Page 24 of What Is Love
His pretty, storm-blue eyes bored into mine. “Why only me?”
“I don’t know.”
The corners of his mouth lifted slowly. “I think I’d be able to tell when you’re lying.”
I frowned. “I’m very good at it.”
His smile only grew as he began walking backward. “We’ll see about that.” Before I could ask him where he was going, he said, “There’s twenty minutes of lunch left. Don’t go back to him. Use that time for yourself. Pretty Boy will get the fuck over it.”
“Have a thing against pretty boys?”
“If I did, I wouldn’t be able to look in the mirror,” he said with a smirk. “It was the only nice thing I could think of to describe him.” He turned and kept walking.
Despite how emotionally fucked-up I felt, I had the urge to smile. I didn’t, but the feeling felt nice.
I packedup slowly in my drawing class after the last bell of the day had rung. Even though Brandon had a game right after school today, I didn’t want to risk running into him.
“Are you all right, Lottie?” Ms. Clark asked when she saw me still by my easel.
“Yeah. Just not in the mood to deal with the crowd,” I lied as I closed my bag and hung its strap on my uninjured shoulder.
She nodded with understanding as she went around her classroom, pushing stools closer to easels and collecting left-out supplies. “Have you been thinking about what to draw for your final?”
“I think I have an idea.”Another lie.
She paused from cleaning up when she made it to me. “That’s good. I’m going to be giving you guys time in class to work on your final pieces soon,” she said as she fiddled with her crystal necklace. It was a simple silver chain with a single inch-long oval pendant. The crystal was very dark green, almost black, and all throughout it were these thick waves of red. She caught me staring at it. “Do you like crystals?” she asked as she unclasped her necklace and held it out to me.
I took it and looked over the pendant. The red waves appeared as if the earth had used a paintbrush to create them. It reminded me of an abstract painting. “I don’t know much about them, but they’re beautiful.”
“That crystal is called bloodstone. It’s believed to instill courage and can be used for protection from physical and spiritual danger.”
I stared at her incredulously. “Do you really believe that?”
Grinning, she shrugged.
I went to hand the necklace back to her, but she refused to take it. “Keep it,” she said, and she went back to tidying up the room.
I stared down at the pendant. “I shouldn’t.”
“Because you think it’s overly generous or because you’re not allowed?”
I tried not to look taken aback.Allowed?I guessed that confirmed that she had heard Mother’s rude comment about her nearly three years ago.
Bothwas the honest answer to her question. Mother would rip it from my neck if she ever saw it on me. “It’s generous.”
“I want you to have it.” She paused what she was doing again to look at me. “Maybe it might help you one day.”
I clutched the pendant in my hand. “Thank you, Ms. Clark.”
She smiled. “Of course, Lottie.”
I said goodbye, and as I made my way out of the school, I put on the bloodstone pendant. I didn’t believe it had any power. It was a rock. A very pretty rock, but still just a rock. The only reason I was putting it on was because I wanted to wear it.
I rubbed the smoothed pendant between my fingers.
Courage and protection…It’d be nice to receive some of that.
When I went to hide my new necklace under my shirt, I noticed my button had come undone again. I refastened it.
