“Goodnight Aiden.” I shut the door before he could say anything else, then ran upstairs to make my boyfriend a get-well card, ignoring Aiden’s texts for the rest of the night. It’s not that I didn’t feel for Aiden … it’s just there was nothing I could do for him. We were broken up—and really, he’d chosen for that to happen. As soon as he went in that closet with Fuana—that’s what he chose.
Watching Aiden now as he stomped toward me in the crowded school hallway, I wanted to run the other direction. Give him more time so he wouldn’t be so emotional.
“I can’t believe you, Ally,” was all he said though. Then he stomped right past me and kept walking.
I blinked, scrunching my brow. Wondering if it was really possible I was getting off that easy.
Only, of course not. He turned back to me after he was far enough away that he had to shout. So he was making a scene—as usual. “I broke up with Fuana, Ally. When I found out you were with that monster it let me see how dumb we were being. You know that Ally, right? You’re being stupid. The guy is a player, Ally. He’s playing you!”
He screamed the words, then turned and stormed down the hallway making me shudder.
***
Griffin found me in the library after school. He furrowed his brow. “You’re still working on that assignment?”
“I have to. Ms. Sharp grades really hard. Well, she grades me really hard—lately.” I had the urge to rant on and on about her, but instead I hunched over my work. “She suddenly seems to hate me.”
Griffin put his hand over mine, stopping my writing. “Don’t worry about this, Heaven. Don’t do the extra credit.”
He looked disturbed by it, which was sweet beyond words. Especially because I was disturbed too. It was so unfair. Suddenly, Ms. Sharp was out to get me. Me! Only me. Everyone else loved her.
Griffin rubbed a hand over his face. “Stop, okay? I’ll talk to the teacher.”
“What?” I laughed. “You’re going to threaten her? Griffin, that doesn’t work with teachers—I hope. You can’t beat them up.” I chuckled again, adoring him so much. I gave him a light kiss. “You’re sweet though.”
He seemed to savor my kiss, which made this extreme tickling feeling swirl in my stomach. Geez, I was so smitten with him, everything he did made my heart practically explode.
I tore my gaze away from him. “Griffin, I have to get this done.”
He sat closer to me. “Heaven, don’t.” He put his warm hand on mine. “Come on, I’ll buy you an ice cream.”
He knows me. I do love my ice cream—especially when it’s shared with him. Talk about heaven! Mmmm. Two yummy specimens swirled into one. It was a very, extremely tempting offer, but I’m not a person that can live with a C. Especially when I had the sinking feeling Ms. Sharp was just going to keep shoving them at me. I mean, my last paper had been excellent. It was A+ material. At least.
I gave his hand a squeeze and went back to my work.
Griffin watched me a moment, then whispered huskily in my ear, “I have a gift for you.”
I widened my eyes. “A gift?”
His lips twitched at my excitement. “Yeah, but you have to close your book and leave this place to get it. It’s a private gift.” Then he said huskily, “You have to open it at home—” he raised his eyebrows, “—in private.”
“Oh …” was all I could say—and I had trouble saying that.
My face sizzled. I touched my flaming cheeks and inwardly groaned, beyond nervous of what kind of “gifts” I was going to be getting from my sexy, warm-blooded, hockey-playin’ boyfriend.
He gave a soft laugh—enjoying my blush and utter speechlessness. He gently brushed my burning cheek. “Whoa,” he whispered with a laugh.
Then he closed my books and took my hand, “Come on.”
CHAPTER 34
A smile played at the corners of Griffin’s mouth as he handed me his wrapped gift. He placed it in my arms as soon as we came in my front door. “Go upstairs and try it on … then let me see.” His voice was husky and his eyes danced with eagerness. It filled me with a strange mixture of excitement and dread.
I shivered and silently groaned, terrified to find out what was in the box. What I was going to “try on” and let him see.
The teasing anticipation in his gaze made me flush and my heart beat spastic and wild.
I licked my lips. “Uh, Griffin …”
He lifted his chin, grinning slightly. “Yeah?”
I exhaled, but couldn’t bring myself to say anything that I wanted. He seemed so eager and happy. And excited. I decided to just see what I was dealing with before I slammed on the breaks. Though the way his eyes glistened, I was pretty sure breaks would have to be slammed. “I’ll be right back.”
On shaky legs, I ran up to my room. I wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans and paced a bit, staring at the box, then exhaled and finally tore open the wrapping. Then I blinked and gave a little laugh. I covered my mouth with my hands. His “gift” was a pair of high heel shoes. Very HIGH-heeled shoes.
“Whoa.”
I went to my bathroom and splashed cold water on my face. The thought of big, rough Griffin shopping for me had me hot and woozy for some reason. When I managed to calm the adrenaline rushing through my veins, I quickly changed into a skirt, then I put on the heels. Oh man! They were high.
Yikes! It was kind of scary to be so far off the ground.
On shaky legs, I wobbled unsteadily down the stairs to my adorable, heart-stopping boyfriend. His eyes sparked when he saw me.
He made a guttural groaning sound and whispered, “I like.”
Purrr.
He gave a little laugh, his eyes twinkling. “You don’t have to wear them, though.” He laughed again. “I just saw you in high heels once.” He raised his eyebrows. “I liked it.”
A small smile quirked on his lips. “Wear them on a date with me—at least once. I’ll carry you if you want.”
Just then—Eeek! My mom came bounding through the front door, making us jump. Her eyes widened to the size of saucers. It was her first time to see Griffin, and I was in sky-high-heeled shoes, so she looked thoroughly anxious—to say the least. It made Griffin give a little laugh—half-anxious himself, and half extremely entertained. (I was starting to be able to read my boyfriend and his various laughs.)
“Okay, I’ll let you handle this,” he whispered to me, heading out the door as quickly as he could.
I followed/stumbled/lurched after him. “Wait,” I whispered. “Don’t you want to meet my mom?”
“I think she’s having a heart attack,” he said. He gave a little laugh as I tried to protest, gently pressing two warm fingers against my lips. “I’m used to it, don’t worry. I’m kind of a big guy—I scare girl’s parents. Let her talk to you.” He played with a strand of my hair. “I’ll call you later to find out if you’re locked away in your room—” he raised his eyebrows and grinned, “—may happen.” Then he whispered in my ear, “Don’t do Sharp’s assignment.”
Then he was gone.
Wow, he really, really didn’t want me to do that assignment. He wasn’t usually like that, though—at all. He knew school was important to me. My stomach lurched a little, suddenly afraid he was going to do something to Ms. Sharp for being unfair to his—Griff-the-Grief-Master’s—girlfriend. But then I blew off my worries. After all, boys melted like butter under Ms. Sharp’s smile. The lady had it “going on” as far as boys were concerned. I figured she was safe and I should stop worrying about her. After all, I had way bigger worries of my own. I turned to face Mom—who still looked stunned and horrified.
Yeah, I definitely had my own problems.
CHAPTER 35
After English class, Ms. Sharp pulled me aside and said she wanted to speak to me. She waited until everyone filed out of class, then shut the door, turning to look at me with a curious stare. I was staring curiously as well, wondering if her rear was on fire. Jake had leered at it with such a yucky, heated stare I was surprise
d it didn’t burst into flames.
She sat tentatively on the edge of her desk, then steepled her hands together bringing them to her lips as though preparing her thoughts for what she had to tell me. I started to sweat. Oh no, this looks bad.
I prayed for Jake to commit one of his lame stunts and pull the fire-alarm or something so I could run out of the classroom and do her stupid extra-credit assignment—that I’d basically, for the most part, ended up blowing off after all. I’d thought—maybe—I’d call her out on her unfair grading. But her intense silence and blatantly visible discomfort had me squirming. Something weird was up.
Finally, she spoke. “I might have been a little hasty grading your last assignment.” She exhaled, rolling her eyes—I swear! She rolled her eyes! Then she went on speaking as though she hadn’t rolled them. As though she was being completely professional and teacher-like. But I saw what I saw. The witch rolled her eyes.
She gave me a weak, curt smile. “I looked it over again and … it’s an A paper.”
She handed the copy back to me, an “A+” scrawled across the front. I blinked at the grade, scrunching up my forehead. How could my writing go from a C to an A+?
I stared up at her. “So, I don’t have to do the extra assignment?”
“Nope,” she said, hopping off her desk.
Suddenly, she seemed to want to get rid of me as quickly as possible—make me disappear.
“I apologize about the confusion,” she said, opening the door for me, and practically shoving me out.
I tilted my head. “So … that’s it?”
I wasn’t comfortable leaving. Something weird was going on. She was acting weird. I mean, yesterday she had been so adamant that my writing was atrocious. And she had snarled that I was going to have to do extra credit for here on out if I even dreamed of getting an A from her. In fact, she’d basically said I could only get an A in my dreams.
She gave me another curt smile. “That’s it.”
She raised her eyebrows at me like, leave. So, finally I did.
I staggered down the English department’s hallway in a confused daze. But then I did a little dance and screamed, “Yes!”
Well, I didn’t really scream it. I don’t think I even uttered it aloud. But in my head, I thought it—super loud.
I quickly texted Griffin. “Meet me in front of room 207”—(aka: the janitor’s closet)—“right after third period. RIGHT AFTER.” Then I added swiftly with a huge smile plastered on my face, “We need to celebrate!!”
***
When I got to the closet, Griffin was already waiting for me. He took me in his arms. “Celebrate what?”
When I told him, we had a little celebration tongue-hockey that left me woozy and breathless. I stumbled to my next class with wobbly knees—a mess, but happy. In fact completely thrilled. That is, until I got a text from Griffin’s scary, strange friend, Hailey Cox.
Wondering why Sharp’s claws were out on you? ... Want to “C” why??
A chill ran down my spine just reading her words. ‘Cause the chick was not “friendly” and I knew whatever she was getting at was going to kill me. Somehow I knew. I swallowed, a feeling of doom squeezing at the pit of my stomach. The girl was evil and mean—but still, she’d never bothered to text me before. She’d just give me glaring, evil looks whenever I was with Griffin. What horrible thing did she have to say? Finally, with sweaty, shaking hands, I clicked on the picture attachment. The caption read: “Do these people look familiar?”
At the bottom of the picture it said: Taken courtesy of Hailey Cox (Secretly!!) Don’t tell Griffin!
I stared at the attachment feeling sick. It was a picture of Griffin and … Ms Sharp!! They were tightly entwined in each other’s arms, totally makin’.
CHAPTER 36
I clutched my stomach and couldn’t breathe. A knife had been plunged into my heart—plunged and plunged and plunged. I was gushing blood. My heart was dying. I laid my head on my desk, starring at the picture.
Wow. Suddenly Griffin was so living up to his bad-boy reputation. My stomach churned and twisted until suddenly I had to spring up from my seat and run for the classroom door.
“Ally!” my teacher called after me, but all I could do was cover my mouth and run. I was going to puke.
CHAPTER 37
I got a text from Griffin right after Hailey’s, while I was holed up in the bathroom clutching my stomach in a stall. He apparently had no idea about Hailey’s “secret.” But instead of meeting him for break like his text requested, I stumbled back to the bathroom and hovered over a toilet, still expecting to throw up.
Then I spent the next two class periods with my head on my desk, shivering and nauseous and on the verge of tears.
I’d turned off my cell and avoided my locker and took unusual routes to my classes. No way did I want to run into Griffin.
However, I accidently crossed his path on my way to sixth period. He was talking with his friends but left them immediately when he saw me. He chased me a bit and pulled me aside.
“Why didn’t you meet me?” His eyes looked bewildered and slightly hurt.
My hands shaking, I shoved my phone at him. “Do these people look familiar?”
All the life drained out of his face as he stared at the picture. His lips formed an o. “Where’d you get that?”
I shook my head, gritting my teeth. “Does it matter?”
Griffin placed a palm on his forehead, just held it there, still staring at the picture. “Heaven … I don’t know what to say.”
“No need,” I choked out, practically crying. “The picture kind of says it all.”
“It wasn’t recent, Heaven. Not for months.”
That eased the knife in my heart, slightly. Okay, tremendously. But still—Ms. Sharp?!!
Ms. Sharp!!!
“Sorry,” I whispered, my voice hitching. “But I can’t get past that it was at all.”
He tried pulling me back to him as I started to slink away. But it was a half-hearted attempt and when I turned back to face him, my eyes full of tears, he didn’t say anything—nothing at all. Because there was nothing to say. He just stared at me, his face pale and his haunted eyes locked on mine—silent.
He didn’t even call after me as I turned away from him and stumbled down the hallway. That was good—I guess. Only, I wanted his arms around me. I wanted him to tell me it was all a joke. I wanted that so bad. Ached for it.
CHAPTER 38
At home, I turned off my cell phone so I wouldn’t get Griffin’s call or text and I knew he wouldn’t come to my house. As he said—parents were afraid of him. I think he knew having gotten it on with a schoolteacher wouldn’t win him over with my parents—or allow him access to my house.
I spent the evening wiping away tears and writing a song called “Experience”—which highlighted the fact I had absolutely none. And Griffin had too much. Way too much.
CHAPTER 39
The morning after sending me her blood-curdling text, Scary Hailey Cox leaned against the locker next to mine as I was getting out my books for second period.
“I’m sorry,” she said flatly. “I made a mistake.”
Her words were droned out monotone and sounded rehearsed—as though someone had fed them to her—and made her say them to me.
“I shouldn’t have sent you the picture. I apologize for any trauma it caused you.”
I blinked at her and rubbed my ears. It was so, incredibly strange to have her standing here in front of me—apologizing to me, no matter how fake and unfelt her words blatantly were. Seriously. I always ducked behind corners whenever I saw her coming—especially since Griffin and I started dating. So, having her apologize was … surreal. And totally Griffin. I knew that. He made her say those things—those exact words.
“I shouldn’t have sent you the picture,” she said again. She rolled her eyes and droned out, “I do stupid things.”
The way she said that—and, well, the fact she said it—I knew it wa
s all Griffin too. Words he forced her to say. And it was killing her. Which was kind of hilarious, only I wasn’t in the mood to laugh. Or listen to her. I was dying inside and I wanted to be left alone to decompose in peace.
“Okay,” I said, starting to walk away, but she grabbed my arm. “Listen,” she said, suddenly turning all sincere and heartfelt. “Griffin is miserable. I’ve never seen him like this. He was mad at me—Griffin never gets mad.”
I looked down at the floor, not really knowing what to say.
“Just get over it.” She sounded kind of disgusted with me. “The guy’s nuts about you.”
I started to walk away again, but again she grabbed my arm. “Look, I just don’t like you and I didn’t want you to be with Griffin.” She explained it as though she was smoothing things over and I should get it—like I should go, ‘Ohhh!’ and turn on a smile, Okay!
She went on with a moan, “But now he’s all sad. I’ve never seen him like this.” She gave her head a little bang against the locker. “It was supposed to be our secret, Ally. You weren’t supposed to tell him.” Then she said it again, “I just don’t like you. You’re all goody-goody and churchy-churchy and you were making Griffin boring. He was suddenly always all, ‘I don’t think Heaven would like me doing that.’ Ugh!”
“You mean he was staying out of trouble.”
“Yeah it’s boring,” she said, like we were on the same page.
The girl had seriously inhaled too much black nail polish.
She hefted herself off the locker, apparently feeling like the matter was basically settled. “Anyway, give him a break. I took the picture before he was all into you. I’d just followed him one day because I was wondering why he was suddenly being all secretive.” She grinned, “Big secret, huh?”
The Heartbreaker Next Door (The Hockey Team Book 1) Page 21