Total pages in book: 38
Estimated words: 34652 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 173(@200wpm)___ 139(@250wpm)___ 116(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34652 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 173(@200wpm)___ 139(@250wpm)___ 116(@300wpm)
“I hang out with Jackson.” The football team is always around, but out of school Jackson is the only one I do shit with. Those others are disgusting and gross at times. It’s one of the reasons I don't hang with them unless it is pretty much forced.
“Whatever. Don’t think you being nice to me for a few days changes anything.” I can see the hurt on her face. I know she would never talk to me this way if I hadn’t hurt her. It’s not who she is.
“I’m so fucking sorry.” I pull the truck over. We’re almost to the school. “I thought I was doing the right thing. I didn't realize people were doing shit to you.” My throat feels tight. “I’m sorry,” I say again. I’ll say it over and over if I have to. She relaxes some, but the hurt doesn’t leave her eyes.
“I don’t like being late,” she says. I nod and pull back onto the road to school. When my truck stops, she’s out and taking off toward the school before I can stop her. I let her go. Everyone turned to look our way when we pulled into the parking lot.
I run my hand down my face seeing how fucked-up this is. She got picked on because of me. Here my dumbass was thinking I was keeping her safe from me when a whole bunch of others were taking digs at her. Fuck.
There is no going back in time to bitch slap my thirteen-year-old self. Even though I really wish I could. All I can do now is try to make it right. Zoey can keep on running all she wants, but she’s going to quickly learn I’ll never stop chasing her.
9
Zoey
I can hear people whisper and feel their stares as I head into Advanced Chemistry. I rush over to where Willow is sitting. She’s my lab partner, and we share a desk. She looks up from her phone, giving me a smirk.
“I hear Reid brought you to school today.”
“How the hell?”
She shrugs at my response. “You know the gossip runs rampant around here.” That’s true. “So much for ignoring him.”
That was my plan. I told her everything that happened. In fact, after Reid dropped me off at home, I’d told her to get her ass to my house.
“That was the plan,” I mumble. I didn't know how to deal with the things that kept coming from Reid’s mouth. My feelings are a jumbled mess, and my heart and brain are not connecting. It is messing with my body. I didn't know if I should be mad or a little turned on. I have no freaking clue where the turned-on thing came from all of a sudden.
That’s kind of a lie. Every time I touched myself over the years my mind would fill with images of Reid. I could never bring myself to orgasm, because I couldn’t stop thinking about him and it turned me on, so I quit.
I see some of my classmates whispering to one another. Their eyes keep flicking toward me, making it overly noticeable they are talking about me. I’m not sure if this is worse or better. It went from no one paying any attention to me, to me now being the talk of the whole high school.
Before I can try and form a new plan, the bell rings, and our teacher, Ms. Webster, starts to talk. My phone buzzes in my back pocket. I pull it out and see a text from Reid.
Reid: Miss you.
Willow reads my text from the corner of her eye. She shakes with silent laughter. Reid is laying it on thick. Since he got my phone number, he’s sent me good morning texts. Today he had said he dreamed of what it would be like to see me waking up in bed next to him. I’m sure Willow’s eyes didn’t miss that text either.
The class seems to drag on with how much the teacher is talking. I have my phone in my lap so that she doesn't see that I’m reading texts.
Reid: How is Advanced Chemistry?
Me: How do you know what class I’m in? Stalking much?
Reid: Always when it comes to you.
The last part of my text is a tease, but the more I think about it, there is some truth to it. All these years he’s wanted me. I don’t see why he’d lie about this. Unless there is some bet to get into my pants. My stomach drops at the thought.
That’s not a far stretch because the football team is known to have a list of girls they’ve slept with. It was some sort of competition they had last year. Thankfully the school got wind of it and shut it down, saying if they heard another peep about it everyone would be expelled for a week. I wasn't lying when I told him that his friends are assholes.