Into the Spiral (The Spiral Defenders Series: Book One)
Page 10
Chapter Eight
The rest of the morning didn’t get any better for Ronnie. The boy, whose name was Gavin Clearwater, was in every one of her classes. By lunch, she wanted to cry. The only saving grace was that ‘C’ and ‘L’ were nowhere near each other in the alphabet so he couldn’t sit by her to torment her further. Not that being so far away actually stopped him. He still followed her between classes and tugged on her hair every chance he got. He reminded her of a third grader.
“So, who’s the new guy?” Andi asked as they sat down at a table in the cafeteria. Shawn sat near them entertaining a couple of guys also on the football team. Ronnie glanced at him but he barely paid them any attention as he continued telling tales about his trip to Florida. As if surfing and drinking were really all that exciting.
“An infuriating ass,” Ronnie grumbled and speared lettuce with her plastic fork so hard it broke. She threw down the broken fork and pushed away from the table to get another. She groaned when Gavin suddenly appeared next to her.
“Now what?” she cried. “What could you possibly want to torture me about now?”
Gavin raised an eyebrow and glanced down at his tray. “I’m getting lunch,” he told her. “But if that tortures you, I won’t eat.”
A smirk twitched on his lips. Ronnie let out an exasperated sigh before stomping off towards the plastic utensils. She grabbed a fork and turned around to return to her table. Anger simmered in her veins when she watched Gavin sit down in her empty seat, moving her tray over so it sat in front of the empty chair between him and Shawn. This couldn’t be happening. From a few tables away, she watched Andi talk and laugh with Gavin, whose eyes kept darting to her. She glared at him as her stomach rumbled. She needed to eat. Andi turned and beamed at her as Ronnie stepped up to her new seat.
“Oh, hey, I hope you don’t mind, but Gavin had nowhere else to sit,” Andi said. Ronnie glared at her.
“Did what I said earlier mean nothing to you?” Ronnie asked through clenched teeth.
“What? He’s a cute infuriating ass,” Andi argued. Gavin turned towards Ronnie with renewed interest.
“You called me infuriating?” he asked, his eyebrow arched again. She wondered if he did that just to irritate her—because it was working.
“I only spoke the truth,” she replied primly as she sat down next to him.
“Well, you know what they say; some of the best lovers start out as fighters.”
Ronnie’s mouth fell open and her salad was left forgotten as she gaped at him. Had he really just said that? Did he think she would like him if he kept acting this way? Because that wasn’t likely to happen. She liked a guy who paid attention to her, who was sweet to her, and genuinely seemed to care for her, not someone who was obnoxious and couldn’t possibly care for her since they met only four hours ago.
“What about lovers and fighters?” Shawn spoke up. Ronnie’s ears reddened. This was so not the time for him to tune in.
“Don’t worry about it, man, it’s nothing you would understand. Isn’t that right, Veronica?” Gavin replied, his dark eyes amused as he waited for her to contest his statement. She glared at him, knowing if she tried to explain it, it would look like she was interested in Gavin or it would come out just how much she liked Shawn, both things that definitely couldn’t happen.
“It’s Ronnie; Veronica is what my mother calls me,” she told him and forced a smile as she turned towards Shawn. “Don’t worry about it, Shawn; it’s just something from class.”
“Oh, okay, but now that I have your attention, what are you doing Saturday night?” he asked and her smile became genuine. This was too perfect! Now Gavin would see that Shawn was interested in her, too.
“Nothing right now. What did you have in mind?” she replied, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
“Well, I wanted to take you out since I missed your birthday last weekend. I still owe you your gift.”
“Sounds great. Pick me up at seven?”
He nodded and smiled. “Yeah, that should be fine.”
“Sounds perfect,” she murmured. Her heart did a flip as he grinned at her.
“All right, man, first date,” one of Shawn’s friends cheered and the guys laughed. Ronnie blushed as Shawn muttered something about it just being dinner. Oh really? Well, she would find a way to turn it into a date. She turned back to her salad and began eating, feeling Gavin’s eyes on her. When she glanced at him, he smirked. She ignored him and he started talking to Andi again. Good, Ronnie thought, maybe he would start dating Andi and leave her alone.