Against all Sanity

~17~

Here's the next chapter! Enjoy!

As the day progressed Landon was still a no-show. He didn't show up for the rest of lunch, I tried looking for him in the hall-way, but whenever his friends were around he was never with them, and in the end he never showed up to math. I had secretly hoped that him skipping out on lunch meant that he had to take care of some business down south... I liked the idea of me affecting him as much as he affected me, but the fact that Landon skipped math worried me.

I hadn't texted him or tried to call. I had considered it briefly after seeing Tyler walk into Mr. Marks' class without him, but doing that just felt like overstepping some kind of boundary. A boundary I had no idea of what consisted of, but a boundary none the less.

Therefore I did the next best thing. When Mr. Marks declared that he had to get some papers from the office and we therefore could have a small break until he returned, I wasted no time approaching Tyler. Tyler didn't really say much, and with his jet black hair, stormy grey eyes and bad-boy attitude he didn't really scream "Approach me!", but since I was a girl on a mission I figured that he was the best source of answers right now.

"Hey did you happen to see Landon after lunch?" I asked him as nonchalant as possible. I didn't really want to give a desperate vibe and lead him to believe that something was going on between us – although I had no idea what Landon had told him so it could all be for nothing – but just to be on the safe side I acted as if I didn't care what his answer was.

And on one hand I really didn't, but on the other the thought of him being hurt scared me – just a little. He had become a constant – plague – in my life, and for some reason the thought of him not being here to tease me and drive me crazy didn't sit well with me. I would like to think that it was because he was hot – it was because he was hot.

"No," was his short answer. Seriously, that's what I got? He didn't even look up from his phone, he didn't even acknowledge me. He just gave me one word, one syllable. No.

"Well, did he happen to say where he was going?" No wait that sounded desperate. "I have a question to ask him," I quickly added as an excuse for my question.

That made him look up. His gray eyes told me that he didn't believe me for a second. Hell, I didn't even believe myself.

"Don't you have his number?" That question startled me. Tyler definitely knew something. Landon had probably mentioned that ridiculous plan of making people think that we were together, a plan I had yet to discover the purpose of. The thought of drilling Tyler for information crossed my mind, but fled again when I realized that it would just be a waste of energy. The guy was as hard as rocks and loyal as a puppy, he wouldn't spill.

"My phone died." I quickly fed him the most used lie in history, and something told me he didn't buy it. I wouldn't have.

"He had some business to take care of." That was all I got before he turned back to his phone and Mr. Marks returned with a stack of papers and a fresh cup of coffee. He answer was as cryptic as it got, and something told me that he wasn't talking about the kind of business I had hoped for earlier.

---

When I got home later that day after school was finished it took me the better part of an hour to finally pick up my phone and just text Landon. Because, as I said before, texting him about his sudden disappearance seemed like overstepping some kind of boundary I just settled on something casual.

Is 7 okay?

- Isa

Well, as casual as a Monday afternoon hook-up was that is. But really apart from or obvious sexual attraction towards each other what did we really have to talk about. I won't lie, those sparse minutes we spent not yelling at each other were bearable –and dare I say – nice. In those minutes I would feel like something more was hiding beneath the surface of his jerk-ish exterior, like I actually wanted to get to know him, and he wanted to get to know me. But then those minutes would be over and the selfish, egoistical poop I over the years had come to know and hate would surface again. This time was no different.