Page 15 of Defiant
It wasn’t that cold out. My mom was just a baby.
“If you can’t find anyone to take you home, let me know, and I’ll—”
The high school was in sight, so I pushed away from her, heading through the grass to the parking lot from the sidewalk near the road. “I will,” I told her, waving. How embarrassing was it to be seen walking up to school with your mother, am I right?
Right after the worst weekend of my life, too.
Yeah, life had been really fun for me lately.
I paid no attention to any of the other students as I crossed the parking lot and headed into the school. We’d planned out the walk so I wouldn’t be late to homeroom, which was great, because being late after an unexcused absence was not something I should strive for. Then again, Archer was in homeroom, and we sat next to each other, so that should be fun.
Sarcasm. Please note my sarcasm, because I had the feeling homeroom, and the class following suit, was going to be the worst hour and a half of my life. Ever.
I kept my head down as I went to my locker, my eyes glued to the lock as my fingers found the combination. Once my bag and coat were in the locker, I started to pull out my books for the next few classes. I heard sniggering behind me, and I stopped to shoot a glare over my shoulder.
A group of guys stood nearby, huddled together, on the opposite side of the hall. I had no idea who they were, but their names didn’t matter. One of them I recognized from the party, and he actually had the balls to call out, loud enough so his voice was clear across the hall, “Who’s next?”
I said nothing, only glaring.
Could you believe this bastard actually had the nerve to cross the hall, bumping into a few shoulders as he went, stand next to me with a smug expression on his face—not even a cute face, either. Yuck—and say, “There’s a broom closet down the hall”?
But, of course, he wasn’t quite done yet: “We could start a line outside, have you on your knees—” He threw a look around, making sure no teachers were near before grabbing himself over his pants and making a rude gesture.
I took a step closer to him, giving him a million-dollar smile that was laced in poison as I whispered, “The only way I’ll ever have your dick in my mouth is if I’m biting it off.” Spoken so seriously, because I meant it. “Now, if you don’t want your balls to get kicked so hard they burst, I suggest you leave me the fuck alone.” I didn’t wait for the asshole’s response; I spun on my heel and headed to homeroom.
Fuck him. Fuck them all. Fuck every single one of these rich students—
My swearing mind abruptly stopped when I spotted the boy standing just outside my homeroom class, his tattooed hands shoved in his pockets. What was Vaughn doing here? Was he…waiting for me?
And, if so, how did he know this was my first class? Stalker much. Already had one of those; I did not need two.
Hmm. My totally off-track mind then wondered if I could get Dante to beat Archer up. That’d be fun to watch, wouldn’t it?Dante was psycho enough to do anything I wanted, probably.
Vaughn saw me, and I gathered up what courage I had and headed toward him, holding my textbooks close to my chest. He looked just as good as I remembered, his square jaw freshly shaven, his black hair a bit spiky with some kind of hair mousse. His eyes, nearly pitch-black, were on me, studying me without giving me any hint as to what he was thinking.
He’d undoubtedly heard the rumors by now; I bet everyone in the school had. Would he act like everyone else? I couldn’t help but wonder that, for although he was a loner, sometimes all it took was common ground to make you band together with those you didn’t like. Yeah, everyone could all be friends and gang up on me. I didn’t care. I was a big girl.
I was ready for a fight, even though the last person I wanted to fight with was Vaughn. Cocking my head, I stood before him, ignoring the busy hall behind me as I asked, “You have something to say to me, too?”
Vaughn’s mouth thinned into a line, and in spite of myself, my gaze dropped to those lips, recalling the way they’d felt on mine. Tentative, unsure, and then…so much more. Could a kiss like that be staged and fake? Apparently, I wasn’t the best judge.
“I mean,” I plowed on, “I assume you heard what happened. Everyone else did. Bet you wish you were there, huh? Then you could’ve seen it for yourself—”
His eyebrows were slow to furrow, and I bit the inside of my cheek before I said anything else. Vaughn said nothing, staring holes in me. Staring so intently at me that I felt…weird. Like, somehow, Vaughn could see past my bravado, that he could peer into my soul and see the truth of it all.
“Sit with me at lunch,” he said. “We’ll talk then.”
I wanted to tell him to screw off, because trusting anyone in this place was the last thing I wanted to do, but a part of me was still weak for Vaughn, regardless. Stupid of me, I knew, but I couldn’t change it. Those dark eyes, that powerful, heart-stopping stare…
Vaughn was a beautiful demon, ready to tear into me if I let him, even if he was unsure of it all.
The problem, of course, was me. I was starting to believe I wanted the danger, wanted the thrill, that I liked setting myself up to get hurt. How fucked up was that?
I said nothing, turning my head to watch him walk away, a strange feeling in my gut rising after he left. Heading into homeroom was the last thing I wanted to do, but the herd traveling in the halls had thinned. It was time. No more delay.
Heaving as big of a breath as my lungs could take, I went into the room. The class was loud with chitchat, as it usually was before the morning announcements. The teacher sat behind his desk, reading something on his phone, letting the morning chaos run its course. I started to head to my desk in the back, the desk that was unfortunately beside Archer’s, but I didn’t make it far into the room.
Someone was already sitting at my desk, someone who shouldn’t be here. A girl who didn’t have this class as her homeroom or first period. And, because it had to be her, it was the one girl I did not want to see just yet.
