I never would have guessed that Breckin was a nerd. But I’m glad I know, because now I don’t feel like he’s a god that I can’t touch. Now it’s like we’re equals, and that feels good to me.
We’re silent as we ascend the hallways, not speaking until the doors open once more and he’s allowing me to step off.
“We should be friends,” Breckin says again.
I turn on him immediately. I know he’s just being nice, but I know guys like him. Guys like him are only nice to girls like me because they want something. And I need to know his angle. “Why? So you can protect me from your football buddies? I don’t need protection. I can just sit on them.”
I smile a bit at the joke I’ve made at my own expense, but Breckin isn’t laughing.
“Don’t do that.”
“Don’t do what?”
“Don’t be so Goddamn self-deprecating. There’s nothing wrong with you.” I’m stunned by his words, so I don’t respond. He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. “Look, I don’t want anything from you. I don’t even know your name. I just want to be your friend because I can’t not be your friend. Not after you put those assholes in their place earlier. You’re so fucking unprecedented and I just want us to get to know each other, okay?”
I just blink at him. I’m thinking about how to respond when a guy walks past us and laughs.
Breckin tenses up, his fists clenching as he turns around to face the guy. “What the Hell is your problem?”
The guy glances between Breckin and me, and then laughs again, but harder this time. This seems to piss Breckin off, so he storms over to the guy and sets my books on the floor. He grabs him by his shirt and slams him against the wall.
“What the Hell is your problem?” he asks again.
The guy shakes his head. “I just…had to laugh at the chick you’re slumming with. Did she eat one of the cheerleaders you were talking to at football camp this summer?”
I step back, backing into a row of lockers and wincing. My heart starts racing and my hands clench into fists. My fingernails dig into the palms of both of my hands as I struggle to fight back the tears that are forming. I’m staring at Breckin, wondering what it is that he’s going to do or say. Most guys would just walk away. I wonder what he’s going to do at the same time that I wonder how I’m going to get through this day with a target on my back because I took an elevator ride with him.
“Watch your Goddamn mouth when you talk about her. That’s the sweetest girl I’ve ever met,” Breckin says, pointing at me. “You see her in the hallway, you turn the other way. You have some snide comment about her? You better not say it aloud because I have eyes and ears all over this school. You so much as look twice in her direction, I’ll know about it. If you fuck with her off the field, I’ll fuck with you on the field. You’ll wish you’d never been born by the time I’m through with you. You leave her the fuck alone, got it, Smith?”
The guy nods, and Breckin lets him go, scooping my books up and walking back over to me. He smiles, like he didn’t just threaten a guy in my presence, and then places his hand on my back again.
“Where’s your class?” he asks.
“308,” I reply, my voice small.
He walks me to my class in silence, and when we get to the classroom, he walks me inside, lets me choose a seat, and then sets my books down on my desk. He leans forward and kisses my hair, and then he sighs.
He’s about to walk away when I grab his hand. “Hey, Breckin?” He doesn’t answer me. He just turns and glances warily in my direction. “Okay.”
He raises an eyebrow. “Okay, what?”
I smile a bit, my emotional pain from earlier fading with every minute I’m in his presence. “Okay, we can be friends.”
He grins, extending his hand again like we’re meeting for the first time. “I need your name, Friend.”
I laugh, shaking his hand. “Aislinn.”
Nodding, he shakes my hand back and then exits the classroom. I watch his retreating figure, and I close my eyes as I collapse into my chair, wondering what the Hell this guy just did to my heart.
Unbroken Page 34