When Summer Ends (13 page)

He turned and grinned at me, the playful, boyish grin that I
knew so well. “I know, I really crack me up sometimes. Maybe I need to up my
game and make my class more interesting to keep you awake,” he mused, smirking
at me.

“You could always do it shirtless,” a girl called from the
back. Everyone except me laughed.

“Nah, because then none of the girls would do any work,” Will
joked, shrugging cockily, earning another high five from the guy next to him.

I rolled my eyes and looked down at my notebook; I hadn’t
even done the first problem on the board. I groaned and scribbled down a load
of letters and numbers so I would have something to hand in. Oliver handed me
five other pieces of paper, obviously belonging to the other people on my row.
I shoved mine in the middle of the pile and put it to the edge of my desk so I
could hand them in at the end of class.

As soon as the bell rang people started getting up. “Guys,
if you could all read chapter one of your textbooks for tomorrow, please,” Will
called as people started filing out of the room.

Amy came down to my desk, giggling wickedly. “I can’t
believe you fell asleep. How the hell can you fall asleep in his class? Just
looking at him is enough to keep you awake surely. He is so funny.” She sighed,
looking at him with that daydreamer look in her eye. I frowned. It was slowly killing
me to see all of the girls looking at him like that.
Why the hell can’t they
just back off?

“Freaking hilarious,” I mumbled, grabbing the assignments
and heading over to Will’s desk so I could put them in his tray.

“Miss Henderson, may I have a word?” he requested.

I looked at Amy who gave me a sympathetic look and headed
out. Hopefully she would wait for me by my locker and give me a ride home
because I genuinely didn’t have the energy for the forty five minute walk
today.

Will watched her leave. As soon as the door closed he looked
at me with concern. “You okay?” he asked quietly.

I nodded and shifted my heavy bag on my shoulder. “Yeah I’m
perfect.” 

“You look tired.”

“Wow, thanks, I used to get ‘you look beautiful’, now I just
look tired. That’s real nice, thanks,” I snapped angrily.

He sighed and shook his head, clearly annoyed. “I was just
worried that’s all, no need to be bitchy about it.” 

“Are we done with the concern now? Can I go?” I looked at
the door hopefully.

“Yeah go,” he said dismissively.

As I turned to leave he grabbed my wrist making me stop, he
turned my hand over and looked at my palm. “Please tell me what happened,” he
said quietly, looking up at me with the puppy dog face that always seemed to
work on me. His eyes locked on mine making me feel slightly weightless.

“I fell playing soccer, no big deal,” I said, shrugging. My
whole body was tingling with the need for him to hold me, and kiss me, and tell
me everything would be fine, and that he wanted me.

He nodded, seeming to digest that information for a couple
of seconds. “Okay, thanks. You should go,” he stated, letting go of my wrist. I
stood there looking at him for a few seconds before I felt my eyes starting to
prickle with tears so I turned and practically ran out of the room.

I ran down the hallway to my locker. Amy was waiting there
for me, smiling sympathetically. “Another detention?” she asked, turning her
nose up.

Another detention? What’s that about?
“No, why would
I get a detention?”

“You fell asleep in his class then gave him some sarcastic comment
and didn’t even apologise,” she explained, looking at me as if I was stupid.

Oh. Actually, yeah, I guess I should have gotten a
detention for that. Hmm, maybe he felt that lunchtime detentions for the first
week of the semester were enough.
I shrugged. “I got a lecture about it but
no detentions,” I lied.

She linked her arm through mine. “Well that’s too bad; I
would love detention with him, more chance to stare at that face.” She fanned
her face dramatically. My rage spiked immediately because yet another person was
attracted to my ex-boyfriend.

“He’s not that freaking hot!” I snapped angrily.

A hurt expression crossed her face so I immediately felt
terrible. I knew I shouldn’t be taking this out on her; she was being a loyal
friend and trying to take my mind off of my ex-boyfriend. It wasn’t her fault
she was just rubbing it in my face how hot that ex-boyfriend was.

“I’m sorry, Amy, I shouldn’t keep taking this out on you. I
just don’t want to keep talking about hot guys, it reminds me of Will,” I lied,
hoping that made sense.

She smiled sadly. “Okay it’s no problem,” she dismissed. “Right
then, missy, we’re going for some retail therapy and then I’m going to buy you
the biggest, most sickly piece of chocolate cake I can find.” She grinned
wickedly and pulled me out of the school towards her car.

Chapter Eight

Almost two hours later we were done shopping and went to get
some dessert from the café in the middle of the shopping mall. I’d honestly
tried not to think about Will as I was browsing the stores, but he just kept
popping back into my mind. Every time I saw a nice shirt I thought about buying
it for him, or when a guy walked past with brown hair I would check to make
sure it wasn’t him. I really was obsessed.

Just as we were done with our cake, someone tapped me on the
shoulder. My eyes flicked to Amy who was looking behind me with a flirtatious
smile. I turned in my seat, looking behind me, seeing that Sam, Will’s brother,
was standing there grinning at me.

“Hey, Chloe.”

“Oh… um hey, Sam,” I greeted uncomfortably. My eyes flicking
back to Amy as I tried to hide my worry.
Does Sam know that Will and I have
broken up? What if he accidentally says something about him being a teacher in
front of Amy?

“How have you been? Long time no see.” He smiled his cheeky,
make all the girls melt smile. It reminded me so much of Will’s smile that it
made my stomach ache.

“I’ve been good,” I lied. “Er, Sam, this is Amy. We go to school
together,” I introduced, putting plenty of emphasis around the word school, secretly
trying to tell him not to mention anything in front of her. “Amy, this is Sam,
he’s Will’s brother.” I waved a hand between them both.

“Hey, nice to meet you,” Amy said, smiling flirtily.

Sam turned on the killer charm, his eyes seeming to sparkle
as he regarded her with barely contained interest. “And it is definitely nice
to meet you,” he replied, winking at her. “So, are you going to leave me
standing here all day, or ask me to sit down?”

I sucked in a ragged breath, already wishing this meeting
was over. It was like walking on eggshells.

“Sure, sit down,” Amy offered, patting the seat next to her.

He smirked at her and went to sit there before turning back
to me. “So you and Will broke up, huh?” he mused, cocking his head to the side,
looking at me curiously.

I gulped. “Yep,” I confirmed, shrugging, trying to pretend
it didn’t feel like he was killing me with a plastic spork.

He frowned. “It’s a shame, you two were cute together.”

“Can we not talk about it?” I snapped. I instantly regretted
it.
There I go taking it out on others again!
“Sorry, I’m being all
snappy and bitchy today; I didn’t sleep very well last night so I’m taking it
out on everyone.”

“You didn’t? You need someone to volunteer to rock you to
sleep? Because I’m definitely up for that,” he teased, smirking and waggling
his eyebrows at me suggestively.

I laughed despite the awkwardness of the situation. “Shut up,
flirt, I just broke up with your brother. I don’t think I’ll be as quick to
take up with another cocky, overconfident, brown haired pervert.” I stuck out
my tongue at him. He laughed quietly.

Amy bent down, picking up her purse and shopping bags from
the floor at her feet. “Chloe, we’d better go, I need to get home, I’m babysitting
for my brother tonight,” she interrupted, shooting me a regretful look.  

I nodded and stood up grabbing my purse too. “Nice to see
you again, Sam.”

He nodded. “Yeah, listen, you want to hang out sometime? As
friends? Catch a movie or something?” he asked, smiling sympathetically.  

I looked at Amy for help, but she wasn’t that much use
because she was nodding vigorously, telling me to accept. I pondered on it for
a few seconds. Sam was a nice guy, I’d met up with him a few times with Will
and we got on well. It wouldn’t make much difference being friends with him. At
least I would have someone to talk to about the fact that Will is my teacher.
Sam was the only one I would be able to talk to about it, actually.

“Um, yeah okay. Just as friends though, I’m not interested
in anything else,” I clarified.

He snorted and rolled his eyes. “What makes you think I’m
interested in anything? Jeez, you’ve got Will cooties all over you. Gross,” he scoffed,
looking me over with a mock disgusted face as he faked a shudder.

I burst out laughing. He reminded me so much of Will - they
had the same humour. Sam grinned and pulled out his cell phone, passing it to
me. I typed in my number and handed it back. “Come on then, Amy. See you around,
Sam.”

As we walked off, Amy looked at me with wide eyes. “Wow,
he’s so hot! Seriously yummy,” she gushed. I nodded and shrugged. Sam was
really cute, even I could see that though I didn’t look at him like that. “Does
he look like Will?” she asked flatly as we weaved past people towards the pay
machines for the parking lot.

I took out a deep breath and blew it out loudly. “Yeah a
little, Will’s better looking though, annoying as that is to admit.” I
shrugged. My cell phone beeped in my purse. I pulled it out to see I had a text
from an unknown number:

‘Just
2 let U know U can talk 2 me about Will if U need 2. I’ll call U later in the
week and we can catch a movie. Sam’ 

I smiled and messaged back a thank you. Amy was watching me
curiously. “My mom wondering what time I’ll be home,” I lied, slipping my phone
back into my pocket.

That night I flopped on my bed doing my homework. I’d
deliberately left calculus until last so I could take my time with the chapter
we were supposed to read so I could let it sink in. I read the whole thing
three times, but it still didn’t make much sense to me. I fell asleep with the
book on my chest.

The next day I didn’t see Will all morning which I was
grateful for, but I still had the lunchtime detention to get through. Hopefully,
like yesterday, he would ignore me and that would make it easier. I’d brought a
book to read today so at least I wouldn’t have to watch the clock. When the
bell rang at the end of the morning, I said bye to my friends and reluctantly
trudged off to his classroom. Again he wasn’t there, so I made my way to the
back and pulled out my iPod and book.

A little while later I saw movement from in front of me and
looked up just as Will was turning the chair around from the desk in front of
mine. He settled himself in the chair and looked at me expectantly.

I reluctantly turned off my iPod. “I thought you said I
could listen to music,” I muttered, frowning.

“Yeah you can, I just wanted to talk to you about the
assignment you did in class yesterday.” He shrugged, his eyes not leaving my
face.

I groaned. “I was asleep; I didn’t do any of them so I
scribbled some stuff down so I had something to hand in,” I said defensively. “They
were all wrong I’m guessing.”

He shook his head, his eyes sparkling. “No actually, every
single one of them was right, and I wanted to talk to you about joining the
Mathlete team.”

“Holy crud, really?” I cried, shocked.

“No, they were all wrong,” he stated, laughing. “You’re so
gullible.”

I laughed and blushed at my stupidity. “Not funny.”

“Seriously though, last semester you were buddied with
someone. Do you have a problem with calculus?” he asked, snapping his teacher
head back.

I groaned. “Yeah, I honestly just can’t do it. You could
just fail me now to save us both the effort,” I suggested hopefully.
Then I
won’t have to come to his class at all!

He shook his head firmly. “How about you get a tutor? I
would offer to do it, but I don’t think that’s appropriate.” He frowned,
seeming to think. “Looking at the work from yesterday there’s a girl called
Erika Dennison who’s pretty good.” He flicked his head to get the hair from his
eyes. I chewed on my lip so I didn’t make a sound. I loved it when he did that,
it was sexy as hell.

Suddenly it dawned on me what he’d just said. Erika Dennison
tutoring me? I hated her. She’d picked on both me and Amy when we first started
school. She was a bitch who liked to make people’s lives hell. I couldn’t have
her do it and know I was bad at something; she would make sure everyone knew
how terrible I was at it. She’d embarrass the heck out of me on purpose.

“No not her, please,” I begged.

He puffed out a big breath. “Well the only other one I would
recommend from your class would be Oliver Hawk, but I don’t think that’s a good
idea either.” He frowned, looking a little annoyed about something.

Why is that not a good idea?
“I’d definitely prefer
Oliver, but he tried to explain it to me yesterday, and I still didn’t get it.”
A wave of humiliation hit me.
Jeez, I’m so stupid! Why does my worst subject
have to be the one he teaches? I bet he’s wondering what he even saw in me in
the first place… but then again he didn’t have any feelings for me so all he
probably saw in me was an easy lay.

“Well, seeing as we already have a week of detentions I can
help you for this week, and then we can see how you go okay?” he offered, smiling
kindly.

“Actually, I’d rather just fail.” I shook my head in
rejection. I couldn’t be that close to him, it was too painful.