I did want to avoid them, but I also wanted to solve all of this. Somehow.
“Merci,” I whispered.
Then we had to part because I had to get AP Lit and there was Coop. Like Archie and Bubba before him—and Rachel for that matter—he claimed the desk next to mine.
Our very first assignment required partners, he smirked at me. We ended up spending the class arguing about the summer reading. It was almost fun. Somewhere between books, movies, and books that became movies, I relaxed.
This was Coop, and we had been friends practically our whole lives. I could be pissed at him for being a dick and still enjoy him being him.
“Yo,” Coop said as he caught my arm when I started to follow the flow of students toward the cafeteria. “Not that way.”
I hadn’t answered Archie yet, even if I did plan to have lunch with them. Coop, it seemed, had either gotten a different memo or decided to make the decision for me.
“We’re not eating lunch?” Yes, I played dumb while I let him drag me through the flow of traffic. The benefit to his height and laconic manner was most people did get out of his way.
“We’re eating lunch,” he said.
“Cooper!” Laura Zaverman—hisgirlfriend—appeared in front of us. She hooked her arm through Coop’s free one. “I’ve been looking for you.”
“Yeah?” He barely glanced at her. “Don’t have time right now, Laur. Maybe later.”
“But it’s lunch…”
“Exactly.” He extracted himself from her grasp even as he kept a firm grip on me. What did he think I was going to do? Vanish into the flow of the crowd? Half-turned, but still moving, Coop pivoted to give Laura a once over. The weight of those piercing gray-green eyes was impossible to deny, and Laura straightened, her chin and chest lifting. Definitelynota coincidence. “See you later.”
He didn’t wait for her response, just tugged me to keep walking. Laura’s gaze skipped from Coop to me. A part of me wanted to apologize because Coop was an idiot. The rest of me just shrugged. Coop was also Coop. If Laura wanted to swap spit with him, she should get used to it. He did what he did on his schedule and no one else’s.
I knew that better than anyone else.
Then we were out in the blistering sunshine and I pulled away so I could get my sunglasses out. It was an oven outside, the heat rising in merciless waves from the pavement. I’d kill for a hat.
“Keep up.” Coop produced his own sunglasses and tucked them into place. The hot breeze rifled his hair as he led the way toward the parking lot.
“Let’s go,” Jake yelled as soon as we rounded the corner. He stood on the running board of the driver’s side of his sunshine yellow SUV. The thing was just so bright. He’d gotten it at the end of our junior year when he bootstrapped his class placement to the top ten percent.
“I take it we’re going off campus for lunch.” Yep, I was testy. Archie had invited Mathieu, told me to bring him, but here was Coop hustling me out of the school without asking and before I evenansweredArchie.
Archie already sat in the front passenger seat and Bubba had the backseat. Coop herded me into the middle between him and Bubba. I hated the middle, and he damn well knew it. The seat cushion there was not comfortable, but I stripped out of my backpack.
Bubba snagged it from me to drop it into the rear with theirs before I settled. Coop’s backpack followed. No sooner did Coop close his door than Jake settled in the driver’s seat, seatbelt on, and eased the SUV into motion.
Getting out of the parking lot was a pain in the ass, but if we went out by the football stadium, we could slip out a far less used entrance.
Bubba stretched his arm along the back of the seat, and the lack of space left me sandwiched between him and Coop. Leaning forward, I said, “Turn up the A/C?” Even with me in shorts, being sandwiched between the guys was going to roast me back here.
As Jake turned it up, his phone rang. He just hit ignore as Maria’s name popped up on the dash.
Jake and Maria. Archie and Patty, Bubba and Sharon, Coop and Laura. “Are you guys playing hooky from the girlfriends?”
That might actually explain the high-handed behavior.
“Broke up,” Archie said over his shoulder.
“Not dating,” Bubba said, his eyes still closed as he tipped his head back. Why the hell was he so tired today?
“Not my girlfriend,” Jake said with a flick of his fingers.
Coop, however, said nothing. When I glanced at him, he made a face.
