PART FOUR: THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES IS MORE DEADLY THAN THE MALE

It was like I woke up from a long, deep slumber.

That night it had been hard to take our hands off of each other, but we accomplished that enough to get back on the bike and leave before anyone saw us. Sawyer parked it a couple of blocks away from my house and we walked hand in hand in the night. It smelled of damp earth and grass and we didn't say a thing. We just enjoyed the moment. In my front porch he stopped for another kiss that had me gripping his shoulders tight, because it felt like the floor had vanished under my feet and I was just falling and falling.

When Sawyer pulled away he was chucking. Offended I asked him, "What?"

Even with only the dim lights of the street I could see that his eyes were twinkling as he lowered them. I gasped as I realized that at some point my traitorous hands had decided to explore, decidedly detached from my brain, and they'd made their way under his shirt. One was up against his chest and the other one all nice and cozy agains his side.

I gasped and tried to pull away, saying, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-"

His hands curled around my wrists, holding mine in place. He leaned down closer to my ear and said, "You have my full permission to touch me." As I looked up at him with wide eyes he took great pleasure in adding, "Anywhere you want."

I yelped and pulled away. "A-Anyway, it's late and my parents must be worried."

"Aurora," he said, holding my hand as seriousness took over him. "I mean it, but I want you to know that I won't assume the same from you unless you say it."

My heart twisted. It hurt enough to make my eyes water. I blinked back tears, because I knew I shouldn't start crying over this. This was a good thing. It meant I didn't have to worry that Sawyer thought I'd automatically agree to anything.

I took a shaky breath and said, "Thank you. I'm just not ready yet."

"I know." He leaned forward and gave me a sweet peck on my cheek. His long eyelashes lowered as he looked down, pondering whether to initiate another kiss. With a shake of his head he gave up on the idea. "I'll see you tomorrow."

When I eventually recovered enough to step into the house, I had to school my features into something that looked like I'd had a long day and didn't want to talk. Not at all like I'd had the single most amazing afternoon that I could have ever dreamed of. It wouldn't have worked if papa and mama had been alone, waiting for me, but Toni had kept them distracted as they chatted up a storm about baby names. We didn't know the sex yet, but like good latino parents, mine were already proposing the names of all of their ancestors. When I walked out of the kitchen with a glass of water and a sandwich they asked for my opinion.

They all looked at me expectant. They truly thought I had been paying attention. It was probably best to pretend I had, to avoid questions about why I hadn't. So although I wanted to run upstairs and lock myself up in my room to scream into my pillow, I joined the ridiculous discussion that was running way longer past my bedtime.

Despite the short and restless sleep, when I arrived to school that morning I felt like a new person. As soon as I saw Lina, I pulled her away from the arms of her boyfriend and dragged her with me until we found Courtney. Then I told them everything, and this time I spared no details. I started by telling them about my first date with Sawyer, all the sweet moments and earth shattering kisses, and I built up to tell them what I'd discovered about Lexie Cooper. The day had been so full of activity yesterday that I'd only managed to give them the gist.

Now, though, now was the time to make a plan. I asked them, "What do you think we should do?"

The tale had been so long that the three of us were huddled together in the middle of class, talking about it even though we should be working on a group assignment.

"Wow, that's insane," Lina whispered. "I never would've thought Lexie had this kind of psycho in her."

Courtney huffed. "I knew it. Brains, beauty and a good heart? No one has all three."

That one amused me. Yes, Lexie was a good student. For years she'd appeared to be the perfect package.

"You have all three, you know," Lina said, exchanging a smile with me.

Our friend snapped her fingers. "See, that's where you're wrong. The only reason I haven't flunked my math classes these past four years is because of you both."

I nodded sagely. "True. Plus you also have a bit of a temper. I guess you're not perfect after all."

"Pot calling the kettle black?" she said, smirking at me. I returned the gesture.

"The point is," Lina said, picking back up on the conversation thread. "Lexie's liked by the teachers as much as you are," she said this looking at me.

From under my breath I said, "Way less."

"I mean, if we went to them with the tale it'd just become a she said vs. she said situation," Lina finished.

"Justice has to be done at our level," Courtney said. She leaned back and let her eyes drift up to the ceiling and only came back closer when she had this gem of an idea, "What if we prank her?"

I easily slammed it down. "I'm not risking my academic status."

"What if we come up with crazy rumors about her?" my blonde friend continued.

"Um, hello, Lexie won the Homecoming crown and is poised to get the Prom Queen title," Lina said. "The people adore her."

"Yeah, no one would believe that she stalks the resident bad boy," I said.

"What if we just get her dethroned?" Courtney said. She shrugged as we looked at her. "I mean, if that happens then people might start believing rumors about her."

"How do you propose we do that?" Lina said with the same skepticism I was feeling.

Courtney lifted her palms up. "I don't have all the answers."

I groaned. "And I don't have time for a big operation like that. I'm a busy girl."

"With what?" By the way a grin was taking over her face, I should have figured that whatever Courtney was going to say next would be something I didn't like. "Tutoring your boyfriend in schoolwork and getting tutored back in professional tonsil hockey?"

It wasn't like the rest of the class was exactly quiet, but we did catch a few eyes when I smacked her hard and she started complaining about the pain. We just huddled closer.

"Stop, he's not my boyfriend." At their looks I steered the topic back to where the focus was. "I don't want to spend time on Lexie, I just want her to stop."

"Then," Courtney drifted the word off for a bit. "Why don't we just ask her to stop?"

We spent a good ten minutes trying to come up with reasons why that wouldn't work, or with alternative plans that had a better success rate. In the end, all we could really do was tell Lexie we were not going to play her game and then just... really not play it. If this had happened two months ago, I would have set out to defend my reputation with whatever it took. Even if it required me to lower myself to her level of subterfuge and warfare.

Now, weeks had already gone by of people saying all sorts of insane things about Sawyer and me, and I had survived. My friends still had my back. The teachers still treated me the same, even if they might've heard something. The sun was still shining and food still tasted the same. High school was going to be done and over with in less than six months, and I'd be off to greater and more important things at Rollins College.

And if she didn't stop? My friends and even Sawyer had my back, and high school was still going to finish in the same amount of time.

That settled, at lunchtime the three of us headed over to the table where the cheerleaders sat. We passed Sawyer on the way. He was by the vending machine, getting himself a Coke. We were still pretending that we barely acknowledged each other at school, but I still felt his slow, sexy little wink rattle the core of me. I turned back toward him once more, and gave him a nod. What my friends didn't know was that as soon as we came up with a decent enough plan, I had texted him about it and he agreed to help. That was my cue for him to know that the time was now.

I steeled myself as I stood behind Lexie and cleared my throat. It wasn't the sound what made her turn, it was the fact that her entire table was looking at Courtney, Lina and I like we were a diseases. All but the one from the bathroom yesterday, I noted.

"Hi Lexie," I said with a smile to rival hers. "Do you mind if we have a word?"

She grimaced her pretty face. "As a matter of fact I do. We were in the middle of color coordinating our outfits for tomorrow."

Her table erupted in giggles that made me want to roll my eyes. Instead I put on my best sympathetic look. "How about you all just wear black, to match your souls?"

That made Courtney let go of an uncontrolled cackle by my side. Lexie now glared at us full on. She stood up and faced me.

So what if she was taller than me? She could literally look down at me all she wanted, I still held the moral ground.

"What do you want?"

I shrugged like she was now the one inconveniencing me. "I just wanted to know if you already had enough fun."

Lexie's impeccable ponytail swayed as she folded her arms. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"I never pegged you for a dumb girl," Courtney said, wincing as Lina smacked her.

"I thought we were playing nice," said the absolute nicest of the three of us.

We kinda did decide to keep it civil, so I tried to bring things to that level as I said, "I'm talking about that conversation we had yesterday in the girls' restroom. You know, the one where you basically admitted you've been making my life miserable just because you think the boy who rejected you is with me."

Yeah, in retrospective I should've realized that I was still Aurora, she who opened her mouth and ratcheted up the temperature in the room instead of cooling it down as intended.

Lexie's eyes flashed with something dangerous and she took a step closer into my personal space. Her minions were well trained, because they also stood up and moved over to crowd us. For a second I thought I maybe should've brought my friends' boyfriends as reinforcements, but it was already too late.

"No one rejects me," Lexie said through her teeth.

I tilted my head. "Is that it? You're mad that he rejected you and you're blaming me for it?"

She laughed. It didn't sound anything like her adorable, twinkling laugh that made everyone she bestowed it upon feel special. This one was a straight up Disney villain cackle.

"Right? Who could possibly believe that Sawyer Logan would not want to be with me to be with someone like you?"

That rankled.

Her intention of course was to bait me into admitting that yes, he was with me, and turn this around against me in front of all the gossip mongers gathering around us. I had to reign down my desire to lash out with the truth.

"See, that's where you're wrong." I shrugged and laid the innocence on thick. "I have no idea why he rejected you, but I do know it definitely wasn't because of me."

Lina was perfect for the job of saying, "Yeah, I mean they both absolutely hate that Mr. Davies paired them together for this tutoring. They can't stand each other."

Doubt crossed Lexie's face, which was when Courtney drove the nail in the coffin by suggesting, "Why don't you ask him, once and for all?"

Then the three of us parted, clearing the view for her until she spotted Sawyer casually hanging out by the vending machines. I felt the victory as her eyes narrowed. She pushed me away as if I'd still been right in between, and I gritted my teeth not to pull at her ponytail until she fell to the ground. Her minions joined us to watch as she confronted Sawyer in front of the whole school. It wouldn't be a position I'd want to be in, but this part of the plan had been his idea.

Lina murmured, "Oh, poor guy. Doesn't know what's coming to him."

"He does," I whispered so only she and Courtney could hear. I gave them a wink just like Sawyer had given me earlier.

From where we were we couldn't hear the conversation. All we could catch was the very convincing look of grossness he sent my way. He said something that pissed her off and she turned to walk away. I thought that was going to be it, but she traced her steps back and slapped him in the face.

Then, loud enough for the entire cafeteria to hear, she screamed, "The sex wasn't that great anyway!"

Our jaws dropped as Lexie stormed off. The entire baseball team had been close to the action and they hooted with laughter as Sawyer rubbed his face. I wanted to rush over, but I forced myself to follow my friends back to our table. In the time it took for me to get back to my seat, he'd vanished from the cafeteria. I pulled out my cellphone and texted Sawyer, asking if he was okay.

Instead of replying to that he said, I think this time it'll work.

I wondered if he'd avoided a straight answer because maybe he was not okay, and was just about to ask that when another message from him appeared in my screen.

Public humiliation is her favorite consolation price.

I replied back with, I'm sorry. I didn't know she was going to do something wild like that.

Worth it, was all that came back from him.

And look and behold, for the rest of the week no one remembered about my supposed scandal anymore. All everybody could talk about was this one. The old me would have felt incredible relief but now I felt guilt. And that wasn't a feeling I was used to.

party time!

or is it?