—it’s not normal. Seriously.”
He grinned, dimples so deep they must’ve jabbed into his jawbone. “You’re nothing I can’t handle.”
Chal enge glinted in his eyes. “You’re not as bad as you think,” he whispered, backing me against a wal , arms boldly bracketing my body. “And if you want to be bad, you can certainly be bad with me.”
I shuddered, watching his pupils enlarge, eyes darkening just before he closed them and pressed his mouth against mine, silencing my protest.
Someone cleared their throat and Derek pul ed back from me, fingers tight on my upper arm as he swung around to see who dared interrupt. My eyes opened and I saw Amy and Pietr standing across the hal way, students rushing between us, released from the cafeteria.
Amy glared at Derek with al the venom she had, hands bal ed into fists by her hips. She hadn’t had a problem with me liking Derek until Pietr showed up. It seemed he’d changed everything.
Pietr was staring.… I blinked. At my pendant.
“What are you looking at?” Derek flared, his gaze jumping from Pietr’s daring eyes to my neckline.
“Wait,” he commanded as I moved to tuck the amber heart back beneath my col ar. My fingers twitched and paused. I looked at Pietr.
Pietr’s eyes slid to Derek’s—cool and uncaring.
“Is this yours?” Derek snarled, slipping his hand between the pendant and my col arbone, throwing the words at Pietr.
Pietr watched him, stil as stone.
Derek shook my arm, and I faced him. “This is his leash—his choke chain. You’re smarter than wearing some necklace he gave you while he’s dating Sarah.”
I looked down.
“Aren’t you? Dammit! ” There was a snap and I gasped, feeling the slender chain give way under Derek’s grip. He hurled the pendant at Pietr.
In one fluid move Pietr had the pendant—my heart—in his hand, his eyes never leaving Derek’s incensed face.
“Get this through your thick skul , Rusakova. She’s not yours. Not anymore.”
My stomach knotted, my chest so tight it was hard to breathe.
With a growl, Derek towed me away.
Pietr final y real y watched me.
Leaving.
Derek deposited me at my next class. I fought the whole period to concentrate on anything but the fact that Derek had achieved what Pietr had wanted.
Derek had made my split with Pietr undeniably clear.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
In social studies class the next day Pietr sat in the back of the room instead of the spot beside me in the front row. Derek took the empty seat, saying he thought his grades would improve if he sat closer to the teacher and someone as smart as me.
I wondered what that implied about the intel igence of our footbal team members since I was only pul ing B’s and C’s at best and he original y sat with them.
Derek took ample notes throughout class, even circling a phrase Mr. Miles repeated twice that I somehow overlooked. I was usual y more together in Mr. Miles’s class, but sitting beside Derek was like sitting beside the sun. I couldn’t help noticing how he shined.
When the bel signaled the end of class Pietr brushed between Derek’s desk and mine, heading straight for Mr. Miles. I tried not to eavesdrop, but the temptation was too great. Slowly I put away my pen. My pencil. My notebook. My textbook. My ears perked for any bit of their conversation.
My resolve to establish a new normal excluding Pietr had wavered almost as soon as I’d caught sight of him again. Stupid heart. Stupid girl.
“I do not change service learning assignments without need, Mr. Rusakova.” Mr. Miles looked grave.
Change his service learning assignment? My throat constricted. Sure, Pietr and I didn’t actual y talk during service learning anymore, but it was stil better to have him nearby than not. Most of the time.
When it didn’t hurt me.
Oh, hel .
Pietr glanced over his shoulder at me, peeved I was stil not out the door. Derek’s buddies passed by, slapping him on the back, jostling and joking with him. Each tried in his own way to coax Derek away with them—away from me.
I was no cheerleader. I was much farther down the social food chain. Nobody wanted a footbal jock dating an editor of the school paper.
Derek finished loading his backpack and propped himself against the neighboring desk, waiting for me.
I invented reasons to stay. I rearranged my pens and pencils. I adjusted my stack of textbooks, ordering them neatly by period. I straightened my notebooks. Everything I’d put away, I took out and redid, buying time.
Derek waited, beaming. Handsome, strong, charming. Impossible to ignore.
Pietr leaned toward Mr. Miles, hands ruffling against stacks of papers as he spoke softly.
Mr. Miles frowned and shook his head. “I certainly don’t change service learning assignments because of a lover’s spat. Imagine how often I would be rearranging things if I did.”
of a lover’s spat. Imagine how often I would be rearranging things if I did.”
Pietr hung his head.
Derek’s mouth slid into a smirk. “Come on, Jessica.” He straightened, shouldering his backpack. “We don’t want to be late.”
As cool as it was that Derek used “we” to refer to me and him— together—I couldn’t leave. Not yet. Two months ago I wouldn’t have given Pietr Rusakova a second glance if Derek had shown any interest in me.
But he hadn’t. “I’m sorry, Derek. I have to talk to him.”
“Don’t waste your time. Sarah wil give him whatever he wants— if you know what I mean.”
I did. Everyone did.
“But you”—he set a hand on my desk, so close I could smel the cinnamon scent of his breath—“you have higher standards.”
I wanted to disagree, stand up for Sarah and say she and I were cut from the same cloth. But it was such a lie. The truth was I couldn’t even afford a yard of what Sarah’d been cut from.
Instead of disagreeing with Derek, I said, “Go on. I’l catch up to you later.”
He shrugged, not worried. Derek was top dog at Junction High School.
Before the werewolves moved in.
“I don’t think there’s anything you can say that would make me change your service learning assignment.”
Pietr groaned.
I stood and slung the backpack over my shoulder, heading for the door. I’d just taken a position outside in the hal way, my back cooled by a locker, when Pietr stepped out. My stomach tightened, quivering in anticipation.