Hopelessly Devoted

Chapter 9

Chapter 9
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        I walked into Bio and sat down in my usual dreaded seat. I sighed when I heard Ashton sit down next to me. I looked out of the corner of my eye to see him looking at me again. I turned to him.

"What are you looking at?" I asked and added before he could answer, "I mean, besides a beautiful goddess?"

"I don't get it. You seemed so scared and depressed yesterday but today you seem as annoying as usual," he said, staring into my eyes. To say that I was taken back by his statement would be an understatement.

"Well maybe you should focus more on the class than my emotions," I responded, not knowing where that came from.

"Good afternoon, class. I'm sure that all of you have been working hard on your projects," I heard grunts from around the room as Mr. Gletzo spoke. "This is why I have decided to extend the deadline to next week, because absolutely no groups have procrastinated until today," he said sarcastically... my kind of teacher.

"Don't wait until next week though, and don't procrastinate again... Kenny I'm talking to you." He added, earning some chuckles from around the room. He then continued to explain our class activity.

The rest of Biology went by in a flash, considering that I didn't have to converse with Ashton at all. Basically the only reminder I had that he was there, was the pleasant smell of his subtle cologne.

The spa with the girls had been surprisingly calming... Despite me being a hysterical mess of laughter while they were doing my pedicure...

The rest of the week went by with the same routine- school, eat, home, eat, store, eat, homework, eat, sleep, eat, repeat (then eat).

Within the week, my nightmares almost vanished and I regained the partial control over the anxiety that I had before.

Eli and Kevin continued to urge Scarlett, Savannah, and I to sit with them.  Ashton was never happy when they asked us, though.

On Friday, I was walking down to lunch with Scarlett when someone grabbed my wrist from behind, their grip solid. I spun around to see Eli standing there and I smiled in relief.

"You're sitting with us today," he said and looked me dead in the eye. Scarlett stopped walking when we did.

"Nope," I said, and he grinned.

"Yes you are," he replied.

"We're sitting at our table," I argued.

"No you're not," he responded before I could even finish my sentence.

"Try and stop me," I said and he smiled even bigger. Oh shit.

"Okay, " before I could process what was happening, he had swooped me up into his arms and was holding me bridal style in the middle of the empty hallway.

"Eli fucking Parker put me down!" I tried to squirm my way out of his strong arms. Scarlett almost fell on the floor laughing.

"Sit with us,"

"No!"

"Than I'm not putting you down. And then I'll walk into lunch like this and embarrass you," he threatened, making me stop squirming. I looked him dead in the eyes, carefully weighing my options.

"Fine." I said sternly.

"Hell yes!" He yelled and put me down.

"But only for today," I sighed and the three of us walked to the lunchroom. Savanah was there before us today, and gathered her stuff when she saw us with Eli.