Hunter:Maybe… why? You’re aware that if you show up here, you will be mauled by teenagers, right?
I laughed as I started texting back.
Me:I can take it ;) what time is ur lunch? I’ll bring us food.
He said his lunch was at noon, so I got off the couch and jogged upstairs to make myself look more presentable.
When I’d gotten the call about Gramps and packed things to go there, I’d tried to plan ahead and bring a few outfits, but I’d ended up staying way longer than I’d anticipated. I’d had to order some clothes online and have them delivered about a week or so ago.
I flipped through the shirts hanging up in the closet and grabbed the sky blue one before pulling it over the long sleeve shirt I already had on. After checking myself in the bathroom mirror and deciding I could go another day without shaving, I ran a small amount of product through the top of my hair.
I was excited at the thought of going back to my old high school. It’d be weird going back as a visitor instead of a student. Even weirder would be seeing Hunter as a teacher.
Fuck, I bet he’s hot when he lectures.
And with that thought, I decided to wear my jeans instead of the athletic pants.
Chapter 15
Hunter
“How many sources do we have to have for the paper again?” Joel asked.
“A minimum of four,” I answered. “Make sure you list them in MLA format in the works cited page at the end.” His blank green-eyed stare told me all I needed to know. “I’ll email you the MLA style instructions again.”
“Thanks, Mr. Walsh!” He turned around to his computer and typed something in the search engine.
Joel was the running back on the football team and was one hell of an athlete, but he didn’t apply himself in his studies as much as I wished he would. Daniel, the quarterback and his best friend, was in my first period English class, and they reminded me so much of me and Corbin that it was hard for me to get on to them. I’d had them both in the same class the year before, and they’d been the class clowns, always disrupting the lectures with silly comments and even pranks.
On the days I had lunch duty, their table was always the most rambunctious.
My phone buzzed, vibrating on the desk at an ungodly volume and causing most of the students to turn and look at me.
“Uh oh, Mr. Walsh is breaking theno phones in classrule,” Kevin said, creating a chorus ofoohsthroughout the room.
“Sorry!” I said, holding my hands up in surrender. “Forgot to put it on silent. Y’all do your work and leave me be.”
They laughed before going back to talking amongst themselves. By the look of it, only a few were actually working on their paper. The rest were just surfing the web.
I waited a minute or two before grabbing my phone, putting it under the desk, and opening the message from Corbin, totally acting like a teenager trying to text in class without the teacher knowing.
He wanted to have lunch with me. My stomach fluttered at the news.
It was crazy, but it felt like he and I were falling in love all over again. The spark of excitement, the way my heart beat faster at the thought of him, the sneaking around. When we’d had sex the night before, it had felt like the first time.
It was public knowledge that he’d gone to school there—hell, there was even a picture of him hanging up in the glass case in the hall. But he’d never come back to town before. The kids were going to flip out when they saw him. Which was still weird for me to grasp. That he was a celebrity.
To me, he was just Corbin: the biggest goofball in the universe, but one I loved more than anything.
I had to remind myself that so many other people loved him too. As far as role models went, he was a great one to have: responsible, dedicated, good humored, and talented. He was proof that if you worked hard enough, you could reach your dreams, and you didn’t have to sell your soul or toss out your morals to do it.
We still had things to discuss, but I knew I couldn’t ask him to leave football. What kind of person would that make meif I asked him to give it all up? I could still keep in touch with him after he went back to Kansas City, but I didn’t know if a relationship could continue.
“Remember that your papers are due next Friday,” I announced after the bell rang and the students started getting up and leaving the computer lab.
I quickly checked my phone for any new texts before slipping it in the side pocket of my laptop bag and standing up. It was noon, but I hadn’t gotten another message from Corbin of whether he was there or not.
That’s when I heard the screaming.
