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What did one say in this type of situation? I had no freaking clue.

I patted him on top of his head as if he were a dog. “There, there,” I told him as I gave him one last pat on the head. Lame, Ariel Kimber. I almost shrugged. What could I say, holding hands and soothing hurts wasn’t really my specialty.

“Please,” he whined as he rubbed his face against my thigh, way too close to my crotch for comfort. “Forgive me.”

“Okay, Chuck, I forgive you.” I lied to him.

“Promise?” He whispered.

“Sure,” I lied some more, beyond caring at this point.

He relaxed against my legs and his arms loosened their hold on me. Now how did I scrape him off of me the rest of the way?

“Thank you, thank you,” he chanted over and over again with his face still pressed up against my thigh. He rubbed his nose against my leg getting closer and closer to my crotch.

Alright, this was taking things too far. I’d had more than enough and I’d been nicer than anybody I knew probably would have been to him.

“Chuck, you need to get your face away from my crotch and take your hands off of me,” I said in a quiet, careful voice.

Immediately, he sat back, his arms

loosened and he let me go. He sat back on his heels, blinked and stared up at me with big eyes.

“Whatever you want, Ariel.”

I didn’t like the sound of that.

Before I could tell him to get off his feet the bell rang and the hallway flooded with people. Oh, holy shit, I did not need this on top of everything else.

The vomiting up blood incident was all anyone could talk about and I’d been invisible all day because of it. Even the twins and all their masculine beauty was lost to the background of what had happened in the courtyard on Thursday. This was a game changer and would put me back on the high school drama radar.

“Get up,” I hissed. “Right now.”

He didn’t squabble and immediately climbed to his feet. This was not normal behavior, minutes ago he’d been clinging to me and now he was following my every command without even the tiniest of protests. The whole thing was bizarre, I tell you.

He grinned at me and his dimples came out. I frowned at him, not understanding what he had to smile about.

“Whatever you say, Ariel,” he semi repeated.

Whatever you want, Ariel. Whatever you say, Ariel. What did he even mean by that? Who was this person? Had Chucky had a lobotomy while he’d been in the hospital? I had a strong urge to smack him upside his dimpled face.

“Ariel, what are you doing with this prick?” One of the twins asked from directly behind me.

“Yeah, you never came back to class. We were worried about you. Then we come out here and find you with this asshole. What the hell?”

“I can explain,” I told them without bothering to turn around and look at them. I really couldn’t explain this to them.

“Can I walk you to your next class?” Chucky asked with his smile still in place.

I frowned at him. “No.”

“Okay,” he shrugged the rejection off. “I’ll see you at lunch.”

Then he turned and walked off like a normal person, like the last fifteen minutes hadn’t taken place, like he hadn’t just been on his knees before me.

“What just happened?” I asked in shock.

“That’s what I want to know.” Addison ran his fingertips down my arm until he met my hand where he tangled our fingers together.