Playing With Fire

I woke up earlier than usual the next morning, the idea of a party still fresh on my mind. I could absolutely not wait to tell Autumn, she had to come. I hadn’t had a drink since I was dating Ryan back home. That was our escape together, drinking. It felt like we always got along if we had a beer in our hand and good company around. But every time we got in the car, all hell broke loose…

I pushed myself out of bed and jumped in the shower. Fifteen minutes later, I hopped out and towel dried my hair, french braiding it all the way down my back. I pulled on dark blue jeans, a t-shirt and some black Vans Clayton bought me in hopes I would start to ‘fit in.’ I put a light layer of foundation on, lined my eyes and coated my lashes with an extra coat of mascara. I ran down the steps and out the door, briefly saying hello to my mother, who was in the kitchen.

Clayton had started riding with Matt to and from school, but I preferred walking. I feel like I always got a good start to the day when I got fresh air. But that always got shot to shit right when I walked in the doors of the high school. Especially today.

“Hey, Cailey Jo!” I heard someone running up behind me. I turned around to see, you guessed it, Matt. I turned back around and continued walking to class. I may be new here, but I’m not stupid. He began to walk with me. “Did you walk to school this morning?” I nodded. “Why? Clayton rides with me, you might as well too.”

I tried to quicken my pace, wishing I didn’t have a class at the complete end of the hallway. “No thanks, I enjoy the fresh air.” Which was true, but I would rather walk in a blizzard than give into riding with Matt.

“It’s a pretty far walk. C’mon, just ride home with us today,” he grabbed my arm as I went to walk into my class. I turned and studied his eyes for a few moments. He seemed like he was genuinely trying to be nice, but I highly doubt it. “I’m just being nice. Let me.” I refuse to give in that easy.

“I have tutoring. Thanks though, maybe next time,” I smiled and turned away, walking through the door into my class. I noticed Autumn was already sitting in her seat, her eyes following me all the way to my seat. She smirked at me as I got my notebook out of my backpack.

Finally, she revealed what she was thinking. “So, Matt Sanders, huh? I knew you liked football players.” I chuckled inwardly. Not at all. I explained to her that Matt was Clayton’s friend but she wouldn’t take no for an answer. “I see the way he eyeballs you! He likes you, for sure.”

This time I chuckled out loud, “Definitely not, my brother would kill him.” The teacher entered the room and class began. Every couple of minutes, I would notice Autumn glance at me out of the corner of her eye, grin and shake her head. I knew what she was thinking, but I refused to let her believe it.

An hour of class passed by slowly but surely. The bell rang and it slightly startled me. Autumn and I rose from our seats and began to walk to our next class.

“Why don’t you give Matt a chance? He seems to be really chasing you, and he never does that. Girls usually chase him,” she asked as we walked down the hallway. I found myself slightly tuning her out while absentmindedly scanning the halls for any sign of my tutor.

“Yeah, I know. That’s why I won’t give him a chance,” I laughed and continued scanning. “I don’t want to be with someone like that. Too much drama, wears me out just thinking about it.” Autumn nodded, understanding my reasoning.

“Well, I know you’ve seen some cute guys. I’d be surprised if you hadn’t by now,” she replied. Zack’s emerald eyes immediately flashed in my mind, but I shook them away quickly. I couldn’t have a crush on him, he was unbearable as a human. Cute, but awful.

“Haven’t really been looking,” I said quietly as Ryan’s face popped up in my mind. She looked at me sympathetically, knowing exactly what I was thinking. I had briefly told Autumn about Ryan and I’s relationship. I told her our relationship was fun, but he started to get mean before I moved, and for some godforsaken reason, I still missed him. I left out the severe physical and emotional abuse, but I’m sure she figured that out herself.

Just then, I remembered the most exciting news I had completely forgotten about. I giddily stopped, turned to her and grabbed her hands. “Oh my God, I totally forgot! My brother is having a party for his birthday and Halloween in a couple weeks. I think I’m gonna talk him into making it a costume party. You have to come!”

Autumn’s face went from excitement to disappointment within a couple seconds. “I wish, my parents would never let me go to a party. They’re so strict, it’s stupid.” My expression dropped and I let go of her hands. I quickly tried to think of something to say to cheer her up.

“Well, I’m sure we can figure something out so you can come,” I finally said, smiling to her. She gave me a reassuring smile and we continued walking to class.

The rest of the day passed relatively quickly, my mind bouncing between Ryan and Zack. They were absolutely opposite of each other, so I had no idea what I saw in Zack. Just the fact he was physically attractive, I suppose. But why hadn’t his shitty attitude towards me turned me off yet? But Ryan’s abuse hadn’t turned me off of him yet either….My mind is a fucking mystery.

2:30 rolled around, and I was prepared to sit in the library by myself for the next hour, doubting Zack would make his appearance. A couple minutes passed as I sat at the same table Zack and I had sat at the previous day when I saw a figure approaching. They stood there briefly before clearing their throat, causing me to look up at them. Zack.

“Mind if I sit here?” he asked sweetly, showing off a pretty smile. He had done a complete 180 from his shitty attitude yesterday. Maybe he was bipolar, or had multiple personality disorder.

I looked back down at my homework before replying. “That’s where you’re supposed to be, isn’t it?” I snapped back. He sighed quietly and sat down across the table from me. I continued working as I felt his eyes fall on my paper, watching my hand scribbling down random numbers that felt right.

He finally spoke up again after a few minutes. “You’re doing that wrong.” I quickly looked up at him, already annoyed with his tone. He saw the look in my eyes and caught on to my annoyance. He corrected himself, “You have to get all the variables on one side of the equation and the integers on the other side.” My look went from annoyed to confused. He motioned for my pencil and paper and he began doing the problem I was struggling with.

After just a minute or two, he finished the problem and I looked at him in half amazement, half puzzled. I didn’t know what to think, and he could tell. “It just comes naturally to me, it’s easy,” he explained. He instructed me through the next couple of problems, talking no more than he had to.

Within half an hour, I was doing the problems on my own with a newfound confidence. I glanced up at him and we briefly made eye contact before he dropped his eyes to the table and looked as if he wanted to say something unrelated to algebra tutoring.

“I’m sorry about yesterday. I’m not usually that big of an asshole, I just really didn’t want to do this,” he explained. I stopped writing briefly and studied his face.

“So why are you?”

“It was either this or detention everyday for a month straight and I wouldn’t be able to play baseball in the spring.” Ahh, so he was a baseball player. I always had a thing for athletes, whether I knew it at the time or not.

“So you’re doing this as a punishment, not because you want to help someone?” I laughed, unamused. Of course I got the shitty tutor who doesn’t want to help anyone but themselves.

“Uhh, well yeah I guess, if you put it that way,” he looked down at the table again, obviously embarrassed. He fidgeted with his hands and tried to think of something to say to fill the awkward silence. A few moments went by before I spoke.

“What did you do to earn this type of punishment?”

He paused and studied my face, deciding whether he could trust me or not. He bit his lip and reluctantly continued. “Mrs. Thompson caught me skipping class and smoking outside the gym.” I glanced up at him. Did I fail to mention I had a thing for bad boys as well? “And I had a bottle of Jack in my backpack,” he added, refusing to make any eye contact. I shook my head and chuckled. He continued, “So, she said she could take me to the office and I’d have a whole world of shit to deal with, or I could tutor one of her other students until they got their grade up and she wouldn’t tell anyone.”

“And I just happened to be the lucky one,” I said sarcastically to myself, hoping he didn’t hear me.

“I figured it wouldn’t take someone a month to get their grade up, so I took the deal,” I felt his eyes lock on me, causing me to look up at him before he continued. “So, I’ll be willing to help you if you give me another chance,” he pulled the corner of his mouth, grinning slightly. I hesitated, taking in his every feature. Hell, what did I have to lose?

“I’ll consider it,” I replied as I tried to hide my grin. I watched the corner of his mouth slide into a full, teeth baring, smile.

“Works for me.”

Notes

Chapter four, hollllla. Let me know what you guys think. Comment, subscribe, message! Thank you guys for reading! :)

Title credit: Kacey Musgraves "Follow Your Arrow"