I Dare You

Chapter 32

"ADDY!"

I turned to Jennifer, seeing her run down the hall and slide to a stop at my locker.

"Yes?"

"You never answered my test last night."

"Sorry, I was a little busy." Which I was. I had to listen to Keegan, Louis, and Zayn laugh in the other line of the phone for fifteen minutes.

"With what?"

I sighed, not wanting to tell her the story. "Well, last night, I got this call from Keegan and he-" I looked around the corridor, trying my best to avoid eye contact. That was when I saw him, or them. Zayn and Keegan were laughing about something that was clearly very funny. That's how I imagined them laughing at me last night. Their taunting, rusty voices playing in my head. Keegan blackmailing me and Louis allowing them. The thought of the upcoming party gave me horrible ideas of how to torture them.

"Keegan?" Jennifer's jaw was dropped.

"Uh, yeah." I was still watching them, laugh and whisper lowly to each other before staring someone down. "What did he say?" She slapped my arm.

Keegan looked at me, winked, gave me a grin sprinkled with freckles, and walked away following Zayn.

"I'll tell you later. I need to get to class." She did an over dramatic sigh and pointed to me,"Fine, later. But you better tell me. Now I will be thinking about it the entire hour." She smiled at me and walked away as I went the opposite route.

My classes went by quickly with the idea of Keegan blackmailing me with humiliation to show to the entire school. Well, not the entire school but I know that it will spread quickly. I honestly didn't even know he had the picture on his phone. Which bothered me even more. I can barely even remember what happened that night. I was at a guy's house for an end of the year party. Almost the whole school was there. Including Keegan. Some of us were sat in a circle and we decided to- "Addy."

I looked to Marcel, removing the horrible memory from my mind. I returned a wave to him and walked to the side of the corridor so people could walk by.

"Hi," he breathed out once he walked to where I was standing.

"Hi," I mimicked.

"Uh. I guess I should say I'm sorry. I mean, I am sorry. I just wasn't feeling well and I, I uh, I was a real jerk. I'm sorry for being. A jerk."

I smiled at his loss for words. He was so cute when he was nervous. Like a childish cute, not attractive. Cute. His dimples appeared when he laughed quietly and looked around. Maybe not wanting to witness my reaction. He fixed his glasses so they were perfectly fitted on his face to match his nice shirt and blazer. He seems disappointed in himself when he announces his title of a jerk. It's just so cute. "Will you please forgive me?" He asked so innocently.

"How could I not?" I smiled. It was really hard to resist smiling around Marcel. He smiled at me too, his cute dimples staring me in the face. It seemed that all the anxiety he had previously shown was now gone and all that remained was the confident Marcel I met at the gig. It seemed so different to look at him this way now. The image of his hair loosely thrown in a beanie with a gray jumper, block my eyes whenever I look at him. He led the way to our literature course, telling me about some news article he read this morning. His eyes glistened when the fluorescent lights above hit his eyes. They were so many shades of green. A dark evergreen at one moment and then a shining emerald the next. But I couldn't look at them without seeing Keegan's green eyes and his snickers in my head.

"Are you feeling okay?" It took me a while to realize Marcel was talking to me.

"Yeah. Sorry, I zoned out a bit."

He chuckled,"It's okay. I'm used to it." Even though he was smiling I knew that I hurt him. Now I feel like a jerk. I smiled at him. He stuck out his hand and let me in the classroom first. I walked in and took my seat. At least Marcel was talking to me again. I only had to worry about Keegan.