Page 33 of I Hate You More

Only one thing seemed clear so far: trying to get a guy who hated you to start seeing you as girlfriend material was hard.

I somehow managed to avoid Chase all Sunday and didn’t see him until Monday morning. My first interaction with him was far from helpful to the plan though. He decided to hog the shower all morning, so I was left with no choice but to start knocking on the door relentlessly. It was like he hadn’t even bothered to read the morning shower roster I put up. By the time he emerged, I was more than ready to let my anger loose on him.

His lips curved in a smile the moment he saw me standing outside the door. I knew I was supposed to be acting friendly toward him, but I couldn’t seem to control myself. I opened my mouth to tell him exactly what I thought of him, but then he winked at me and walked right past.

I was so furious I was left speechless. I simply let him walk right on by while I stood there standing with my mouth stupidly agape and my mind empty of all the cutting and inventive insults that had been running through it only moments ago.

Thanks to Chase’s long shower, Shane and I were running late to school, and when we finally arrived, it was so late I didn’t even bother saying goodbye to my brother. I was out the door and running across the parking lot before he’d even pulled the car to a stop.

I ran the whole way to my first class, only arriving after the bell had already rung. As I entered the room, every student looked up at me. It wasn’t the usual look of disinterest though. A few of the girls started giggling while some of the guys had knowing grins plastered to their faces.

“Thank you for joining us, Ally,” Miss Wilkes said, her voice thick with judgment. I hated nothing more than being late and catching the teacher’s attention, but I was more concerned with the strange looks I was getting from the students right now.

“Don’t blame her, Miss Wilkes, she had a late night at work,” one of the boys called out, earning sniggers from the others around him. I frowned and glanced at the back of the room, trying to figure out who had said it and why. I didn’t even have a job.

“Go find a seat, Ally,” Miss Wilkes said, ignoring the heckle that had been thrown at me.

I quickly made my way to the only free desk in the room, which was somewhere in the middle. The other kids were still watching me even after I sat down. Something was definitely up, but I had no idea what it was.

A pen poked me in the back, and I swiftly turned to find Chase sitting behind me. I’d been so distracted I hadn’t even noticed he was in the room.

“If you want to make fun of my dancing or gloat about your long shower this morning, I don’t want to hear it,” I murmured.

“I need to tell you something—”

He was cut off mid-sentence as Miss Wilkes started reading from the board, and I quickly spun back in my seat to face the front. Chase never spoke to me in class though, so I was curious about what he had to say. But I’d already gotten enough judgmental looks from the teacher for one day, so I didn’t want to get caught talking. Chase poked me with the pen again and tried to get my attention.

“Whatever it is, I’m sure it can wait,” I whispered over my shoulder before quickly turning to face the front of the room once more.

Chase ignored my response and leaned forward in his chair so his lips were close to my ear. “Well, don’t say I didn’t try to warn you.”

I wasn’t sure if it was his words or feeling his breath against my neck that sent a shiver down my spine. What did he need to warn me about? The question had my stomach swirling with uncertainty.

I kept getting curious glances from other students during class, and my phone kept buzzing in my pocket. The unease I felt only magnified as the lesson continued, and I finally gave in and carefully snuck my phone out of my pocket. My eyes widened as I saw I had fifteen missed calls from numbers I didn’t recognize. A few messages also appeared on the screen, and I almost dropped the phone when I read the first one.

Hey Ally, do you do private shows?

Private shows? I glanced around the room nervously before I started reading through the other messages.

Ally, are you okay?

Don’t be upset. We’ll fix this!!

Damn, girl. You look good.

Is this the right number for Ally?

My heart was racing, and my skin went clammy as another call came in from an unknown number. I had no idea what had prompted the calls or messages, but I knew it must be related to whatever Chase had wanted to talk about at the start of class.

I hazarded a glance over my shoulder at him, but he was focused on his work, and his face gave nothing away. He had to be well aware of whatever was going on, and I wished I hadn’t been so quick to ignore him earlier.

The anxious feeling followed me as I left the classroom at the end of the lesson. Chase didn’t try to talk to me again, and I couldn’t bring myself to ask him what was going on after I’d already shrugged off his warning. It wasn’t until I was out in the corridor that I finally saw why I’d been getting strange looks all morning.

There were posters sprawled all over the walls in the corridor. But they weren’t the regular kind of pep rally posters that usually papered the school promoting team spirit or the next school play. No, these posters were straight out of my worst nightmare. I staggered toward the closest one and pulled it down from the wall, cradling it in my hands. My horror escalated as I saw what was printed on it, and my stomach swirled with so much unease that I no longer felt certain I could keep my breakfast down.

The poster displayed a picture of me dancing at Dizzy on Saturday night. It wasn’t a shot of the fun moments I’d had with my friends during the night though. No, whoever had taken the picture had done so after I’d taken to the podium and started dancing in an act of defiance against Chase and my brother.

I didn’t know the first thing about pole dancing, but it didn’t look that way in the picture. My skirt had ridden up, and my back was arched in such a suggestive way that it looked like I’d been dancing around poles for years.

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