Page 8 of As if I Wouldn't Fall
“Dammit, Ayla. You don’t understand—” he begins.
But I’ve already turned on a heel to stride down the hallway, my chemistry book pressed to my chest to hide my puckered nipples. I feel naked without Flynt’s looming presence behind me…and I’m surprised to find I don’t like it. I’m untethered. Don’t feel as safe and secure. If I wasn’t hell bent on making a point, I would go back and wait until he could walk with me. Something stops me from giving in, though. A combination of self-respect and the refusal to accept half measures from Flynt. Not when I can feel how much he wants to give me more.
I want to give him more, too. I want to give him everything.
When I walk into chemistry class, everyone looks up in surprise. The period hasn’t quite begun yet, so students are milling around, gossiping at each other’s desks. “Holy shit,” says one of the girls. “She doesn’t have her bodyguard with her today.”
A boy in a football jersey elbows his friend. “Finally.”
With my pulse fluttering, I cross the room and set my book down on my usual two-person table. Flynt has always been my silent partner in chemistry and I assume he will be again today. When he eventually makes it to class. But the football player has other ideas. A sudden chill coasts down my back when he slaps his book down beside me, leans an elbow on the table and levels a cheesy grin in my direction.
“When I woke up this morning, I didn’t think I’d finally get my shot with Ayla Barnes.”
His shot?
Why is he talking about me like I’m some coveted trophy?
Surely Flynt wasn’t correct about boys swarming me if he isn’t around.
“I, um…” I wet my lips, furiously trying to locate the page for today’s lesson. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Oh, come on. You don’t know every guy in this school would give his left nut to take you out?” His gaze crawls down my body and back up. “Show you a good time?”
“That’s…” I shake my head. “That can’t be true.”
“Why don’t you let me prove it after school—”
A fist slams down on the table. Hard enough to make several surrounding girls yelp and levitate my textbook off the table by several inches. Flynt is standing behind the football player now, his expression icy cold with malice. “If you walk away now, Imightlet you live,” Flynt says to the rapidly paling athlete. “But talk to her again, motherfucker, and you’ll be watching the rest of the season from the sidelines in your full body cast.”
The football player scrambles away in a blur.
All I can do is stare into Flynt’s mutinous face. I keep my chin firm, even though it wants to wobble. Even though I want to throw myself into his arms and apologize for being so naïve.
He throws his books down on the table and drops into his stool.
Without saying a word, he drags my seat closer. Closer. Until our thighs are touching.
Then he leans over and growls in my ear. “I hope you’re ready for the fallout of what you’ve done, little girl.”
My whole universe explodes with color.
Little girl.
What is wrong with me that my legs squeeze together from thigh to ankle over those two words? I almost fall straight off my stool. Can everyone in class see that my heart is galloping a million miles an hour?
“What do you mean?” I whisper.
“You want a date? That’s what you’ll get.” He reaches over and grips my bare knee, squeezing it until I gasp from the unexpected pleasure. “And a hell of a lot more.”
* * *
This is the longest chemistry class of my life.
I want to ask Flynt what exactly he meant bya hell of a lot more, but the teacher starts class, letting us know we’ll be doing an experiment with our partners. Flynt only leaves my side long enough to collect the materials from the front of the room, before we’re in close proximity again. But this time, for the sake of the experiment, we’re standing.
This isn’t the first time we’ve worked together in chemistry. Normally, Flynt keeps a bit of distance between us, though. Not today. While I’m busy looking down through the microscope, he presses in tight behind me. He takes hold of my hips and guides my bottom back into the curve of his lap, letting out a gruff sound of satisfaction into my neck.
In class.