"Why are you following me?" I asked them as their steps echoed in the hallway.

"What are you talking about?" Lina asked with her best innocent little voice. The one that was a sing-a-song. "We just came out of yearbook club and this is the exit."

I stopped so that I could gift them with my best droll stare. "You, I kinda get. You could have turned to the opposite exit. Whatever. But you," saying this I pointed at Courtney and continued, "Are not part of Yearbook or the Homecoming Committee, so why did you even stay this long after school?"

Courtney batted her eyelashes. "I thought you might need moral support."

It was one of those few times in life when I really wanted to say a foul word. It wasn't that they weren't trying to be supportive, except that their brand included a healthy dose of eavesdropping and yes, they knew the full history between Sawyer and I, which was precisely why their presence was not helping. It only served to make this a bigger deal than it actually was.

I sighed and all I said about that was, "Guys, you're really not helping."

"I just don't feel so comfortable leaving you alone with him," Courtney said with a shrug. She turned to Lina. "What about you?"

Lina grimaced. "Me neither, to be honest. He's so..."

There was a collective silence that was finished with different sounds of aggravation and Courtney's firm, "Hot." She lifted her palms up as I glared. "Don't get me wrong, I have a boyfriend but that didn't suddenly make me blind. If I were alone with Sawyer Logan for extended periods of time I may or may not momentarily forget about Ryan."

I gasped and Lina laughed. My heart did a weird summersault that I didn't appreciate at the thought of comparing Ryan with Sawyer. Yes, both were hotter than flames, but where Sawyer was a complicated mess, Ryan was a wrapped up gift ready to bring home to the parents. There was no argument. This was probably why Courtney had never set her sights on Sawyer and snatched Ryan from the dating pool. This comment of hers had to be lip service.

"I feel you," Lina said. "He does have that air about him as though you were in front of a celebrity. I don't know what it is."

It was seduction, which no doubt was Sawyer's middle name, but I kept my yap shut.

I rolled my eyes at them. "I appreciate your concern but you're making this sound like I'm Little Red Riding Hood and he's the Big Bad Wolf."

They exchanged a glance and Courtney said, "But honey, he is bad. Good girls like you just don't know what hits them when dealing with him. Did you forget about Millie Estrada?"

Who could forget. She'd been a Junior to Sawyer's Sophomore when they'd had a thing. According to rumors, she'd grown so consumed by Sawyer that her grades had slipped. Upon finding the cause, her parents pulled her out of school and transferred her somewhere else.

A couple of months later, Millie showed up in the middle of lunch break looking for Sawyer. Witnesses said with the intention of getting back together with him. Except she found him lip locked with another girl, and after hurling insults and nearby objects at him, she ran away and we never heard from her again. Not even on social media.

"Are you out of your freaking minds thinking I'll be the next Millie?" I laughed at them, harshly. It made them flinch and I was glad, because their low vote of confidence in me smarted. They made me want to go out for blood and out of me came, "Or Toni?"

Lina gasped and by the way she blinked hard I could tell she was holding back tears. Courtney was different, though. She took a step forward and put her grill in mine, looking down at me with barely contained anger.

"Don't put words in our mouths that we didn't say." She tossed her long mane back and in that moment unleashed the full force of her Queen B attitude on me. In a strange way. "We know you can hold your own but we can't help worrying about you, which FYI is what friends do. We definitely don't trust him, and don't go implying we think less of your sister because of what happened to her."

Ouch.

I looked down at the floor, feeling like I'd been scolded after doing something wrong. And I had. I could admit in the deep recesses of my heart that it was me who thought less of Toni. It was me who now held myself up to a higher standard than her. Which made me the absolute worst sister in the history of siblings.

Without knowing what to add to that, I turned around and headed for the library. The sun outside was beating with such strength that I felt bad for everybody playing outdoors sports. I shouldered the library's door open and welcomed the blast of cool air.

"Thank God you didn't schedule this thing outside. We'd melt," Courtney said behind me.

"Why does that sound like you're planning on staying?" I asked.

Both of them gave me funny looks.

"No." I hoped they caught the finality in my voice. "I don't need any more distractions."

Lina put her hand on Courtney's arm, effectively cutting off whatever she'd been about to say. "We just want to make sure you're okay and then we'll leave. Deal?"

I glanced from one to the other. One of the things we all had in common was our stubbornness. It made us the perfect trifecta when we had the same goal and in this particular case I wasn't the biggest fan. But I knew when to quit.

"Fine." I huffed. "Sit at a different table though."

I didn't wait for them and set out to find a place to wait for Sawyer. Except I found him already waiting for me. My first clue was the fact that a couple of girls who looked like Freshmen fluttered about a table farthest from the window, in that tattle tale way of wanting to be discreet about the object of their attention but completely failing about it. Someone should've meme'd them.

My second clue was the hint of blond, messy strands of wet hair that easily came to view. As I approached I saw that Sawyer had slumped on the chair like he'd been trying to make himself comfortable for a nap and since his eyes were closed I supposed he'd succeeded. I slammed my bag full of books and trinkets on the table and grinned as it made him jump out of his skin. It earned me a vigorous shush from the librarian, but I could live with that if it meant getting a glare this glacial out of him. It was a good thing for him to remember who was in charge here and it did wonders for improving my dark mood.

I sat down and started pulling out all the things I'd need from my bag. My plan was to teach him the basics for his Trig homework today, and as he worked on it I'd work on my own homework. It'd be a smooth evening.

Sawyer gave out a frustrated sigh and we hadn't even got started yet. "This fucking sucks," he mumbled, loud enough for me to definitely hear.

My eyes narrowed at him. I'd got used to seeing the busted lip by now, but I'd never seen the solid patch of red across his cheeks and nose and neck. I put two and two together. He looked like he'd come straight from showering and the slump in his chair meant he was probably aching deep into his cells.

"I assume you came straight from your first session with Coach O'Hare?"

"He put me through the grinder and I assume you won't be any better," he said.

I smiled. He was absolutely right. I made him show me where he was at in class and lit up, because it was one of my favorite topics and I'd covered this what felt like ages ago. I clicked my tongue at how anyone would find this difficult and set out to explain sines and cosines and tangents. The latter were exactly where I could see his head going as his grey eyes glazed over the more I explained. I grabbed the chords of his grey hoodie and pulled him forward.

"Focus," I told him. "Aren't you supposed to be a secret smarty pants?"

His eyebrows went up. The unmarred corner of his lip followed. He looked down at my hand, close to his throat, in a way that I didn't like. I pulled back.

"Why did you move away? I feel so much smarter the closer we are."

I gritted out each syllable of the word focus between my teeth and was only able to ease back when his attention was firmly directed at his notebook. I saw him struggle the first couple of times he tried to solve a problem, but he surprised me by getting the hang of it. His handwriting looked almost as lazy as his general demeanor and the stump of a pen he was using seemed small in his large, calloused hand. His tendons were hard at work on the formulas, though, and I imagined that was the same hand that screwed on big and greasy auto parts together, probably with the same tenderness he used to turn good girls into boneless heaps of pleasure.

I had to stop thinking about these things and do my homework. But instead I found my very own traitorous hand drawing his on my blank page. I tilted my notebook so he wouldn't see what I was doing until I got a flurry of text messages in the WhatsApp group of the trio. I picked up my phone from the table before he saw that half of the texts mentioned his name. How could I have forgotten about these idiots? I looked around and found both of them lurking behind one of the bookshelves. They motioned me over.

"Hey, I'll be right back," I whispered to Sawyer. "And when I'm back I want to see that you're finished."

He gave me a mock salute. "Sir, yessir."

I made sure to close my notebook and bring my phone with me. Both of the girls greeted me with anxiety dripping from their faces.

"How are you doing?" Lina asked as she pulled me closer. "Is he being a turd?"

I smiled a little. "He's always a turd." Since this did not seem to put them any more at ease, I added, "It's fine, you guys. He's not deflowering me in the library or anything like that."

"Of course not, which is a good thing you picked a public place to do this." Courtney rolled her eyes. "There's just a little problem with that, people have definitely noticed the two of you are together."

"Attention follows Sawyer like the moon follows the sun." I shrugged. "I'm fine. You guys can go."

"Are you sure?" Lina asked. It took a couple more minutes of convincing them but finally they made their way out of the library. I'd been uncomfortable with the idea of them watching over me while I tutored the idiot boy, but I hadn't factored in the other witnesses. I took a look around and it wasn't my imagination when I noticed a few pairs of eyes on me. Dang it, I thought I'd been so clever to get Sawyer to meet me here, but maybe it'd be better if we took these sessions on neutral ground. Definitely not either of our homes, but far from gossip mongers. I had a reputation I had cultivated for four years here and I was proud of it. I made a mental note to ask Toni for ideas when she picked me up later.

My heart stopped when I saw that Sawyer had my notebook in his hands. I dashed over and snatched it back and of course he'd been looking at the page where I'd drawn his hand holding the pencil.

"I thought you'd given up on art," he said.

I stood there like an idiot, clenching my notebook against my chest as if I were trying to protect it from burning. Mad, that I thought I could grant him the modicum of trust necessary to leave my things with him.

"None of your business, and how dare you look through my things?"

He shrugged. "I was curious to see what you were so concentrated on."

I wanted to punch him in his perfect nose. Instead I grabbed my bag and started jamming my things in it. I now regretted having sent the girls away, but maybe it wasn't too late to ask them to come back and give me a ride home.

"What are you doing?" Sawyer asked, like it wasn't obvious.

"We're done for today," I bit out.

He clicked his tongue. "Shame, I was starting to enjoy myself." I paused long enough to cast him a nasty look that he ignored. He put his elbows on the table and leaned forward. "You know, you're really good at drawing. Why aren't you doing something with it?"

I hung my bag from my shoulder and repeated, "None. Of. Your. Business."

With that I turned around to leave. There was a great deal of rustling behind me but I ignored it. I picked up my phone, searching for Courtney's name and about to press the green call button when Sawyer's voice reached me.

"If I had a talent like that I wouldn't hide it," he said.

Since we were now outside the library I had the freedom to snort with all my might and say, "I know you wouldn't. It's not like you've been discreet about your talents."

He adjusted his backpack strap enough so that he could fold his arms. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

I rolled my eyes and waved a hand. "See, not everybody wants to have bathroom stall graffitis praising them for their talents. Some of us have more important things to focus on."

For the first time in memory, Sawyer seemed at a loss for words.

"I, what?"

I tilted my head, looking him up and down. "Don't pretend you don't know how much girls praise your, um, talents." I couldn't help but glancing down at the area where his zipper hid the goods that were the subject of bathroom poems. Then I looked away, because yuck.

Sawyer threw his head back and laughed. "If I didn't know you any better I'd say you sound jealous, princess, but I know this is supposed to be some sort of insult."

"Whatever," I looked back down at my phone, feeling my face flame because this wasn't a turn I'd been expecting the conversation to take. I unlocked the screen at the same time that an unknown number started calling. I frowned, but picked up anyway. "Hello?"

"Rory?" a frantic male voice I'd never heard before came.

Wait, no. I had heard it before. But where?

"Who's this?" I asked, looking up in surprise as Sawyer's frown appeared before me.

"This is Adam, your sister's um, friend."

I stiffened. "Why are you calling me?"

"Toni gave me your number in case of emergencies, and I think this is one." He took in a shaky breath and said, "We were studying and—I don't know what happened. She passed out. She was fine one second and I— I'm driving us to the hospital."

For a second it seemed as though everything had grounded to a halt. My heart. My breath. My brain. It was Sawyer who jolted me awake as he grabbed my elbow and asked, "What's wrong, princess?" It was the princess that did it, actually.

I snapped out of it and to the phone said, "Which hospital? I'll meet you there."

I shut off the call before Adam responded and tried to dial Courtney, but my hands were trembling so bad that I couldn't hit the green call button correctly.

Toni was in danger. The little bean inside of her was also in danger. I had to get to her.

"Rory!" The sudden scream made me look up. Sawyer asked, "What's wrong?"

My mouth chewed at air for a few seconds until finally, "Toni. Take me to her."

His grey eyes roamed over my face but finally he nodded. "Let's go."

your spidey senses are alerting you that something major is going to happen and they're not wrong