Page 24 of Mistaken Prejudice

His pale eyes scanned the class until they landed on me and his lips quickly curved in a self-satisfied grin. He shifted the toothpick he was playing with from one corner of his mouth to the other before taking his eyes off me.

“Sorry for being late, Miss Jonson.”

“It’s Miss Jones,” she corrected him.

“Oops, my bad.” He didn’t sound sorry at all.

“Please take your seat so we can continue, Mr. Rogers,” she said before turning to the board and started writing outlines.

Shay-Lee made his way between the desks, walking like he owned the damn place, and stopped at the one beside me.

“You’re in my seat,” he snarled toward a slim guy with dark hair, whose name I think was Zack.

“It’s my seat—” Zack started to protest when Shay-Lee’s hand landed on the desk.

“Out of my way dickface.”

Zack’s eyes widened with fear, and he mumbled an apology as he packed his books and stumbled away to a different seat. Dropping his bag, Shay-Lee sat down in the vacated chair.

What a fucking bully this guy is. But the idiot knew his game, and he terrorized poor Zack without the teacher even noticing.

“Heard you had a fun morning.” That’s the only thing he said to me, and it was all he had to. The warning in his voice left no place for mistakes. Yet I didn’t give a fuck. Guys like Zack may fold back when thugs like Shay-Lee threatened them, but not me. I came across a lot worse, and that shit-eating douchebag had nothing against me.

***

Since the incident in the cafeteria on the first day of school, we preferred to eat our lunch on the lawn. It was much nicer, to be honest. The landscaping on Bay High was more extravagant than the beach club. It was also less noisy, and Diesel smoking was less noticeable.

“Are you serious? You would give up food for sex?” Jess gasped and looked over at Diesel, who was lying on the grass with one hand folded behind his head, and the other holding a cigarette. We were deep into a game of “Would you Rather” hosted by Jess, and it came down to the inevitable dilemma of would you rather give up food or sex?

“Fuck yeah.” Diesel sucked some smoke and slowly blew it out. “You’re telling me you wouldn’t?”

“Before answering it, Jess, keep in mind he’s vegan. So there’s not much to give up on.”

Ignoring me completely, Jess barked, “Of course not! How can I ever give up food?!”

“Aren’t you offended?” Diesel shot at Levi with a smirk.

“Give me a break.” Levi rolled his eyes and pulled his sandwich out of a paper bag. “When it comes to food, it’s like I’m not even there. He’s like a dog with a bone.”

I chuckled as Jess charged his tall frame over Levi’s smaller one, forcing them to the grass as he rubbed his head on Levi’s chest.

“But a cute dog?”

Levi offered Jess a bite from his lunch, and Jess took it. “The cutest.”

Jess replied with a soft kiss and then turned over, so Levi could lean on him as they both ate Levi’s lunch together. They were the cutest.

“You make me wanna barf.”

“You’re just jealous,” Jess teased and was hit by the water bottle Diesel had thrown at him.

“Okay, let’s move on.” He threw the bottle back to Diesel, who successfully caught it, “Andrei!”

“We can skip my turn.”

“No way! Would you rather—” His words were cut off when a football hit the back of my head and rolled to rest beside my feet.

“What the fuck?” Diesel snarled as I picked up the ball from the grass and turned around to see Shay-Lee with his bunch of brainless assholes making their way toward us.