Page 17 of Wallflower

My gaze narrowed as he took another bite of his sandwich.

"Again, why? We've never eaten lunch together before," I said, putting a bookmark inside my paperback to hold my place. There were a lot more people here than in the parking lot, and Dare was drawing people's attention like he always did. He may have liked the spotlight. But I definitely did not. "Don't you want to eat with your friends?"

After polishing off that first burger, he raised his gaze to mine. "You've taken me to school two days in row and even made me breakfast."

"I wouldn't say I 'made' you breakfast" I muttered.

"Whatever." He tilted his head, his dark hair falling over his forehead in the most distracting way. "Don't you think that makes us friends?"

"No," I said in disbelief. "We don't even know each other."

Dare nodded. "But we're on the right track."

"What does that even mean?" I asked.

"Why do you sit in the corner anyway?" Dare said, completely ignoring the question. "No one really sits over here."

"To be anti-social," I said deadpan, "and to avoid people gawking at me—like they are right now thanks to you."

"Ah well." He sat back, gesturing to himself. Even in the crappy cafeteria lighting, his blue eyes sparkled. "Can you blame them? I'm pretty fun to look at."

And then he winked.

At me.

Right there in front of everyone.

My face heated. "Could you not do that."

"Do what?" he said.

"That." I ran a hand through my hair, trying to cover my face a little and hide. "People will think you're flirting."

Dare stared at me. "And?"

Ugh, it felt like I was in the freaking Twilight zone. "You know, maybe I sat over here because I didn't want to be found," I said. "Did you ever think of that?"

"Too bad," he said with a cockiness I hadn't heard in a while. "I already found you. And now, we're having lunch. Deal with it."

Before I could say anything else, a second tray was placed next to his and Tyson sat down beside Dare.

"Hey man," he said, looking around. "Why are you sitting all the way over here? I couldn't find you for a minute, thought you'd be at our usual spot."

"Yeah," Dare said, "I decided to change it up. This is Viola's secret hideaway."

Ty moved his eyes to my face, and he smiled. "Oh, I see. It's kind of cool over here, less crowded anyway. Hey Vi, I didn't know you had lunch this period."

As usual, I got a little tongue-tied when confronted with Tyson's beauty. "Yeah hey," I laughed nervously. "Dare just came over. I'm not sure why."

"She was trying to get me to leave again," Dare added.

"I was not!" I said but Dare just gave me a look. "Well, maybe I was," I conceded. "But this is weird." My eyes went to Tyson's. "Don't you think it's weird?"

"Eh, it's different," he said then shot me a smile that had me blushing to the tips of my ears. "But not bad different."

"I'm sorry about the whole confession thing," I blurted. "If it made you feel uncomfortable."

"Nah, don't worry. I'm used to it."

---