The Bad Boy with a Heart of Gold

✖ Chapter 29 ✖

That afternoon during Yearbook activities my mind was anywhere but there. The other folks in the Yearbook Committee were discussing the layout and what kind of aesthetic we were going for, which was normally the kind of discussion that brought me to life, but not today. After that whole incident in the girl's bathroom I felt like I'd been drenched in cold water. Courtney and Lina had spent the entire day trying to downplay the whole episode like Lexie Cooper going all psycho on me was a one time thing only. Everything pointed at the fact that it wouldn't be.

Okay, so I loved attention. Just not this kind of attention. I wasn't used to being so in the spotlight as hanging out with Sawyer had put me. I always craved it but now that I had it I could see it was a scary world out there, when the light was over you but everything else around you was submerged in darkness. What kind of creatures lurked out there?

It turned out the answer was jealous exes.

I sat in a corner doodling on my notebook, not paying attention to anything around me, until the sound of knocking snapped me awake. I looked around and saw Sawyer outside the window. He ducked as soon as someone else also turned to find the source of the noise, but I excused myself for a moment and went outside the building. I found him crouching under the window of the classroom I'd been in. He quickly put away the cigarette he'd ben about to light up.

"You should quite those things," I said. "They don't make me want to kiss you."

His eyebrows went up. I also couldn't believe what I'd just said.

"So if I quit them you'll want to kiss me?"

I tucked my hair behind one ear. "Shouldn't you be in baseball practice?"

"Bold of you to call it practice when all I do is pick up the baseballs." He shrugged. "I'd rather skip practice and be with you."

I frowned. "You want to join Yearbook?"

Sawyer laughed and drew himself up to his full height. He pulled me closer to him by my hand. "Hell no, the only nerd I want to hang out with is you."

I was strangely flattered but I said, "Bold of you to assume I'll skip my extracurriculars to hang out with you."

Sawyer Logan did something I had never seen in my entire time knowing him.

He pouted.

I shook my head over and over. "Nope, not gonna bite."

His eyes shone as he leaned down, closer still, surprising me when he put his forehead against mine.

"What if I tell you," he started, his voice low and silky and doing things I didn't ask for. "That I want to take you out of here and go on our first date, like I promised."

"Don't the two parties going on a date usually have to schedule it in advance?"

He shrugged. "Scheduling is for boring people. Let's go have some fun, princess. Let me take you away from this shit."

My eyes rolled shut and he caught my weight. Maybe it was an exaggeration, but I felt like I was melting in his arms and was more than willing to let him whisk me away and save me from everything I didn't want to face. But I was a good girl, and good girls didn't skip commitments. It was bad enough that I'd already it done it once before.

"We'll only be here half an hour more, I'll meet you at the parking lot."

He sighed and laughed a little. "Fine."

Sawyer kissed the top of my head and I was glad to see I was not the only one having difficulty to extricate herself from the embrace. The last half hour of Yearbook Committee felt thrice as long. I dove into the discussion about the aesthetic with gusto and didn't even care when they convinced me to design some concepts by myself. I all but ran out to the parking lot, my heart pumping as much for the exercise as for the excitement. Sawyer sat on his motorbike in a way that made him look like a cowboy with a metal mount.