Hissy Fit (Southern Gentleman 1)

Now, if this had been my third period class, they’d be pounding at the door already asking for me to check their study guides.

“Whatever,” I muttered. “Seriously, what do you want?”

Ezra grinned.

Then he did the one thing I hadn’t expected.

He kissed me.

And my entire class behind me squealed—even the boys.

Ezra, laughing, left me there to deal with the havoc he’d created and sauntered down the hallway toward what I assumed was his office.

“That wasn’t nice, Mr. McDuff,” I called out to his back.

“It’s Coach McDuff, Ms. Crusie. Get it right.” He winked at me, then turned the corner to the hallway and disappeared.

My high lasted all of thirty minutes.

Why? Because one of my little turd-burglar students had posted a picture of Ezra giving me mouth to mouth, and I was reprimanded by Mrs. Sherpa to ‘keep it professional’ in front of students in a rather lengthy email.

I just knew that Ezra hadn’t gotten one, either.

My suspicions were confirmed when I texted him during the time between third period and lunch.

I was right.

He hadn’t gotten one.

But Coach Casper’s smug face, the first person I’d seen when I walked into the teacher workroom to grab my lunch, didn’t help.

“I hear that you were caught fraternizing,” she said stiltedly. “That’s quite unprofessional of you, isn’t it?”

I spilled balsamic dressing on my white shirt moments after that and then had to count to ten to keep myself from punching her in the nose.

It was Coach Casper giving me a mocking look that had what good mood Ezra had left me with disintegrating.

She’d sneered at me. “I just don’t know what he sees in you, but when he comes to his senses and comes crawling back, I’ll be here.”

“Crawling back?” I asked woodenly.

I didn’t want to know.

I didn’t want to know.

I should leave before she answered.

I didn’t leave, though.

Which proved to be part of my own stupidity.

I just couldn’t help myself, though.

I had to know what she was talking about.

Had. To.

“You didn’t know?” She snickered. “Ezra and I were a thing before you came along, tripping in front of him and giving yourself a bloody nose. That morning he’d spent the day in my bed.”

And that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Carefully picking up my Tupperware bowl that still had half of my salad in it, I tucked it gently into my lunch box and started out the door.

It was Coach Casper’s laugh that echoed through my brain all the way to Ezra’s office.

Ezra was busy when I entered his office.

He had on a pair of reading glasses I’d never seen him wear before, and he was talking on the phone to someone while discussing a play that had become illegal between the upcoming season and the last.

He saw me and frowned when he got a good look at my face.

“I gotta go,” he said into the receiver. “I’ll give you a call back tomorrow once I get more info on the rule. Right. Bye.”

Once he hung the phone up, he stood and started toward me, but I stopped him before he could get too close by holding my hand up.

“Stop,” I ordered, sounding sad.

He did, tilting his head to look at me.

“What’s wrong?”

I crossed my arms over my chest and tried not to scream at him.

But I had to know if it was true.

For some reason, it was extremely important to know whether he’d slept with her or not.

All this time, he’d been with me, but he’d at one time been with her.

“Coach Casper just told me that you and her slept with each other,” I said carefully, keeping an eye on his face.

Ezra blinked and then swallowed. “Yes. Before we were an item, I was with her a few times.”

And that was my heart shattering on his stupid shit brown concrete floor as it fell straight from my chest.

“You…” I looked down at my hands. “That’s…really shitty.”

Ezra stood up and started walking toward me, but I held up a hand and ordered him to stop. “No, don’t.”

He stopped, but not as far away as I would’ve liked at that moment in time.

I felt my insides quivering as I tried to think through what I wanted to say.

“Do you know what it feels like to be invisible?” I asked softly.

Ezra frowned. “What are you…”

“Because I do,” I continued, talking over him. “I know what it feels like, because I fought tooth and nail for you to see me since the first time I saw your face, and you never saw me.”

His eyes wide, he remained silent, and I suppose he was processing my words.

“You probably have no idea what it’s like because you’ve always been popular. Always gotten exactly what you wanted,” I murmured. “You’ve never been on the outside looking in. You’ve never sat there and wondered whether or not someone you had feelings for was going to look at you today, make eye contact and smile. I lived for those days, Ezra.” I paused. “And you never even knew how much they meant to me until right now, did you?”