Good Girls Can Be Fun

7. Deal or No Deal

CHAPTER 7-DEAL OR NO DEAL

            I felt a hundred pairs of eyes on my back as I walked through the hallway. I tried to shrink into my over sized sweater, but it didn’t help. It was my first day back to school after the whole cafeteria incident on Monday. A teacher smiled at me and waved. It was definitely a weird Wednesday. A senior who was on the basketball team and whom I didn’t even know gave me a head nod, I stared at him in shock but he kept walking.

“What’s up, Carey.”

“Um hi?”

“Morning Max.”

“Good morning?”

“Hey, Max!”

“Hello.”

“Hey. I love your sweater, where’d you get it?”

“Really, this thing? It was a gift.”

“Okay this is weird,” Lily whispered to me when I reached her locker. There was a freshman at the locker next to Lily’s that could be described as a stereotypical geek staring at me admiringly. I smiled politely, and she squeaked, surprising me. She shut her locker and scattered away, “See?”

I nodded my head, “No kidding. I feel like I stepped into an alternate universe. I can’t believe people are still this excited over that thing with Blake. Hasn’t anything else happened by now?”

“Yeah, Dallas asked you out,” Lily answered, her voice muffled because it was shoved in her locker. She was rummaging through a bunch of junk, “That’s why everyone is staring at you.”

“How did that even get out?” I asked, exasperated.

Lily looked up from her pile of papers and gave me one of our many looks. This one meant ‘Dean has a big mouth’,  “That idiot.” I yelled. People stopped what they were doing and stared questioningly at me.

“Don’t you people have anything else to do? Quit staring already!” I yelled, storming off to class. Halfway there, I felt an arm rest on my shoulder. I growled, suspecting that the person was Dean, “ I’m going to slap…” I looked up and my eyes connected with moss green ones.

He smirked at me and arched in eyebrow, “Did I do something wrong already?” I giggled and shook my head.

“No, I thought you were someone else,” I admitted, feeling stupid. I never giggled.

“You look cute today,” Dallas said, his eyes roaming over my outfit. He was just being polite. I knew that this outfit was hideous. I suddenly felt insecure, if I was going to be dating one of the soccer team’s star player, would I have to dress the part?

“Yeah. Sure.” I responded, looking down at our feet. We weren’t walking in sync. His right foot would step forward at the same time as my left.

“Hey, look at me,” he said, sounding as if he were talking to I child. I looked up at him, “You’re beautiful.”

My heart fluttered. No one outside of my family had every told me that I was beautiful. I blushed as he smiled brightly at me, flashing his perfectly straight teeth, “Thank you.”

He leaned over and kissed my cheek, “I got to go,” he said as we arrived at my classroom.

“Bye,” I said, my voice sounding a little strained. My stomach was doing flips. I held a hand up to my cheek. I could still feel the pressure of his soft lips against my skin.

The final bell rung and unlike most days, I wasn’t in a rush to leave the school. Dallas had sat next to me at lunch and in class, leaving his clique to sit in the back of the class without him. He grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the classroom, not even stopping to say goodbye to his friends, “Do you have a ride home?” Dallas asked me.