The Art of Pretending

Chapter Thirteen

Blair POV.
•••

   "I appreciate the compliments, but no."

   He sighed in defeat. "Ok." The bell rings signaling its time to go to first period. "Want me to walk you to class?" He asks.

   "No its ok." I give a smile and he kind of returns one back. Guilt. That is what I feel. Guilt for not letting him use me. He gives me a nod before heading to his class.

   I get into my first period and Natalie is there already sitting. "What did he want to talk about?" I really want to talk to someone about it. But Grayson said himself, he didn't want the guys to know he's upset.

   And as much as I love Natalie, I can't trust her not to say anything to Zack. Yes, she is the girlfriend that tells her boyfriend literally everything.

   "Nothing really, it was just about calculus."

   "You suck at calculus, why would he be asking you about it?" She asks not convinced.

   "I asked him for help and he was just giving me his notes." I sigh, "he didn't want to do it in front of you because he didn't know if I would be embarrassed."

   "Oh, that's weirdly nice of him. Are you guys friends now?" She asks.

   "I guess" I shrug.

***

   I am now in third period, Art. We have to stay in class a couple of minutes after the bell to help clean up. I send Natalie a text, saying I'll meet her at the table. Emma and I are walking into the cafeteria together.

   "Is it me, or does Grayson look like someone kicked his puppy?" Emma asks. "Oh that explains it." I turn my head to see Ashlyn making out with a guy at the end of their table.

   Suddenly an idea pops in my head. I know I said I wasn't going to help him, but the look on his face makes me feel even more guilty.

   Before I change my mind, I start with my plan. It's a stupid one, but I don't know what else to do. "Don't hate me Emma, I'll explain later" I mumble before walking away.

   "What?" I hear her say. My heart starts to beat faster as I head towards Grayson and his table. The one filled with football players and cheerleaders. Noah is the first one to see me approach.

   "Hey Blair?" He says when I walk up. Grayson's eyes shoot to mine when he hears my name.

   "Is there any room for me?" I ask masking my nerves.

   "Umm" Noah looks around clearly confused. There's no room for me, I can see that myself.

   "We can make some" said Carter. Natalie walks over to the table also confused. Carter gets up and gets an extra chair and puts it between him and Zack.

   "We're sitting here today" I say to Natalie, and motion her to sit.

   "There's not enough room for both of us" she points out. I suck in a breath.

   "It's ok, I'll just sit on Grayson's lap" Everyone's eyes widen and Grayson chokes on his water. "That's ok, right?" I ask giving him a small smirk.

   He clears his throat. He gives me a slight confused nod as an answer. I softly lower myself into his lap, wiggling around to get comfortable.

   "Please stop moving" he whispers in my ear. "What are you even doing?"

   "I've decided to help you." I whisper back, and then let out a loud giggle. I know what that did, now I have a lot of peoples attention including Ashlyn. They all probably think that he's whispering inappropriate things, and I'm going to let them.