I rolled my eyes. “I don’t care about deflowering virgins, Mr. Rooney. I have enough headaches in my life because of women. Your warnings are insulting now.”
“You heard what I said.”
I did. I didn’t care. I’d talk to her, but I had no intention of anything else. Focusing on her again now, I frowned. “You have to talk. I’m not doing a presentation all on my own to prove that I did the work.”
She frowned. She had stopped becoming flustered after the first few days. Now she was hostile instead. I was starting to get sick of it. If I had done something to her, then yeah, I deserved it. Unlike most of my run-ins, I’d been nice to her.
Then she said, “I don’t want to be held back by you. This is important to me.”
I laughed.
She looked ready to piss her pants, but that made me laugh even more. “So you do think I’m a dumb jock?”
“No…” She did. I could see it in her eyes.
“I’m number one in our grade. If anyone holds anyone back, it won’t be me.”
Her mouth fell open an inch. She became flustered again. “You’re in the number one spot?”
I nodded. “Yep.” I flashed her a grin. “See. I’m not the typical dumb jock.”
“Oh.”
Then I reached for the worksheet with the instructions. “Hand it over. Let’s get this bitch done with.”
We worked the entire week together. Every day Marissa relaxed and by the end of the week, she was a chatterbox. I didn’t talk, but that was fine with me. I didn’t want to talk. Everyone else wanted me to talk. They wanted to know what I was thinking. They wanted to know an ‘in’ to get with me. Not her. Marissa did most of the talking for our presentation. She surprised everyone. I could tell no one expected her to be as enthusiastic or as confident as she was. A few of the guys were looking at her with interest.
She wasn’t bad to look at. A heart-shaped face, cute lips, a decent body underneath her baggy clothes. A few of them were giving her lewd looks and I knew they were imagining her naked. For some reason, that ticked me off. I blocked the view of one of the guys and he glanced up. He moved back, seeing the warning in my gaze, then he lifted his hands in the air. He didn’t lift them high, just off the table, but enough to show me he would back off. The others caught the motion. Marissa kept rambling on about the effects of desertification, but a new spark of interest went around the room. The others saw that I was protective of her. I glanced towards Kate. She was staring straight at me. She was dissecting me. Her eyes were clear and filled with interest. I frowned. I shouldn’t have done anything. There was a target on this girl now. Kate wasn’t going to forget the look I gave that guy.
Shifting back into place, Marissa paused, but I leaned against the wall and let her finish the speech. When she was done, Mr. Rooney asked, “Marissa, please tell me that you didn’t work alone on this project.”
“No.” She frowned, her hands grasping tighter onto her paper. “Why?”
He indicated me. “Because your partner didn’t say a word through the entire presentation.”
“That’s because he hates speeches.” She didn’t blink an eye. “He’s shy.”
The room burst out laughing. Marissa fell back a step, taken aback by their response, and then turned to me. She was confused.
“Why do you think I’m shy?”
Mr. Rooney came to the front of the class, shaking his head, chuckling. “Uh, Miss Hooper, I can think of a lot of words to call Mason Kade, but shy is not one of them. It’s not even close to any of them.”
“Tread lightly.”
He kept laughing, but held his hands up. “No offense intended.” The class continued to laugh except Kate. She was staring Marissa down like she wanted to tackle her. I tensed. That would be a battle.
When we took our seat, Marissa leaned close and whispered, “Why are they all laughing at me?”
“Because I’m not shy at all. If I was, that’d probably help me in life, but I’m not. Why do you think I’m shy?”
“Because you never talk.” She said it louder than she had intended and another roar went through the class. Her cheeks grew red and she ducked her head down. “Oh god.”
I glanced at Kate and saw her chewing the corner of her lip. If I didn’t talk, that meant I didn’t care for them. She knew that about me. The problem was that wasn’t true for Marissa. I enjoyed her presence, but for her own safety, I didn’t want Kate to catch onto that.
I sent Marissa an apologetic look before I cleared my throat. I made sure people could overhear me, “Why would I talk? You don’t need encouragement to talk more.” It wasn’t that hurtful, but I knew people would take it as that. I was throwing her under the bus. As hurt flared in the depths of her eyes, I wanted to explain it to her. But I couldn’t. Then I snuck a look back again. Kate had gone back to flirting with a guy.
Damage was done.
Marissa went back to not talking to me. After class, she fled to the hallway and the next month was strained between us. It wasn’t until one day when I stayed for extra training and had showered. It was late, around six in the evening. I was heading for the parking lot when she turned the corner. When she saw me, she squeaked. Her hands clenched around her book, but she lost her footing and fell to the floor. I could’ve caught her. My hand had started to reach out, but I kept it held back. She didn’t need my help. I’d only be damning her.
“Oh ugh.” She moaned, standing up, brushing off the back of her pants. “That was embarrassing. Ouch.” She looked up, and then hung her head again. “You’re still there.”
I glanced around. There was no one else around so I grinned. “Were you expecting me to leave?”
“That’s your reputation. You’re an asshole, right?”
I winced, but she had a point. “When was I an ass to you?”
She scowled at me. “You know.”
“That was for your own good.”
She rolled her eyes and scoffed. “Please.”
“It was.”
“Right. Because I’m in danger, right? You have a reputation for being an ass, but not for screwing with someone’s mind and feelings. You’re known for saying it how it is.”
“I am.”
She shook her head and began to turn away. “You’re just screwing with me. You’re like those other guys.”
She started to walk away, but I caught up with her and grabbed her arm. “What other guys?”
Jerking her arm away, anger flashed across her face. “Back off, buddy. All those other girls may fall all over you, but that doesn’t mean you can touch just anybody.” Rubbing where I had grasped her arm, she scowled at me. “I’m not one of those girls. I don’t care about you. Not at all.”
A firm look came over her. I tried to hold back a grin. She looked like a pissed off Chihuahua.
“You think this is funny?”
“Sorry.” My grin vanished. “Look, I had to be mean. Kate was noticing you.”
“Noticing me? She used to pick on me, but that stopped.”
“She did?”
“Yeah, from the first time we worked together on a project…” Her voice trailed off when she saw my reaction. “What?”
“It was because of me?”
She nodded. A stark note appeared in her gaze. “Yeah. It’s been on and off all year. Tate too—”
“What?”
“Yeah.” She was becoming scared again. “Don’t tell them I said anything. Don’t say anything to them at all. It’ll get worse. I know it. I—” She curse
d.
My eyebrows shot up when I heard words from my daily vocabulary.
When she saw the surprise, she rolled her eyes. “Right. Like you’re the only one with a potty-mouth. I don’t think so.”