Riley’s gaze landed behind my shoulder again, before she blushed and quickly looked away. “Okay, that’s it. What’s going on?”
“What?” She feigned innocence, batting her long lashes at me.
I half-looked over my shoulder before facing her again. “Him. You keep looking at him and blushing. What’s up?”
“Nothing.” She was too quick with the denial. I called bullshit.
“Riley, who is he?”
I saw the moment she gave in. Her eyes softened, and she chewed on her bottom lip. “That’s Grayson.”
“And?” I kicked her under the table, demanding more answers.
“I heard some whispers in the hallway. They weren’t really nice. He was bullied a bit last week. Jasper and his friends were being assholes, but Grayson just ignored them and walked away. Apparently, he was living on the streets for a while before he was recently adopted by a famous lawyer and his wife. They can’t have kids. We don’t know much about him yet, but he’s in two of my classes.”
I looked over my shoulder again, finally taking a good look at Grayson who was sitting at the far end of the cafeteria in a corner by himself. “I didn’t know you were into nerds.”
Grayson wore a black pair of glasses perched on his nose, and he was reading a book. I could see the appeal and definitely understood why he caught Riley’s eye.
“He’s a nerd, but did you see him? He’s hot with a capital H O T. But he’s kinda moody. He doesn’t really talk to anyone. Typical loner. But he’s smart and we bumped into each other last week. Remember the bruises on my knees? Yeah, Grayson took me to the infirmary after I fell down, and he noticed my knees bleeding.”
Aha… I remembered that incident. I had found Riley in the infirmary; she was alone, but now that I remembered – she had been blushing heavily and was a stuttering mess.
“Well, at least he’s not an asshole.”
Riley let out a dreamy sigh. “He’s sweet. Except he barely spared me a glance. I said hi to him a few times, and he just…ignored me. Apparently, he doesn’t like when people talk to him.”
“I didn’t think the nerdy ones were your type…”
The last boy Riley dated was a jock and an asshole. After Jasper, it made sense why she’d swear off all the guys like him.
“Fine, I’ll confess my secret. I like nerds. There’s just something attractive about them.”
I couldn’t deny that Grayson was indeed appealing to the eye.
“Hot and moody nerds, you mean.”
Riley popped a piece of mint gum into her mouth. She looked over my shoulder again, where her new crush was sitting. “Exactly,” she chirped.
I quirked up an eyebrow at her. “Grayson, specifically.”
“Yeah. Too bad he won’t even look at me.” The pout was evident in her voice.
“Is that why you wore extra makeup today, curled your hair, and rolled your skirt higher?”
I already knew the answer, but I still wanted to hear it from her.
A nervous laugh bubbled out of her, and she twirled a lock of hair around her finger. “You noticed that?”
My sweet friend. Gripping her hand over the table, I gave her a small, comforting squeeze. “Just be yourself, Riley. If he likes you, you’ll know.”
She let out a sigh, her eyes moving to Grayson one last time before she focused on me. “So, what’s up with you and Maddox?”
I crooked my finger at her, and Riley leaned closer, as if we were about to share a secret. It kind of was – a secret.
“He wants a fight? I’m going to give him a fight.”
Riley’s face lit up, and a huge smile spread across her lips. “We’re going to be bad?”
Well, if she put it that way… then yeah, we were about to be very bad.
“Oh, we’re going to play his games, but with my rules.”
She slapped the table loud enough to rattle our trays and smirked. “I’m in!”
My lips twitched, and I held back my own smile. Maddox was about to be bested at his own little, shitty game.
“Can you see him?” I asked, leaning closer to Riley. It was two hours after school, and we were hiding in the hallway, which also overlooked the huge football field. Where, very conveniently, the boys were practicing. They had a very important game in a week, and I heard the coach was being extra hard on all their asses.
“I can’t believe we’re hiding with binoculars, Lila. But yeah, I can see him. He’s playing just fine. Did you put a lot of the powder in his pants?”
“No, just a little, but enough to make him lose his mind.”
An unladylike snort came from Riley. “You’re so petty.”
I let out a mock gasp, but the urge to defend myself was strong. “He started it.”
“Aha! Okay, he just stopped in the middle of the game.”
“Yeah?”
Riley looked into her binoculars, her shoulders shaking with mirth. “Oh, he looks confused. The coach is walking over to him. Lila!” she whispered-yelled, before bursting into laughter. “He’s scratching at his inner thighs now. Oh my God, he looks like a monkey. The boys are hollering. Oh, oh, shit. He’s walking back this way. Ohhh, he looks pissed!”
Good.
“How pissed?” I demanded, feeling mighty proud of myself. Maddox was made of rock. He was untouchable, and if little ole me, Lila Garcia, could get him this pissed off – then I won.
“He’s reaaally mad. He’s still scratching himself. You should see the look on his face!”
Riley handed me the binoculars, and I looked through them. True to her words, Maddox was marching across the field like a mad bull. His face was filled with rage, his nostrils flaring like a wild beast. He was seething, and I could bet, he figured out what happened. Maybe not who was behind the prank, but at least what was done to him. It should have scared me, the brutal look on his face, but I couldn’t help but chortle with laughter at the way he couldn’t stop scratching at his muscled thighs and crotch.
As if he could sense me, his stormy eyes connected with mine through the binoculars, although I was sure there was no way he could see me. Riley and I were hidden perfectly.
But just in case, I lowered myself to the ground. “Hey, are you sure… it’s safe? I mean, I wanted to prank him, but what we did isn’t too extreme, right?”
Riley waved away my concerns. “Nah. He’ll be fine. The itching powder doesn’t leave any lasting side effects. It’s harmless. I kinda feel bad for Maddox Junior though.”
My jaw clenched as I remembered the cafeteria scene where he had cornered me. “He deserves it after the comment he made in the cafeteria. He propositioned me for sex, like I’m some kind of paid who–”
Riley slapped a hand over my mouth before I could finish my sentence. “Shh, he’s coming in.”
We both ducked around the corner, the same time Maddox stormed into the building and right into the locker room.
“I feel like a spy,” Riley announced in my ear, giggling softly.
Basically, we were spying on him.
Riley and I snuck closer to the locker room. The door was partially opened, and we peeked inside. It was empty, since everyone else was on the field – except Maddox. From where we stood, we could hear the shower running.