caller and slips the phone back into the pocket of her cropped hoodie.

“Daniel?”

There’s a terse moment of hesitation, and she covers it with a false smile. “Yep.”

Daniel doesn’t hate labels. They have a shot.

“Are you going to try to talk to him? It wasn’t his fault.”

He likes her, and she also likes him. I don’t want to be the only friend in a relationship. Wait, I’m single. I have always been single, but at least I got to tick an item off my bucket list before her.

Maria twirls her curl around her pencil and blows air through her closed lips. “For now, I want to focus on my music.” I offer her a tight smile, and she shrugs. I should also focus on getting into NYU. The school is about six hours from San Fransico, and Mom won’t have a problem crashing into my dorm to check on her baby. She’s partly the reason I want to move to another state for college. “Besides, we will be out of school soon. Daniel won’t matter then.” Tears gather in her eyes, and she redirects her gaze to her feet. I will miss this loud, obnoxious lady. We must make it in Hollywood, but she will have to go first. Her phone rings again. “He won’t stop calling me.”

“Maybe you should hear him out. Give him a chance to prove himself.” Like I gave Ben, right? I am such a hypocrite, but at least Daniel doesn’t hate labels. The phone stops ringing and resumes immediately, and her back connects with the locker. I nudge her with my arm. “We both know it was a setup, and besides…we both know you want to hear his voice. You know you want to. Pick up.”

“Fine,” she mutters. “I think I might have judged Ben too early. He seems like a good guy.”

I trace circles on the floor with my foot. He is a good guy who doesn’t like labels. “Yeah, he is.”

Maria’s head bobs, but she is no longer listening. She rips her earbuds from me and stalks in the opposite direction to answer the call. There will be a lot of swearing. Poor Daniel. He’ll be fine.

The hallway goes silent as I resume the lonely walk to my class. I’m late already, but curiosity gets the best of me. I peek at the front door to see Ben with his bag hanging from his shoulder. His blue eyes roam the hallway in search of…me? I use my notebook to hide the blush spreading to my cheeks. When his gaze finds mine, he waves. I wave back and spin on my heels to escape.

I can’t let myself get hurt again.

Heavy footsteps close in on me. I try to quicken my steps, but I’m not fast enough. “Gracie. Babe.” Ben. I don’t stop nor look up to him. My gaze glues to the tiles as I continue to my class. It is a miracle I don’t bump into a wall. “Gracie, did I do something? Was it what I said about labels?”

Yes. But I shake my head a second time. He halts in front of me, and I almost run into him. He steadies me by holding my waist. His fingers curl under my jaw. I close my eyes. “I’m sorry.”

My gaze flies to his face. “For what?”

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