Page 40 of I Despise You
“You need a break. Come on. Let’s go.”
“No, I don’t need a break! Especially not with you! You can’t just—”
“Yes, I can, and I won’t take no for an answer. You and I are going to lunch.”
I grit my teeth. He can’t do this to me. I have the email as proof and I can report him for sending it. But that won’t help me achieve anything, will it? Chase knows that, and that’s why he did it. It’s possible someone else did it for him, so the whole thing won’t even lead to him. He can say he got the same email and that someone set us both up.
“Why do you even want to go to lunch with me?” I ask. “Don’t you have a bunch of friends to sit with you at the cafeteria?”
“Who said anything about the cafeteria?”
I crease my brow. “I don’t understand.” Where else can we have lunch? In his room? I’m not ready to go back there.
“We’re going out. There’s a nice restaurant not too far away. You’re going to like it.” He offers his hand to me.
“What? No. We can’t leave the campus without permission.”
Chase snorts. “Who needs permission when we can sneak out?”
I swallow past the lump forming in my throat. It’s a trap. If we get caught, he’ll get away with it, but I won’t. I don’t have a rich family to bail me out of every trouble I get myself into.
I shake my head. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“You don’t have to be afraid. I do this all the time, and I’ve never gotten caught.” He moves and grabs my hand so fast that I don’t have time to react. “Come on.”
He grips my hand and pulls me with him. I let him lead me to the door because I can see there’s no changing his mind. This is my chance to find out more about him. Maybe.
Chase knows exactly where to go, and he glances at the watch on his wrist before taking me to the back exit. I expect alarms to go on when he opens the door, but nothing happens. He breaks into a run and I follow him. His black Porsche is waiting for us in the parking lot.
Once I’m alone with Chase in his car, which seems so damn tiny, fear grips my insides. His eyes briefly meet mine before he brings the engine to life. But it’s not just fear that I can feel.
It’s excitement and adrenaline too. We’re doing something wrong. Dangerous too. If anyone at the school finds out, we’ll be in trouble. And the scariest thought is that Chase can take me wherever he wants.
I’m a fool.
Only an idiot would get themselves in a situation like this one, and yet, here I am.
When he pulls over in front of a small, cozy-looking restaurant, my brow furrows and I glance at him.
“What?” he says. “You don’t like it? Not expensive enough for you?”
“No, I just—” I guess I expected him to take me to some fancy, five-star restaurant to try to impress me, especially if he knows my family isn’t really rich. Or maybe he doesn’t know, and he thinks he’s going to shock me. Actually, when I look at Chase, I have no clue what’s going on in his head. I don’t even know what he’s doing right now. Is he trying to seduce me before I seduce him? I don’t get him at all.
“This is my favorite restaurant in this town,” he says and gets out of the car.
I don’t move, wondering what the hell I’m doing.
Chase opens the door for me, so I get out of the car. When we enter the restaurant, the staff greets him with honest smiles and cordiality. Chase must come here often, and they seem to genuinely like him. Unless they just like the tips he leaves. But maybe I don’t know Chase at all. I don’t know if everyone thinks he has permission to come here, since we’re both wearing our school uniforms, so it’s impossible not to know where we’re from, or if they don’t care.
We take a seat at one of the tables in the corner, and after we order our food, I look around, avoiding Chase’s intent gaze.
“Do you like it?” he asks.
“It’s nice,” I admit.
“Good.” He gets to his feet. “I’ll be right back.”
I lean on the table. It’s still not too late to leave, but there’s no point. We’re at a restaurant. I’m safe here. I should be. Maybe all Chase wants is just lunch. Now that I can smell food, I’m hungry too.
