“Apparently, A246,” I repeat, tongue firmly in cheek.
“Apparently.” He moves slightly ahead of me to push open the door. As he holds it for me, not one person darts through. Instead, they all wait patiently as I walk through, and I have the fleeting thought that this is more than just popularity, more than just fear.
This must be what royalty feels like.
It seems absurd to even think something so bizarre, but I make it through the door and down the hall without another body—besides Jaxon’s—coming within five feet of me. And I don’t care whether I’m in an elite boarding school in Alaska or a crowded public high school in San Diego, that is not normal.
I also realize that the same thing happened yesterday before the snowball fight. No matter how crowded the hall got or how much jostling went on, no one so much as touched Jaxon—or Macy and me, as long as he was standing with us. “So what do you do to deserve all this?” I ask as we move toward the staircase.
“Deserve all what?”
I roll my eyes at him, figuring he’s messing with me. But the blank look he gives me says otherwise. “Come on, Jaxon. How do you not see what’s going on here?”
He glances around, clearly mystified. “What’s going on?”
Because I still can’t decide if he’s playing with me or if he really is this obtuse, I just shake my head and say, “Never mind.” Then plow ahead and pretend that I don’t notice everyone staring at me even as they scramble to get out of my way.
So yeah, that whole blending-in plan I hatched in San Diego? Officially dead on arrival.
28
“To Be or Not to Be”
Is a Question,
Not a Pickup Line
Jaxon walks me right up to my classroom door—which we get to in what I’m guessing is record time, considering there’s no one else in the room, not even the teacher.
“Are you sure this is the right place?” I ask as we step inside.
“Yes.”
“How do you know?” I glance at the clock. Class should start in less than three minutes, and still nobody’s here. “Maybe we should check if it got—”
“They’re waiting for me to either sit down or leave, Grace. Once one of those things happens, they’ll come in.”
“Sit down or—” I goggle at him. “So you were just messing with me in the hallway? You do notice how people treat you?”
“I’m not blind. And even if I was, it would still be hard to miss.”
“It’s madness!”
He nods. “It is.”
“That’s all you’ve got to say about it? If you know how bizarre it is, why don’t you do something to stop it?”
“Like what?” He gives me that obnoxious smirk from the first day, the one that made me want to punch him. Or kiss him. Just the thought has my stomach spinning and has me taking a cautious step back.
He doesn’t like the added distance, at least not if his narrowed eyes can be believed. And the way he takes two steps toward me before continuing. “Stand up at the pep rally and reassure everyone that I’m not going to eat them if they get too close? Somehow I don’t think they’ll believe me.”
“Personally, I think they’re more worried about being thrown in high school jail than getting eaten—”
The smirk is back. “You might be surprised.”
“Well, then, you should reassure them. Be friendly. You know, show them that you’re harmless.”
I feel ridiculous even before that left eyebrow of his goes up. “Is that what you think? That I’m harmless?”
Jaxon doesn’t sound insulted so much as astonished, and really, I can’t blame him. Because I’ve never met anyone less harmless in my life. Just looking at him feels perilous. Standing next to him feels like walking a hundred-foot-high tightrope without a net. And wanting him the way I do…wanting him feels like opening a vein just to watch myself bleed.
“I think you’re just as dangerous as everyone gives you credit for. I also think—”
“Yo, Jaxon, at some point, class does need to start,” Mekhi interrupts as he saunters into the room—apparently the only one in this class who isn’t afraid of Jaxon. “You going to take off, or are you going to keep everyone standing around watching you try to woo this girl?”
Jaxon whips his head around to glare at Mekhi, who raises his arms defensively and takes a big step back. And that’s before Jaxon’s voice drops a full octave as he growls, “I’ll leave when I’m ready.”