Page 79 of The Forbidden Note

“Let me go, Zane.”

“It wasn’t me.”

My other hand whips through the air to smack his face.

He grabs that wrist too. My hips press painfully into the desk as he pulls me forward so we meet in the middle. The world falls away until it’s just his burning blue-flame eyes and the steady hit of his minty breath on my face.

I go still, my anger cracking under that deep, soul-melting gaze of his. The tension between us unfurls like a whip, snapping painfully against all my defenses and bringing the undeniable connection between us to life.

“I didn’t do this.” His words escape in staccato beats. Short, punchy truths. “I need you to know that. It’s important that you know that.”

“I…” I start, but there’s a knock on the door and I mash my lips shut, confining the storm of words pressing into my throat, desperate to spring free.

I want to believe you. I do believe you, but this is not okay. We can’t be alone in the same room like this. It wasn’t safe before and it’s definitely not okay now. I don’t know what to do. I only know that I can’t have you. What we did, what we are is wrong.

“Excuse me? I forgot something,” a teacher’s feeble voice rings from behind the locked door.

“Get it later!” Zane yells.

Everything goes silent.

I stifle a groan of frustration and shake out of his hold. It’s barely eight o’clock and today has already been a massive crap-fest. I almost cracked my head open in the shower, my step-brother licked my neck and I enjoyed it, my reputation is being smeared all over campus, and I still feelsomethingtoward a person I shouldn’t feelanythingfor.

Now, I’ve got to worry about losing my job at Redwood Prep.

“Give me time to figure this out,” Zane says, running a hand through his hair.

“No,” I snap. “You don’t do anything.I’llfigure this out.”

Zane stares at me with those screaming blue eyes.

My phone rings.

I dive into my purse for it and wrench it to my ear. “What?”

“Miss Jamieson? This is the principal’s office.”

The color drains from my face, and I feel the room spin.

“Principal Harris would like to see you.”

* * *

Jinx: A Picture’s Worth A Thousand Words But Can Those Words Be Trusted?

Just like real beef and vegan beef look the same and taste different, manufactured scandals don’t have the same whiff. Bring me gold and I’ll sell it. Bring me a rock spray-painted yellow and I’ll throw it out.

Stay safe out there.

Until the next post, keep your enemies close and your secrets even closer.

- Jinx

CHAPTERNINETEEN

GREY

Principal Harris is waiting, fingers templed and arms bunched in front of his ill-fitting grey suit.

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