Strung (Seaside 0.5)

“Right.” She started backing up. “Um, like I said, nice meeting you. I’ll just…” Yeah she turned and practically ran away.

“Dude,” Demetri swore, “Stop scaring them off.”

“I wasn’t scaring her off,” I said defensively, “I just didn’t want to be late for class.”

The tardy bell rang.

“For real?” Demetri threw his head back and laughed. “Who died and made you a nerd? Can they even give us tardy slips? We’re new.”

“Whatever,” I snapped. “Let’s just go.”

Of course the same class that the cute girl ran into was the exact same class we were going to.

And it was just my luck that the teacher looked like he’d swallowed a lemon when we walked in a few seconds late.

The teacher introduced us.

And bowed.

He freaking bowed!

My eyes scanned the room. All male expressions — totally bored. The girls? Yeah, looked overheated. I looked at every face, memorizing them, categorizing them, and purposefully chose not to look at Nat.

The last thing I needed was to burn into my memory the way her lips looked when she smiled, or those damn eyelashes. Were they fake or something?

“Well” — the teacher clapped — “Again, welcome to Seaside High.”

Demetri strutted towards the empty seat; I followed, my body tensing as I passed Nat’s desk.

I wasn’t sure if it was her or if it was just the ridiculous sexual charge in the air, but her pen fell from her desk right onto my feet.

Without thinking, I bent over to pick it up. Hey I wasn’t a complete ass!

I picked up the pen and held it in front of her; our faces were inches apart. Her eyes dilated as her breathing picked up noticeably. I flexed my fingers around the pen and stared. I stared so hard I was surprised I didn’t break that pen in half.

“I think” — I cleared my throat — “You dropped this.”

Our fingers brushed as I handed the pen back to her and walked to my empty seat.

My fingers were still buzzing by the time I sat down.

My heart was beating so hard it almost hurt.

A few seconds after I sat, she turned around and stared at me.

I met her gaze and all but jumped out of my chair and attacked her with my mouth.

I could make out the screen form her phone, a picture of me and Demetri was splashed across the front.

Just as I was about to give her a cocky grin, the teacher snatched her cell phone and said she’d get it back after class. Wanting to play the superhero, but lacking the know-how, I jumped to my feet and approached the desk.

“Actually,” Holy hell what was I doing? “That’s my phone, sorry about that.” I snatched the phone out of the teachers hands and on my way back to my desk slid my iPhone 5 across Nat’s desk.

Our fingers met again.

My knees threatened to buckle. I was officially losing my mind why the hell had I saved her like that?

When I finally took my seat and stuffed her cell phone in my pocket, I was shaking.

“Dude,” Demetri whispered, “There are easier ways to get a girls number, you know that right?”

My laugh was hollow, “Right, I was just helping… not hitting.”

“Hitting?” Demetri tapped his pencil against the table.

“On her, I wasn’t hitting on her.” I whispered back.

Demetri elbowed me and nodded in her direction. “Well, that’s a shame, she’s really pretty.”

“Yeah.” I cleared my throat. “I guess.”

“You don’t mind then?” He squinted at me like I’d completely lost it. “I mean you saw her first.”

“No.” I half laughed. “Hell no. Go for it man, you deserve some happiness, right?”

The first real smile I’d seen in a long time spread across his face. “Yeah. Thanks, I mean, that’s really cool of you.”

I shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal. I shrugged and I freaking stared at her the entire class.

Damn. I was in some deep shit.

CHAPTER FOUR

Demetri

“SO, WHAT ARE you doing tonight?” I leaned close to Nat’s body, nervousness rolled off of her in waves.

“Homework.” She slammed her locker door and smiled. “And you?”

“Whitney,” I teased.

“Huh?” Her eyebrows pinched together like she actually didn’t get my joke about banging one of the cheerleaders. Aw hell, tell me I wasn’t flirting with a virgin. That’s just what I needed. A girl who didn’t know how to kiss and thought that sex was called making love. Kill me now.

My smile grew as a comfortable silence settled over our conversation. “I’m kidding, girl. You really need to get out more.” And I would be more than happy to show her all that needed to be shown.

“Okay.” She didn’t return my smile, if anything she looked pissed off like I’d just told her I was going to drive over to her house and kick her puppy.

Nat turned her back on me — like I didn’t matter. Like I wasn’t Demetri Daniels. Seriously?

Moving in front of her, I braced her shoulders and tried again. “What’d I do?”

I caressed her shoulders, running my hands up and down her arms, memorizing the way she felt beneath my touch. Yeah, she’d be fun. And she’d be beautiful, freaking beautiful. I couldn’t wait to taste her, to peel back all those layers until she was naked beneath me. My eyes widened so I could take more of her in — drink her until I was satisfied.