Page 73 of Surrender
On the plus side, he was spending the weekend with Colbie. He hadn’t been able to do so the previous weekend since his dad and uncle had put him, Arsyn, and Hayden in charge of a new app they would be releasing, and they’d spent the entire weekend making sure everything was good to go.
Dallis headed to Colbie’s classroom to see if she was still there. He’d make up some excuse if another student or teacher were there. He’d almost made it to her door when Harper and a couple of her friends walked up, surrounding him. Dallis lifted a brow and refrained from rolling his eyes at them. She’d now gone from approaching him alone to bringing her friends as backup. He wasn’t sure what she thought that would do, but the only thing it would accomplish for her was getting her embarrassed in front of people instead of privately.
He was prepared to tell Harper he had somewhere to be, and she was wasting his time, expecting this to be like any other time she approached him. Dallis had not expected her and her friends to break out into a performance. He was aware that the five of them were on the dance team, but he was unaware of why they thoughthewanted to see them dance.
They were drawing the attention of those who remained in the hall, and when Harper brought out a sign asking him to prom, Dallis began to rub his temples. He should have seen this coming. He really should have. However, he’d thought their last conversation swayed her to leave him alone for some reason. After all, she’d told him he wasn’t special, and in turn, he’d told her to stop chasing him. She hadn’t gotten the hint.
It wasn’t that Dallis had anything against Harper personally. She was a cute girl and would probably get any boy she wanted. Just not him, because Dallis in no way wanted a girl when he’d gotten the woman he wanted. He also didn’t understand why Harper would continue to put herself in a position for him to turn her down.
In the beginning, he’d tried to let her down gently because he didn’t see a need to be mean or disrespect her, but as her persistence persisted, Dallis found that he needed to be a bit harsher. Yet, she still wasn’t taking the hint, which was sad because he wasn’t the only male at school unless she had this fixation on trying to win something she couldn’t have.
“No, Harper,” Dallis responded. “I told you before that I was in a relationship. What part of that didn’t you understand?”
“And what part of the only people I see you with are Hayden and Callie made you think I believed you?” she countered.
Dallis was tired of her; he really was. “My fiancée isn’t a high school student.” It was only a temporary white lie. He hadn’t proposed, but he would. He’d already told Colbie that, and he was confident she’d say yes when he did.
“Your…what? You’re dating someone in college and getting married?” Harper questioned as if the news broke her. As if she thought she had no chance against this older college woman he was dating. Which was true, except for the college part.
“Yes,” Dallis responded, and he thought that’d be the end of the conversation. He should have known better.
“Why didn’t you just tell me you were dating someone in college that day in the parking lot? I could have avoided this embarrassment,” Harper stated, her tone switching from hurt to pissed in an instant.
“I didn’t tell you because it wasn’t your business. Just like it isn’t now. You should have respected the fact that I told you I was dating someone regardless of who you’d seen me with.Thatwould have saved you this embarrassment. You brought this on yourself,” Dallis informed her with a shrug. She wasn’t about to blame him for something that could have easily been avoided by her respecting the fact that he didn’t want to go out with her.
“You are an asshole!” Harper yelled as she threw the poster at him. He wondered if it made her feel better because it definitely didn’t make her look any better.
“What’s going on out here?”
Dallis turned his attention to Colbie’s classroom and found her looking between him and Harper with a furrowed brow before her eyes went to the poster that had fallen to the floor. It didn’t take her a second to put it all together, and he saw realization dawn on her.
“He’s a jerk,” Harper responded, her attention going to Colbie before returning to Dallis. “I hope whoever this girl your dating is, leaves you. I hope she breaks your heart after giving you hope, and you see what it feels like.”
“You and I both know, I never gave you false hope, and I’m not dating a girl,” Dallis told her, and he knew he should have stopped there. He knew that he should have just ignored her, but she’d called him an asshole, and he figured he might as well prove her right. “I’m dating a woman. Something you have a long way to go to ever become.” Dallis smirked at her. “And even when you do, Harper, you won’t be a fraction of the woman mine is.”
With that, Dallis walked past her and made his way out of the building. He’d see Colbie when she made it home. He needed to make a few stops before he got to her house, and Dallis hoped that the headache Harper had just caused to surface would have subsided by then.
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Colbie watched Dallis walk away for a moment before her attention went back to Harper. She was standing in the same spot, frozen as if Dallis’ words had caused her to forget how to function. As if they had cut her deep, and they may very well have.
“We told you this wasn’t a good idea.” One of the girls with her stated.
“He’s made it clear all year that he didn’t want to go out with you.” Another added on.
“Now, you’re sitting here looking stupid.” A third decided to put out there with an eye roll before the four walked away. Leaving Harper standing there.
Colbie made her way over to the teenager and picked her poster up. Colbie placed her hand on her back and steered her into her classroom. She told the other students that still stood around that they should be heading home if they didn’t have any after-school activities.
Colbie placed the poster on one of the desks, looking it over for a moment. It was a nice poster, and she could tell that Harper put a lot of work into it. Going over to the Kleenex box on her desk, Colbie pulled a few out and passed them to Harper, who at some point had started silently crying.
“Why did he have to be so mean to me?” Harper questioned as she sniffled.
Colbie remained quiet. She wasn’t sure if Harper was speaking rhetorically or if she wanted an answer. From her understanding, Dallis had already turned Harper down several times; she’d just chosen not to accept that fact. On top of that, from the conversation Colbie heard in the hall, her friends had tried to tell her as much. However, Colbie did feel bad for her. Having your prom proposal turned down in front of people had to hurt. Not to mention what Dallis said to her. When Harper turned to look at Colbie, she realized she was expecting an answer.
Leaning back against her desk Colbie thought of the best way to approach this. They were talking about her boyfriend, so she in no way was going to bash him to make Harper feel better, nor would she be harsh to Harper because she’d asked Dallis out. That would be childish.
“From the conversation I heard in the hall, this wasn’t the first time you’ve asked him out, right?”
