Crush

Chapter One

Chapter One

Cami- Three months later

"Can someone please tell me the ruling for comma placements in this particular sentence?" Mrs. Stuart tapped the board with her old-fashioned, stick pointer as she peered over the top of her small, gold wire-rimmed glasses. Her gaze floated around the classroom, looking for a volunteer as she absently reached up to pat her French twisted gray hair.

I raised my hand from the back of the classroom and she stopped on me, smiling.

"Anyone besides Miss Wimberley?" she amended.

I lowered my arm quickly, accidentally hitting the edge of my binder, which was hanging off my desk. The action caused it to pop up and fall to the floor. The three rings burst open, and papers scattered everywhere.

Laughter twittered through the previously silent classroom, and my face flushed in embarrassment as I slid to my knees, hurriedly trying to gather the mess.

"Attention! Please!" Mrs. Stuart's voice snapped, directing everyone to look back at her. "Mr. Wilder, please help Cami pick up her things."

I groaned internally. Not Hunter, I thought.

My humiliation was complete. It was bad enough almost all my classes were seated alphabetically, bad enough the computer had somehow managed to put him in four of my seven periods when he'd moved in a few weeks ago, bad enough he'd risen to immediate 'in' status and was now considered the hottest, coolest—and maybe the worst—partier in school. Despite the two of us being from entirely different social classes, him the king of stoners, me the queen of nerdy chic, I still managed to have a crush on him—a crush I did my absolute best to hide from everyone . . . especially him.

"That was a sleek move you did there, Cami," Hunter whispered as he knelt down next to me and began to gather papers. "I didn't think notebooks could fly like that. Did you have to get special training?" He glanced up at the board where Mrs. Stuart was continuing with the lesson. "Too bad it didn't work."

"What?" I sighed in exasperation, trying to figure out what he was talking about. He flashed a bright smile, and my gaze settled first on his perfect, white teeth, then on those deliciously plump lips of his.

I bet he's fun to kiss. I blinked. Whoa! Where did that come from?

"Are you saying this whole knocking of the binder was truly an accident?" he spoke.

I jerked my attention from his mouth back to the floor and the task in front of me.

"And here I thought you were trying to save the rest of the class from answering the question," he continued.

I paused to stare at him. "Really? You did?"

He leaned past me, reaching to grab some papers under a vacant desk, and I caught a whiff of his cool scented aftershave, mixed with the faint smell of cigarettes.

"No." He chuckled quietly, and a lock of his black hair tumbled over his tanned forehead. He straightened and handed me the papers. "I was trying to give you an out so you didn't feel quite so humiliated." He winked, and I couldn't help but notice his chocolate colored eyes looked like they had little drops of caramel scattered through them. I'd never been this close to his face before.

"Oh." I suddenly felt uncomfortable under his scrutiny. "Thanks . . . I think."

His smile widened. "Anytime. I may have only been here a short while, but I'm sure I've been in enough of your classes to have you pegged."

"Is that so?" I began arranging things in my binder so I wouldn't have to look at him or his tight, black t-shirt stretched across his perfectly muscled physique. It should be a sin for a guy in high school to have a body that good. Besides, I was pretty sure he was messing with me.