Aftershocks (5 page)

“Jerk,” I muttered, as pushed the remote to lock my car a little too hard, shaking my head at the damage. My dad was going to be pissed.

“How do you know Connor Richmond?” Nicky asked then.

“He’s my neighbor,” I said, “and he hit me with his car on Saturday.”

Nicky stopped walking and grabbed my shoulder, turning me around so we were facing each other. “Excuse me?”

I relayed the story to her as we walked into school, ensuring her it wasn’t as bad as it initialy seemed. For some reason I omitted the part about him stopping by to apologize, and I wasn’t realy sure why. Maybe I didn’t want to admit that I’d been flirting with him. It was sort of embarrassing now.

“Asshole,” Nicky said, as we tried to find our lockers. They were a few feet from each other in the senior wing. “I mean, I thought he was an idiot before, but now he’s gone to a completely new level.”

I started to spin the combination lock but stopped and turned to face her. “What do you mean you thought he was an idiot? Do you know him?”

Nicky had opened her locker and was attaching the adhesive mirror she’d bought. As soon as she had it up, she started running her fingers through her long hair, combing it over her shoulders.

“I’ve seen him at some parties. I thought he was cute at first, but then I found out he was dating Alexis Blaine, and I lost a little bit of respect for him.

I groaned internaly feeling a sudden urge to bang my head repeatedly against my locker. Great, he was dating the girl who hated me, who I loathed for her being a freaking idiot and not knowing how much damage her mouth could cause. Awesome.

It would be fitting that Connor would choose her as his girlfriend and definitely cemented the fact that he was an ass – or just plain stupid. My vow to avoid him seemed that much more of a necessity at that point.

As Nicky went to A Hal for English, I went to B Hal for physics, but my efforts to get inside the classroom and get a good seat were thwarted when I saw that Alexis and Connor were blocking the doorway as they made out in the halway. Oh, the irony.

There she was, the girl I’d once considered to be one of my best friends. The very same girl who’d stabbed me in the back repeatedly the year before – petite and curvy with long, shampoo commercial worthy blond hair, propped up on four inch heels and suction-cupped to a guy who obviously had it in for me. I realy could not get away from him – or her for that matter. As much as I’d planned to artfuly avoid her that year, it seemed I was destined to not get my way.

I crossed my arms in front of my chest and tapped my foot, ready to say ‘excuse me’, when Connor finaly removed his lips from hers.

“I guess I’l see you at lunch, baby,” Alexis cooed up at him, her arms stil laced around his neck. She was using her high-pitched baby talk voice that made her sound like a two-year old. I turned my head and made a face at the wal. “I’m off to trig. Yuck, I hate math, and I am so not awake yet. Is this school ever going to get a Starbucks? I can’t handle it!” I roled my eyes. She was so dramatic.

“How about I bring you a latte tomorrow,” Connor said softly to her as he leaned down to kiss her forehead. As he puled back, she stood on her tip-toes, put her hand around his neck and pressed her mouth to his in a forceful manner. I could tel she’d surprised him a little.

I mentaly inserted my finger into my mouth to gag. Not only did I hate PDA, but for some reason, the fact that it was Alexis and Connor made it that much worse. For as much as I thought he might be different when I’d first started paying attention to him, it seemed Connor was just like his asshole friends.

“You’re the sweetest boyfriend ever!” she gushed before teling she’d see him at lunch. Then she turned around and stopped short when she saw me standing there. “Abby,” she said curtly. “Were you just watching us kiss?”

Her tone was accusatory and ful of disdain, but I wasn’t about to buy into what she was trying to sel. I wouldn’t let her rattle me. I knew I should just walk away, and not acknowledge her, but of course I didn’t do that.

“Hey Alexis,” I said, trying to be civil. I didn’t want a repeat of our altercations from the year before. I’d successfuly avoided her for almost a year. Now was not the time to rehash old fights.

“This is my boyfriend, Connor,” she said, gesturing behind her. “Please don’t try to hook-up with him.” Her voice was acidly sweet as she said it, but I could hear the venom behind it. “He’s not available.”

“Yeah, we’ve met,” I said, “and I have no intentions of stealing your boyfriend, Alexis.” I took a step closer to her.

“You stole Wes,” she said. “So I wouldn’t put it past you.” She took a step closer to me.

I roled my eyes, knowing it would annoy the shit out of her. “You never dated Wes. Just because you said he was cute didn’t mean you had dibs forever.”

I was not about to accept her attempts at re-writing history. Wes had been my boyfriend during most of our sophomore year, and Alexis had been pissy with me the whole time I was dating him, since she’d supposedly decided she liked him the week before we started dating. It should have been my first clue that she was insane.

“Besides, you hooked up Colin Gregory after I started dating him,” I continued. “You knew he liked me, and you went for him anyway.”

She stepped forward, glaring at me, and I was suddenly afraid she might hit me. She’d done it before. “It was paybacks for Wes.

Besides, Colin liked me better,” she said through gritted teeth.

I just smiled at her. “Then why did I date him for three months?” I countered. “He obviously liked me better.”

I was realy hoping she wouldn’t bring up Wyatt. He was the final nail in the death that was our friendship and the one person I didn’t have a snappy retort for when it came to what happened between the three of us. Besides it was just disrespectful if she brought him up now, but I think she knew that. Thankfuly she didn’t go there.

“Whatever,” Alexis said, glaring at me. “Just stay away from my boyfriend.”

“I wouldn’t touch him with a ten-foot pole,” I said, gesturing to Connor who was appraising us from a few feet away, looking slightly offended by either my comment or his girlfriend’s behavior. I wondered if this was the first glimpse he had into seeing that she was a psycho-bitch. “He’s al yours.”

“Everything okay?” Connor asked, choosing that moment to step in between us.

“Everything’s fine,” I said, not bothering to look at him and simultaneously wondering why he felt the need to butt in.

Instead I just pushed past them into the classroom, taking a seat in the middle of the room, my face burning with anger. I slammed my backpack to the ground and dug out my notebook.

I took deep breaths in and out to calm myself. It had been awhile since I’d let Alexis get under my skin like that, and I didn’t like the way it was making my blood boil. I’d gotten used to her jabs the year before about me being a lesbian as she passed me in the hal or the comments she made to her friends under her breath about how I was whore. I’d learned to ignore her, but it seemed I’d lost my ability to do that in the three months since I’d last seen her. I was fired up.

How dare she accuse me of stealing her boyfriend?! Again! Connor Richmond was seriously the last person I wanted to date – mostly because I was pissed off at him for hitting my car, but also because there was no way I’d want Alexis’s sloppy seconds.

I puled out my phone to text Wyatt, knowing he was the only person who’d understand. He hated her as much as I did. I wondered if he was even up. He’d caled me the night before to tel me he was headed to some party with some guy he’d met at the gym, and he was al excited. Apparently his gaydar had kicked in, and he’d made eyes at the guy from the treadmil the day before. To his surprise the guy had come over talk to him and they’d ended up grabbing coffee. Then they’d made plans to go out on Sunday night.

I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard him that happy. I didn’t think I could have been happier for him, but I certainly hoped he’d be up that morning to listen to me bitch about Alexis.

“Hey,” a voice said from in front of my desk.

I looked up mid-text to see Connor looking down at me apprehensively. He shifted his backpack on his shoulder uncomfortably, and I wondered if he was so wrapped around Alexis’s finger that he was now going to continue her battle. Wel, bring it on. I was already pissed off. He would get my wrath.

“What do you want?” I asked abruptly, looking back down at my phone, my fingers typing rapidly, as I tried to get off the note to Wyatt before class started. I hit send, but Connor stil hadn’t responded to my question. I looked up at him pointedly, raising my eyebrows to let him know it was okay to answer. Maybe he was slow.

“Are you okay?” he asked, completely surprising me.

I felt my face screw up into a look of confusion mixed with annoyance. “Yeah, I’m fine. Why do you care?”

I was wel-aware of the fact that I was being a bitch to him, but I just didn’t give a shit. I was super-pissed after my encounter with Alexis, and he was fueling my fire.

“You don’t seem fine. And I care. I just do.” His tone was passive, as if he was trying to calm me down.

“Connor, in case you didn’t notice, I’m kind of having a bad morning, and you seem to be the catalyst.” I started tick off the list on my fingers. “You rear-ended me, I couldn’t get into the classroom because you felt the doorway was your own personal make-out space, and your girlfriend was a bitch to me. I’m not sure you should be the one asking if I’m okay.”

Connor let out a long, slow breath. “I guess I deserved that.”

“I guess,” I said, looking back down at my phone. Wyatt hadn’t texted back, and I wondered if he’d had a late night with Gym Guy.

When I looked up, Connor was stil standing in front of my desk watching me.

“Can I help you?” I asked rudely, not able to prevent the bitchiness from flowing out of me.

“So, I get the distinct feeling that you think I’m a jerk,” Connor said then. “And I’m not realy okay with that, so I’d like to change your mind.” He smiled at me but it was an awkward, trying-too-hard kind of smile.

“Why? What do you care if I like you?”

Did you not hear my comment about not wanting to touch you with a ten-foot pole?

I wasn’t sure what he was looking for. Connor and I ran in different circles. He was dating Alexis Blaine. His world didn’t mix with mine. It wasn’t like we were going to be friends. What did he care what I thought of him? Besides, his girlfriend would hate it if she knew he was being nice to me.

I reached down to dig a pen out of my backpack, hoping the gesture would encourage him to pick a seat across the room. Mr. Winters had walked in and was starting to write on the whiteboard at the front of the room. We stil had a few minutes before class started, but my phone had just vibrated, so I knew Wyatt was texting me back.

“You weren’t realy watching us kiss, were you?” Connor asked then, and my blood started to boil again. If he thought that was the best way to make nice, he had another thing coming.

“Ugh, don’t be so ful of yourself,” I said, making a face at him, fuly aware of how nasty my tone was. “It wasn’t by choice. You were blocking the door. There weren’t many other places for my eyes to go.”

He turned and looked at the door to the classroom, as if trying to remember the scene out front before Alexis and I had started arguing.

“Oh, sorry,” he said, turning back to face me.

“Is that al you ever say?” I snapped, glaring up at him.

“No,” he said, as he adjusted his backpack on his shoulder again. Students were filing into the classroom, taking seats al around us. I wondered why Connor wasn’t folowing their lead. “I’m actualy quite articulate.”

“Great,” I said, giving him a pointed look to get moving before I opened my new notebook to the first page and wrote the date at the top.

Before I realized what was happening, Connor was taking the seat next to me.

“What are you doing?” My confused/bitchy sneer was directed right at him.

He leaned over to pul out a pencil and notebook from his backpack. “Getting ready for class,” he said, looking at me like I was mentaly unstable.

Then al of a sudden, his hazel eyes penetrated me in a way that succeeded in melting away my anger. My heartbeat quickened and my adrenaline pumped but in a different way than it had been a few minutes earlier. Suddenly it was like I forgot how to form words. I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.

My phone vibrated again, but I didn’t look down at it even though I knew it was Wyatt firing off questions about my altercation with Alexis.

“Look, I know we haven’t realy gotten off to a great start, and you did tel me to stay away from you,” Connor said, “but I’m realy good at science, so I figure I can be your lab partner. Consider it my way of making amends for everything.”

“Fine,” I said, turning back to face front, my cheeks burning in embarrassment, as I tried not to let him see that he’d been able to break through my icy exterior even though there was a theoretical puddle of water around my feet at that point.

He was just trying to be nice. I could at least give him a little credit for that, and as soon as the thought hit my brain, I knew something had shifted. I wondered how on earth I could go from hating someone one minute to lusting after him the next. It just wasn’t normal.

“So, I guess I’m off to English. A Hal is that way, right?” Connor asked, as we were leaving physics, pointing the wrong way. I reached up and moved his arm so it was pointing in the right direction.

After Mr. Winters had passed out our sylabuses and talked about what we’d be learning that year, he’d let us have the rest of the class to ourselves, so I’d gotten to talk to Connor a little more and decided I was on the fence about him being a jerk. Yes, he’d hit me and my car, and he had horrible taste in women, but that didn’t necessarily make him a bad guy.

I’d softened a little when he told about his old school in Austin and how he’d left behind friends he’d known for years. Starting over was hard, and I suddenly remembered the first night I’d seen him looking so distraught outside of his house. I again wondered who he’d been talking to and if his move to Massachusetts had fueled their disagreement.