Page 156 of Leave Me Broken

“This is going to be weird but would you mind walking behind me to the gym?”

Without so much as a blink, Clay agrees. Whoever Clay Kjelberg ends up with will easily be the luckiest girl ever. If they have kids, I hope he has a little girl because I know he will be the best dad to her as well.

I sit forward and let Clay finish his lunch. When he’s done, he picks up my full tray and frowns. “You did not eat, Payson.”

“I’m not exactly hungry anymore, Clay.”

“You should be used to periods by now. I have a protein bar in my bag you may have.”

Clay follows behind me, but he’s so close, he keeps stepping on my sneakers, nearly making me fall over the whole way. Until he does, and I do. He reaches for me but trips and lands on top of me instead. His blue eyes go wide, as do mine. He scurries back to his feet, and I hurry to push my skirt back down.

“Sorry about that.” For once, I think he’s embarrassed, and that makes my embarrassment from having his groin pressed against mine disappear; I don’t want to make it worse on him if he thinks I’m mortified. I am, but I won’t let him know.

“You lost your glasses, let me . . .” I trail off, not finding his glasses but instead seeing a deep red stain on the front of his pants. I gasp and my first instinct is to throw my hand over it. This keeps getting worse. He jumps back, looks down, and snaps a look behind him at the noise. Students file into the hallway but I don’t move—I can’t since one of the first students I see is Parker. He doesn’t notice us until Clay lunges for me then his dark eyebrows pinch and my stomach free falls. Clay wraps a hand around my middle, and pushes open the gym door getting us out of the sight of prying eyes but I already know how it probably looks to Parker and I’m sure he can’t wait to tell his dad.

Clay drops his hand, but I still don’t move. My mind runs a million miles an hour. Should I text Ash and explain? What if Parker doesn’t tell him, then I just stress Ash out for no reason? He’s already on edge. Nothing has ever happened between me and Clay, and Ash already hates him. The fall was innocent, but I know Ash. Maybe I should talk to Parker and explain everything so he knows there is no reason to tell his dad.

“Payson.” Clay’s voice is straggled. Stepping away from his front I see why.

Clay moves his hand in front of him, covering the red spot and his bulge. I quickly advert my eyes as embarrassment burns up my neck, matching the same crimson on his face.

“Sorry.” “I am sorry, Payson.” We say at the same time.

“Do you have extra pants?”

“Yes.”

The loud noise of students walking by fills the dead silence between us. I steal a look to Clay who still hasn’t looked away from the wall. He’s not wearing his glasses.

“Your glasses fell off.” I cringe, remembering they fell off in the hall and are probably stomped on thirty or more times now. “Shit, Clay.

“I can get new ones.”

“I’m going to go get changed . . .” I take a step and throw my thumb over my shoulder.

Clay glances down and nods. “Me too.”

In the locker room, I drop my forehead to the cool metal lockers and sigh. I never get my period so why am I suddenly? It makes no sense. Good thing the school provides pads and tampons for free because I don’t carry them.

Since I don’t have extra underwear, I grab a tampon and my spandex from my locker. It’s like a massacre, the spot on my skirt is semi-small but the entire crotch of my blue underwear is stained reddish-brown. No wonder I stained Clay’s pants in the two seconds he was on top of me.

Eventually I get myself cleaned but it takes forever, and I’m thankful I have a free period next, so I’m not late for any class. I can’t remember if I have homework to work on, but I don’t care right now anyway.

Clay is waiting for me outside the locker room when I walk out. I was hoping he would just go to class and we could forget anything even happened.

He’s wearing a gray school t-shirt and blue gym shorts like me. My shirt is long sleeve and his is short. With him dressed so casual and the lack of glasses, I pause for a second because he looks . . . hot. Huh. I’ve always known Clay was attractive but something about the way he is leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and his dark blond hair flopping over his forehead instead of gelled back like normal, definitely not bad to look at.

Ash would kill me for my thoughts. I shake my head and continue toward him.

“Did you find your glasses?”

“Yes.” He flicks a look to me before holding out his large hand, inside is a pair—of crushed glasses.

“Oh, shit. Sorry, Clay.”

He shrugs and stuffs them into his pocket. “I already called my mom. I was due for a new pair anyway.”

He kicks off and falls into step by my side. “Ready to get detention, Payson?”

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