Page 50 of Good Girl

With few options and the weekend fast approaching with little to no prospect of any time with the guys—and a growing fear that they had grown tired of me—I adopted a few of Haley’s techniques. I stopped texting as often, and whenever I received a response, I pointedly waited a minimum of two hours before texting back. Haley had told me often enough that dating, if what we were doing could be called that, was all about games. So I tried to play the only way I knew how.

It was no surprise when I was met with disappointment once again. My reduction in texting only led to a reduction in replies, and I was hearing even less from the guys than I wanted to. No messages between us were particularly exciting, either, and I was met with classic ‘I’m sorry, I’m too busy right now’ responses each time I tried to make a suggestion for time together. My mood soured, and by the time Friday rolled around, I was not happy.

My last class of the day was with Derek, and despite my irritation at the lack of contact, I was still very excited to see him in class. I’d taken my usual seat, and the class had passed much like it usually did, but when it came for the bell to ring and class to be over, Derek didn’t ask me to stay behind. In fact, he packed his desk up so quickly that I barely made it to the front of the class before he was halfway out the door.

“Mr. Hansen?” I called, and my heart skipped a beat faintly when he whirled around to face me, his eyes dark and his arms full of books. Calling him by his professional name was a little odd.

“Yes?”

“Do you, uh...” Just as I tried to work up an excuse for the both of us to stay behind, Haley appeared at my elbow and obnoxiously popped loudly on her gum. “I was wondering if I could get some extra help on—on, uh...” I stammered, and Derek’s face remained unreadable.

“I’m sorry, but I have to go. If you have an urgent question, you can email it to me,” Derek replied, and my mood soured immediately.

“Well, that’s not fucking helpful,” I muttered under my breath, but it wasn’t as low as I had hoped as Derek’s eyes narrowed dangerously at me.

“Pardon me?”

“Nothing,” I shot back, suddenly feeling the urge to bite back at Derek as much as possible. Anything to get him to pay attention to me, and I didn’t even care that Haley was standing next to me. Derek’s lips parted briefly and his brow dipped, a dark shadow moving across his face until he glanced at his watch. A single look and he was gone.

Haley erupted into laughter beside me and looped her arm through mine, dragging me out of the class. While the contact made me recoil slightly, my heart was hammering and disappointment sat heavily in my veins. I'd hoped pushing him would result in punishment, but he had left.

Maybe he really was tired of me. Maybe they all were.

“I cannot believe you,” Haley sing-songed next to me as we wandered down the corridor.

“What?” I glanced up at her, slightly confused.

“You, talking back to a teacher like that. I never thought I would see the day!” There was a slight skip in Haley’s step, and she grinned around her gum. “Not a complaint.”

“I didn’t mean to,” I replied reflexively, and Haley groaned.

“Don’t ruin it by apologizing. Soak it up! Hansen is a dick anyway. You know this. It’s just fun to see you, the resident brown noser, have some bite for a change!”

Somehow, the compliment also sounded like an insult, and I had no idea how to process it. The complicated feelings and the sadness at being dismissed so easily by Derek weighed me down all the way back to the dorm, and I sank down onto my bed in despair. My phone vibrated several times, but I ignored it, much like I had every evening since I came back from the inn.

It was just my mother voicing her disapproval of my decision-making and offering me a chance to apologize. As if I had anything to even apologize for. However, the longer I thought about it, the more it warped in my mind and I began to feel incredibly foolish for snapping at her. If Derek and the guys truly were losing interest in me, turning me into the stupid student they just wanted to fuck, then my mother was all I had left.

“What’s wrong with you?”

I lifted my head from my pillow and eyed Haley, who was halfway through getting dressed in a glitzy top and some insanely tight leather trousers.

“Nothing,” I replied shortly. Despite my upset, there was no way I could tell Haley an ounce of why I was so angry, confused, and upset. May as well throw horny into the mix too since I hadn’t stopped thinking about sex since I had come back from the inn.

“You’re a terrible liar, Charlotte,” Haley remarked. Top in place, she leaned over her dresser and touched up her makeup, watching me in the reflection the entire time.

“I’m not lying,” I mumbled, rolling onto my side and hugging my pillow.

“Boy trouble?” Haley asked. I locked onto her instantly, and a pulse of heat shot through me.

“Huh?”

“You’re moping for one of two reasons. Your period, which would have been last week because we’ve always been in sync, so I know it’s not that. Or a boy. This mysterious boy that I don’t know and who you spent the night with.” Haley swiped a peach color across her lips and smacked them together. “And I know boy pain. So.” She turned to face me and leaned against the dresser, arms crossed. “Do you want to talk about it?”

She was close. Closer than she knew. I was surprised by how she was asking me about it rather than immediately berating me, so I leaned up on one elbow and shook my head.

“Okay, do you want to do something about it?”

“Like what?”

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