Then again, like I said, I don’t even know if we’re real friends. It’s not like I tell him everything, so why should he?
Trust issues. I have them in spades. It’s no big secret. I trust no one, not anymore, not even Nate and West.
And maybe I’m not the only one. What a surprise.
“What’s up?” West braces a strong hand on the locker next to mine as he checks his phone. He’s not even looking at me, but I know he’s waiting for my answer.
I study his handsome face, olive skin stretched over strong cheekbones, long dark lashes over light blue eyes, a light scruff on his square jaw, and shoulders wide enough to rival Nate’s. They make girls go crazy. The shoulders, the linebacker body, the soft mouth and perpetual frown.
West is… intense. There’s no better word to describe the way he focuses on each task, from homework, to cooking—yeah, he cooks—to talking about the future.
Or looking at me.
He looks at me like he memorizes my face every single time, so I’m kinda glad he isn’t looking now, letting me get my fill.
When he finally glances up, I quickly turn away. “Syd?”
“Oh, nothing much.” I take out my books of the next classes and stuff them into my backpack. “You know. The usual.”
He runs his tongue over his lips and glances again down at his phone. “Cleaning the apartment?”
“What of it?” I shrug. I clean up in case Mom comes home and finds it like that. “Not a crime, is it?”
“Not to me. But you could come over, hang out with me.”
I close my locker, shooting him a smile. “Yeah?” He rarely offers, rarely seems interested in meeting with me outside of school.
“Yeah. Your folks never seem to be home anyway.”
It’s my turn to tense. And he doesn’t even notice. He’s engrossed in whatever he’s seeing on his phone.
I chew on my lip. “West?”
“Hm.”
“Someone important?”
“What?”
I nod at his phone. “Is that someone important? Should I leave you to it?”
My heart is pounding at the thought it could be a girl. Would he tell me about it? We’re just friends, sort of, and the guy turns heads wherever he goes. I’ve braced for this moment since I met him.
But he just puts the phone away into his back pocket and gives me a crooked grin. “Nah. Come on, we’ll be late for class.”
He turns, expecting me to follow him, and I have to run to keep up with his long strides. Such are the problems of short girls who hang out with tall guys.
“Hey, do you know who’s staying at Nate’s?” I ask as we enter the classroom.
“What?” He blinks at me, dark brows drawn together. I swear, this guy will have a permanently creased forehead by the time he turns twenty. “Staying at Nate’s?”
“Yeah.”
“And how would you know someone is staying there?”
Um. Because I saw the guy go in and not come out again? Not that I stayed up all night checking. But I don’t sleep all that much, and I stayed on the stairs for a long time after, playing games on my phone, so… Let’s just say that I’m pretty sure he didn’t leave during the night.
I shrug in reply.