never be the same | grayson dolan

thirty six

Grayson's POV:

The hot sun beats down on me as I flip through another page of my psychology textbook. I write down every possible note that I will need to pass my next test. I've been working extra hard in school these past few days, especially since I want to try to get into a good college.

I never thought much about my future, in fact I never even saw college as a part of it. Knowing Madison wants to go to school here gives me a little bit more motivation to join her in whatever college she chooses. Even though we aspire to go down different career paths, there can still be a college that can work well for the both of us. I take a small sip from my water bottle as I grab my highlighter out of my bag.

"Hey there." A sudden voice interrupts me. I look up and see Riley sit on the opposite side of the round green table.

"Hi." I mumble as I look down at my textbook.

"Do you have lunch this period?" She curiously asks.

"No, just a free period." I shake my head as I begin to highlight important words.

"What are you doing?" She leans over and glares at my book.

"Studying." I quickly exhale a sharp breath.

"For what? Maybe I can help." She simply states.

"Psychology and you can't." I try not to sound too annoyed but that method is failing.

She sits there for a moment before crossing her arms back over her chest. "You never showed me around the school."

"You've been here for a few weeks now, don't you know your way around?"

"Not really." She lightly smiles. "I just wanted an excuse to get to know you better." She begins to lean forward and slowly wraps her hand around my arm.

I jerk my arm away from her grip and aggressively back away. "I get that, and I'm sure you're a really nice girl but I have a girlfriend so it would be great if you could stop with the flirty little comments." I don't mean to sound like a dick, but I know exactly what she's thinking by the tone of her voice.

"Oh, really?" She looks up at me as she places her elbow on the table. "How come she's never around?" I can feel her challenging me.

I take my eyes off of my textbook and look over to her across from me. "She lives in New York."

A small laughs escapes her mouth as she tries to cover her lips with her hand. "And how do you know she isn't cheating on you?"

"Because she's not." I roll my eyes at her irrelevant comment.

"I wouldn't be too sure about that, I've seen Gossip Girl. I know how snobby rich girls act."

"And I know how annoying girls who think they can get with whoever they want because they're new. act." I'm suddenly wishing anyone else was sitting across from me at this moment. Hell, being in a jail cell with Ben sounds better than having this girl interrogate my relationship.

"Wow, calm down." She scoffs at me. "All I'm saying is you're way too hot to be with a preppy uptown girl."

"And all I'm saying is I'm not interested because I love my girlfriend." I break our eye contact and look back down at my notes. "If you want to fuck around with somebody, go call Anthony."

"He's hot too." I hear her mutter under her breath. "He just seems like a moron."

"Well if you think that then don't bother talking to us in government anymore." I shake my head in annoyance. "You know, he was going to ask you out to the movies."