“I’d like to walk you to your class,” I said.
“No!”
I frowned. “Why not?” Even to my ears I sounded like a petulant child.
“Caleb, I’ll see you later, okay?” Her voice was firm as she waved goodbye and walked away as fast as she could.
Why did I feel like she didn’t want to be seen with me? Was she ashamed of me?
Me—Caleb Lockhart, MVP and most prized catch on campus—shot down by an antagonistic girl.
I knew girls loved to talk about their feelings. Red was the only girl I knew who didn’t. Something must have happened to her to make her wary. Maybe an ex-boyfriend? Just the thought of her having an ex-boyfriend made me want to kill someone.
I’d never been possessive of anyone or anything. I wasn’t a possessive person. Was I?
If not, why did I want to punch that guy’s face when I saw him checking her out as she passed him? I gave him a hard glare so he’d get the message.
Shit, I was definitely possessive of her. First time that’s happened.
It wasn’t like she encouraged me. Far from it. But here I was chasing after her, feeling like a desperate, jealous, insane person. This was getting so messed up.
“Red!” I yelled down the hallway.
She turned to look at me, horrified, and then she started half jogging and half walking away from me. I caught up to her easily.
“Why don’t you want to be seen with me? Are you ashamed of me?” I asked incredulously. I couldn’t, for the life of me, understand her.
And I must have been screwed up in the head, but I loved that. I loved that I couldn’t figure her out, that she was giving me a hard time.
“Everyone is looking!” She gritted her teeth.
“So?”
“So!”
I snatched her backpack from her, wrapped my hand around her arm to keep her from walking away, and scooped her off her feet.
“Everyone!” I yelled in the hallway. “She’s mine. If you touch even a hair on her head, I will hunt you down. Now spread the word far and wide.”
I heard people laugh and cheer. Someone yelled, “You’re the man, Lockhart!”
Red’s eyes were as big as saucers, and her mouth was open in horror.
“What did you do?” she moaned, covering her face with her hands.
“I’m protecting you.”
“Bullshit. You were staking your territory, and I told you how I feel about that.”
I loved it when her eyes blazed.
“You’re mine. Face it.” I put her down.
She eyed me for a moment, still looking like she wanted to kill me, before blowing out a breath and turning away.
I watched her walk away from me.
Would she turn around and look at me?