Lead Me Out of the Dark

Guess What? You're Sensual

School the next day was annoying as Hell. Everyone kept whispering about me. At first, I’d thought I was paranoid, but then I heard two girls whispering about how lucky I was that I got to have Deck. They talked about him like he was a piece of property that I’d bought. I was grateful when lunch rolled around, mostly because all of my teachers had been pestering me. They had literally said the same exact thing. I heard you were in the hospital? I’m so sorry! Are you feeling any better? Don’t worry about making up any work. You need to worry about recovering. That is, all my teachers had said that except Mr. Varner. He’d given me an entire packet to do over the weekend.

I was very afraid to go to lunch. What if one of Jack’s friends confronted me about his disappearance? Posters had gone up all over town, but they only made me slightly anxious. No one would ever know what happened to Jack except for me, Deck, and John. Yet the football players were a whole different story. I’d always been afraid of them.

After I got my lunch, I felt someone tap on my shoulder. It was Sophie.

“Hey, Skye! My friends and I were wondering if you wanted to eat lunch with us today. You don’t have to sit alone, you know,” she questioned. I winced. What she didn’t realize was that I wanted to eat lunch alone. I wasn’t some emo loner who was wallowing in my own misery. I just didn’t like eating in the cafeteria. It made me anxious.

“I…” I failed to think of a good excuse.

“Hey, babe,” a voice called over my shoulder. I looked up, startled. A hand snaked around my waist, pulling my body closer to someone. I let out a huge breath of relief. It was Deck.

“Hey,” I said, letting all the relief I felt leak into that small, one syllable word. Deck squeezed my hip reassuringly.

“I was just asking your girlfriend if she wanted to eat lunch with my table today,” Sophie explained, blushing a little at Deck’s sudden appearance. I wanted to smack her. She didn’t know him. She had no right to get all flustered at his sudden appearance. He was a person, not a god.

“I was going to eat with Skye today,” Deck beamed, placing an emphasis on my name. He was trying to silently tell Sophie that I wasn’t his property. I was a person, too. Sophie didn’t seem to get the message.

“Oh,” she frowned. Then her eyes lit up. “You can eat with us, too!” Damn, the girl recovered quickly, I cussed to myself. Why couldn’t she see that she couldn’t have any part of Deck? She didn’t know him like I did. She needed to back the Hell off.

“Actually, we haven’t had alone time in forever. I haven’t seen her since yesterday!” He said. He even groaned for emphasis. I let out a small breath of relief. For a minute there, I’d gotten worried that he might accept her offer. His groan almost made me giggle out loud. He was such a good actor.

“Oh, okay. Maybe another time!” She said, ducking her head down. She practically sprinted back to her lunch table. I walked with Deck back to his lunch table. Surprisingly, it was empty.

“You just saved my life!” I moaned. I set my lunch down at the empty table beside us so I could wrap my arms around him. He laughed, reciprocating the hug easily. I lingered for a second longer than necessary. He smelled phenomenal, and the feel of his arms around me felt so much more different than anything I’d ever felt.

“Anytime,” he promised. I pulled away when I realized people where staring. I cleared my throat and sat down opposite to where he was sitting. I dug into my lunch. I was surprisingly hungry. It was probably because everyone was staring at me. I felt like I needed to be doing something, or I’d get too caught up watching everyone stare at us.