Tuesdays and Thursdays I had a BCIS class for my computer course that I was required to take, and another bullshit elective class in the office that was just me doing a bunch of errands.
The other hour I spent there consisted of lunch and then me leaving at one-thirty.
My hope was that I could switch my schedule around to have two days completely off.
I was so caught up in what I was doing and going to say to my counselor that I didn’t pay attention to the police cruiser in front of me until a loud brrrrp had me jumping three feet in the air.
I turned, my glare ferocious, and saw Derek laughing his ass off in the front seat of his cruiser.
“Bitch,” I muttered darkly, hurrying down the sidewalk.
He rolled behind me, keeping the same pace as me.
“Get in,” he said, rolling the window down.
I rolled my eyes and ignored him.
“Now why would I do a thing like that?” I asked acidly.
God.
Derek pissed me off.
But he was also gorgeous as hell.
Today he was in a black polo and a black ball cap.
And the things that ball cap did to his jawline.
I didn’t think the thing actually did anything to his jawline, but with the cap on his head, it made his jaw the first thing that I looked at.
“Come on,” Derek urged. “I was going to give you a ride here this morning, but by the time that I got to your place, you’d already left. How did you get here?”
I snorted. “I called a cab.”
He came to a stop next to me and got out.
“I was going to give you a ride.” He came around the front of the cruiser and blocked my path. “You didn’t think I’d seriously leave you to get here on your own, right?”
I didn’t know what to think.
I mean, logically I knew he’d give me a ride if I’d asked him. But I hadn’t asked him.
In fact, I’d been downright mean to him yesterday.
“Come on,” he urged. “What time do you have to be back at your school?”
I reluctantly looked down at my watch and crinkled my nose. “In about an hour.”
And that was to make it in time for my class. Not to talk to the counselor.
“Then you can come sit at lunch with me and eat a sandwich,” he suggested, latching onto my wrist.
I felt heat lick up my arm from where his whole hand engulfed half my arm and barely resisted the urge to shiver.
“Let me go,” I ordered.
Derek did, only after he led me to the passenger seat of his cruiser.
“Come on,” he urged. “You know you’re hungry.”
I wasn’t hungry.
I was tired.
I could eat, yes. But I would much rather take a nap than eat.
“I’m actually more tired than hungry,” I sighed as I buckled my seatbelt and leaned my head against the door.
“How about Subway?” he suggested.
I wasn’t going to argue.
In fact, I was going to rest my eyes and ignore him the entire way.
Which was exactly what I did.
Only, I hadn’t expected him to order food and get me to the school, all the while I was knocked the fuck out in his front seat.
When he finally deigned to wake me, I jolted forward to find a sandwich in my lap and myself parked in the front of the school.
I blinked blearily as I stared at the front doors of the school that was my life’s bane.
Then sleepily turned my head to look at Derek.
“I…” I was confused.
“It sure doesn’t take you long to go to sleep,” he commented.
I looked at the dashboard in front of me.
“No,” I admitted. “I’m notorious for falling asleep. I’m a terrible navigator because I can’t seem to keep my eyes open. If I’m in a car and not driving for longer than five minutes, I’m going to be asleep. I don’t know why, either. Just something that I’ve always done.”
He grinned. “That’s not totally a bad thing, I guess.”
I shrugged, then looked at my watch.
It’d been forty minutes.
“You have enough time to eat,” he said. “Or go inside and do whatever it is one does before school.”
“I have to go talk to the counselor,” I murmured softly. “I’m going to see if they can switch my classes around so that I’m not going to an hour of class here, and an hour of class there.”
Derek seemed to understand, then gestured toward the sandwich. “Well take that and go then. I’ll be here tonight to pick you back up. Just be warned that it’s going to be on my bike, though.”
“Your bike?” I asked, hand on the door handle to leave.
“Yeah,” he confirmed. “I need to run it. And with it being so nice out today, I thought I’d take it for a ride after I dropped you off.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to ask for him to take me along for that ride, but then I remembered the last time that I’d asked him out. How he’d practically laughed in my face.
So yeah, there would be no asking him to give me a ride on the back of his bike.
“I can take the bus,” I told him honestly. “But thanks for the offer.”
His eyes narrowed. “If you don’t meet me here after school lets out, I’ll pull every fuckin’ bus over looking for you.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Derek, I’m the first one off. By the time that you found out which bus it was that I was on, I’d already have been home for twenty minutes.”
He narrowed his eyes at me, suddenly pissed. “I’m not letting you ride the fucking bus.”
I snorted. “Derek, honey. You don’t have a choice in my life. You were the one to see to that.”
With that, I waved my sandwich at him and took off, heading into the school.
Ugh. Why did that man make me so fucking mad?
He’d literally lost the chance to treat me like anything but a friend.
***
Derek
I’d played the system a bit and called to ask when school let out. Then when I’d gotten there, I’d met with the school resource officer to help me find out what class Avery was in.
Eventually when class did finally let out, I was waiting outside her classroom door for her to exit.
She was the last one out, and where everyone else came out talking and laughing, Avery wasn’t doing either.
And she was also all alone.
I frowned when she didn’t first see me, following behind her as she made her way out of the school.
Her eyes were downcast as she navigated the hallway, weaving in and out of the people there as if she didn’t want to be seen.
The thing was, she wasn’t seen.
It was like she was invisible.
Today she wore a black pair of leggings, a black t-shirt that fit her but was still big, and a black pair of Keds.
Her long black hair was up in a high ponytail and her glasses were purple.