It was all mine and no one else needed to know about it.
I exhaled slowly.
I didn’t respond, but Ainsley did with:
That’s what I thought.
I waited for her to say more, but when she didn’t, I typed:
Are you still there?
A minute or two passed and then her bubble popped up.
Sorry. Mom was in here making sure I wasn’t setting up meetings with random thirty-year-olds on Facebook.
Knowing she wasn’t joking, I laughed.
Another message from Ainsley popped up.
Text me and let me know how tomorrow goes. I’ll need some entertainment while waiting at the doc’s office.
I frowned and quickly typed back.
What doctor?
Mom is taking me to the eye doctor to get new glasses.
Didn’t you get new glasses last year?
Yeah, but I don’t think the prescription is good anymore. I have crap eyes. Plus, I think I need to get prescription sunglasses. The sun is sooooo bright. Anyway, I’m going to be bored waiting, so I expect updates.
I stretched out my legs.
I’m not sure if there’s going to be any exciting updates.
Oh, there should be.
She added a smiley face.
There better be.
Setting my laptop aside when the conversation ended, I threw my legs off the bed and walked over to where I left my bag on the desk. I fished out my phone and went to messages. I bit down on my lip as I sent Rider a quick message about practicing in the library.
Once done, I placed the phone on my bedside table and then picked up my history text and got down to studying. It wasn’t until it was close to nine o’clock that my phone dinged. I picked it up, seeing that it was a text from Rider.
That’s cool, he’d responded.
For some reason, I wondered if it really was.
Chapter 17
Thursday officially became the day that would never end. The hours ticked by slowly and I turned into a nervous little freak when I left the class before speech and Rider wasn’t waiting for me. Immediately, my brain went into worst-possible-scenario mode.
What if Rider wasn’t in school? What if he really didn’t want to help me with my speech? What if he bailed? What if he didn’t want to jeopardize his relationship with Paige? All of these things felt like very real possibilities.
I hurried to class and took my seat in the back, my eyes glued to the door.
Paige came into class and I almost didn’t recognize her. She was wearing loose, black sweats and an oversize shirt. Her hair was pulled back at the crown in a ponytail, one not as sleek as before. As she drew closer, I could see that her eyes were slightly swollen.
She took her seat and as she dropped her bag onto the floor, she turned her head toward me. “What the hell are you staring at?”
Flushing, I cast my gaze back to the front of the classroom.
“Stupid bitch,” she muttered, and I flinched.
Retorts formed and then fizzled out on my tongue. I pressed my lips together, inhaling through my nose.
Next into class was Hector. He strode in, smiling at something Keira was saying. My chest squeezed at the ease in which she spoke and laughed with him. God, I wanted that.
My throat thickened, and I told myself that if Rider didn’t show, it wasn’t personal even though I knew I was going to take it personally. Just when I was about to face-plant the top of my desk, Rider moseyed on into class, notebook in hand and sleepy grin on his lips. Of course. He hadn’t bailed.
Tension eked out of my shoulders, and I told myself that I needed to get a grip.
“Yo.” Hector nodded at him as he passed his desk.
Rider murmured a response and then took his seat. He leaned over toward Paige, speaking too low for me to hear. I saw her shake her head. He put his hand on her arm. Surprise flickered through me when she jerked away. She slammed her textbook down on the desk, and I thought I heard him sigh.
He glanced over at me. “Hey, Mouse.”
“Hey,” I replied softly.
And that was the extent of what I said to him the entire class, which probably didn’t bode well. I was suddenly so incredibly nervous as we packed up our stuff at the end of the class and Rider waited for me.
“We heading straight over?” he asked.
I nodded, noticing that Paige had already exited the classroom. He arched a brow and said nothing as we filed out of the room, waving goodbye to Hector and Keira. It was a good thing that I was driving, because I could focus on that instead of the internal freak-out that was occurring.
We were heading to the library that was about a twenty-minute drive from the school, and I was white-knuckling it the moment we pulled out of the parking lot.
Rider noticed. Of course. “You doing okay over there?” he asked.
I nodded and then cleared my throat. I wanted to ask him about Paige, but the plug was filling up my throat. So stupid. I never had that problem with him, but I was just too stuck in my head. I needed to get my mouth to work.
“Is...is everything okay with...you and Paige?” It was painful but I managed to get the words out.
A moment passed. “Not really.”
“Do...you want to talk about it?” I asked.
“No.”
“Okay,” I breathed.
“I want to talk about anything other than that right now,” he added. “Okay?”
I tightened my grip on the steering wheel as I glanced up at the red stoplight. I could do that even though I was more than curious about the whole Paige situation now. But there was so much I wanted to know about him.
“How...did you...?” I glanced up at the red stoplight, mentally stringing together a litany of curse words until my tongue untied. I was so nervous it was like it was two years ago. “How did you start working at...the garage?”