Not Your Baby ║ Billy Hargrove

Chapter Twenty Four

Wiggling himself between me and Nancy, Steve threw either arm over us as we began our walk into school. I bent my head forward to get a quick look at Nancy, who was practically sweating with nervousness about her feelings for Steve. "You think this is all a bad dream, Nel?" he smirked as he reached for the main door into the building.

"I still don't know what to believe." I shook my head and went first- the ominous glow of the overhead hallway lights shining down on me like I was in an operating room. "All I know is that if I get into a fight I want that girl with the special powers on my side." I laughed as I adjusted my backpack straps.

"Eleven?" Nancy nervously cleared her throat as she tried to focus her attention on anything other than confronting her relationship drama.

"She's a nutcase." Steve butt in.

"But also a huge help." Nancy cut him off.

"... And this is also all her fault." Steve interrupted Nancy once more before arriving at his locker. "But hey," he rested his back on the cold metal lockers aside his. "maybe she's going to spill her master plan this afternoon. We can dream, right?"

I rolled my eyes as I waved him off and continued with Nancy down the hallway to our lockers. As my gaze defocused, I suddenly snapped-to when I saw someone at the end of the hallway with a black leather jacket leaning against my locker. His back slowly turned to face my direction. My pace slowed as butterflies shot through my body like a shot of vodka.

"Billy?" I exhaled, never once leaving my gaze from his. Nancy, who was too caught up in spilling her anxiety-ridden plan about having to confront Jonathan, quickly realized my shock in seeing the bad boy not only at school but seemingly anticipating my arrival.

"I'm, uh," she murmured, "going to go this way." She made a b-line for her locker across from mine.

I took a deep breath in and tried my best to look as if this boy wasn't making me feel like a toddler on a sugar high. Walking with as much confidence as I could muster, I kept my cool and approached him.

"I thought you didn't believe in the first class of the day?" I asked, stopping directly in front of him. Billy's eyes brightened up the gloomy hallway, with the dumb hospital-like lights above somehow making his strawberry-blonde hair glow. He twirled a toothpick around his lips before seductively and slowly removing it with his fingers to then flick it on to the ground. The smell of tobacco and perfume rushed into my nose like a drug- with me wanting more.

"What can I say? Coming to school earlier means less hours of the day without you." His half smile crept across his chiseled face. Even though the bell rang to signal first period, time felt like it stopped when I was with him. "And besides, I didn't want this morning to end with my girl."

I exploded.

"So, I'm your girl?" I mustered up all the strength in my body to not reveal the fact that I was literally shaking inside from excitement. He feels the way I do.

Billy's smile never faded. If anything, it grew wider as he teeth shown through his wide lips. He removed his hands from his casual stance and placed both hands on my cheeks and pulled my lips towards his. The moment our lips touched, my mind escaped the realities of the school hallway. Without a care in the world as to the gasps of students and murmurs of "they're a thing?", he slowly pulled away with his hands still gently resting on my beet-red cheeks.

"Baby," Billy's exhale wafted the smell of cologne and tobacco under my nostrils, "you've been mine since the first day."