Boarding with the Bad Boy [COMPLETE + BONUS published edition]

It Begins

We don't have practice on Sunday, so I relish the opportunity to sleep in, knowing that the later I stay in bed, the less time I have to spend with Sam before Jill lands. Plus, I need the silence to decide how much I'm going to tell Jill about what's going on between Sam and me. I rarely keep secrets from her, but something about what happened yesterday has me on edge.

Sam begins rustling in his bed sometime around 9am. I've been up for nearly an hour, wondering when his slow breathing will give way to waking. After he left the room for his mysterious phone call yesterday, I took myself over to Spencer's for a night of Netflix and microwaved popcorn. He didn't ask any questions, just set up his laptop so that we could both see it and hit Play. By the time I made my way back to our room for final check-in, Sam was asleep.

Now he wakes slowly, stretching and moaning. I force myself to breathe evenly, keeping my eyes tightly closed with my back to him. I listen as he shifts out of bed and makes his way to his wardrobe, grabbing his toothbrush. I'm hyperaware of every sound he makes, and I know my body's too tense to really look like I'm sleeping, but, even without seeing him, I can guess that he's not looking at me.

I listen as he returns from brushing his teeth and dresses by his wardrobe, zipping a pair of jeans and—likely—plucking a hat to tame his wild hair. He clatters around as he collects things from his desk, slipping keys into his pocket. Finally he leaves and I breathe a sigh of relief, shifting for the first time and sitting up in the empty room.

Avoiding each other like this is going to make the year hard, and I almost regret his kissing me so shortly after convincing Carr to keep me enrolled. But then I remember the way my body set on fire as his hands roved over me, and my pulse is speeding up. I don't regret it at all.

Spencer pops in around 11. I'm eating a bowl of cereal, my feet kicked up on my desk.

"'Sup, girl?" Spencer flicks the side of my head as he comes up beside me.

"Ow!" I put my hand over the stinging spot. "What was that?"

"A friendly Ryder hello," he chirps, swinging Sam's chair around so that he can sit beside me. "What's going on?"

"I'm starting to question these Ryder traditions," I mutter, slurping at the last of my cereal and turning to face him. He chuckles and tucks his hand behind his head, leaning back and watching me.

"What are you doing?" He asks pointedly.

"I'm actually about to head to Jill's. She gets in from Spain in about two hours."

Spencer nods his head. "Nice, nice," he says. I can tell there's something else and my eyes narrow on him.

"What?" I ask. "What should I be doing?"

Spencer narrows his eyes back on me. "I heard on good authority that you spent the majority of yesterday afternoon in Headmaster Carr's office."

I shrug.

"But you're still here," he says.

I shrug again. "Sure looks that way to me." I'd spent most of my morning unpacking my duffel, so the room shows no sign of my near-leaving last night. And it's not something I want to talk about.

Spencer, so great with my cues last night, is utterly oblivious to them today.

"But how?" he asks when I don't offer any more information.