Page 9 of Billionaires Don’t Date Cheerleaders (Texting the Boyband #2)
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“Give me your number,” Jude said.
“Why?” I asked absentmindedly as I looked at the classroom door numbers. His third period class had changed rooms for some reason—over a month into the school year as if that made any sense—and I couldn’t find the room anywhere. I thought after years of being at Summerfield, I would have known the whole school like the back of my hand, but the place was still taking me by surprise, even now. I’d never had a class in this back corner of the school, and it was a bit of a maze.
“So I can text you.”
“I gathered that,” I said. I frowned at his schedule. Did the classroom on here even exist? “I was wondering why you wanted to text me. You already DM me enough.”
Jude plucked the schedule out of my hand. I was holding it so tightly that the side of the page tore as he pulled it away, but he didn’t seem to care at all.
“Hey!” I said. I tried to grab it back, but he held it further away.
“It’s not nice to ignore people when they’re talking to you,” he said.
“Yeah, well, it’s not nice to bother someone who’s trying to help you,” I said. I reached for the schedule again, but Jude just stuffed it in his bag. I looked at him, unimpressed. “If that becomes unreadable because you ruined it, don’t expect me to help.”
He blinked innocently. “But you’re my guide. You have to help me.”
I put my hands on my hips and pressed my lips together as I stared at him for a long few beats.
“You’re ridiculous.”
“Believe it or not, you’re not the first person to say that to me.”
I sighed and looked around again. “Okay, I have no idea where your next class is.”
“I guess that means we just have to skip,” he said. He stuck his hands in his pockets and shrugged at me. “So, where should we go? Starbucks? McDonalds?”
“We can’t just skip class, Jude.”
“Why not?”
“Because… we just can’t!” I wasn’t the best student, but I also didn’t have a death wish. I knew that if my parents got a call from my school saying that I had skipped a class, I was done for. I pressed my palm to my forehead as I looked around. I was sure we had passed every classroom on the first floor, but we hadn’t passed his. I could scream.
“Hey,” Jude said. His voice was deeper than before and completely devoid of the humor that had been in it before. “It’s okay. I can just go to the office and ask them to help me find the place. Get to your own class.”
“No,” I said. “No, it’s fine, I’m your guide. I just don’t know this part of the school that well.”
“How long do we have until the bell?”
I pulled the sleeve of my blazer up to check my watch. “Like two minutes.” I looked around again. Why hadn’t I insisted on us leaving the cafeteria earlier? I guess, for some reason, I’d been under the impression that finding a room I’d never been to before would be an easy task. My heart pounded faster with every second as I looked around. I chewed down hard on my lip. I couldn’t just leave him here, but I also couldn’t be late for my class.
“Hey. Hey.” I jumped as Jude ran a hand along my arm. How long had he been trying to get my attention? “It’s okay. Let’s think this through logically, okay?”
His voice was soft and relaxing. I felt like it should have been annoying—like he was talking down to me or something—but it was actually helping me to stay calm. I sucked in a deep breath and nodded.
“What class do you have next?” He asked.
“Gym,” I said. Crap, I really hadn’t thought this through—I still had to get to my locker to grab my gym clothes and then make it downstairs, all in the next minute and a half. I wouldn’t be able to make it. Not without completely ditching Jude, which I had a feeling was frowned upon in the whole school buddy program. Sure, after a week here, he could probably find his way to the office to ask for help, but he shouldn’t have to. And what if I got in trouble for not being a good enough guide or something? Gosh, I was totally screwed either way—I couldn’t be in two places at once, but that was the only way for this to work.
“Sloane…” Jude’s voice sounded far away, almost like I was underwater. “Sloane. Hey, look at me.”
I forced myself to turn my head even as my breaths became shallower and shallower.
“Hey, it’s okay,” he said. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll just… we’ll go to the nurse’s office. We’ll get her to right a note, okay?”
I pressed the heels of my palms to my house. My head was starting to spin a little. I just wanted to sit down. “They won’t just give me a note for no reason.”
“I’m pretty sure you worrying this much will count,” he said. He pulled my hands away from my face and looked down at me in concern. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I said. I looked around the hallway again as if the classroom might have appeared out of nowhere since the last time I looked. I groaned. “What are we going to do?”
“The nurse?—”
“I would need an actual injury, Jude.”
“Fine.” Before I could comprehend what he was doing, he kicked his leg forward, hitting me straight in the ankle. It was a pretty hard kick—harder than necessary, I would argue—and pain shot up my leg.
“Ow!” I hopped up and down, grabbing at my ankle. “What was that for?”
“You needed an injury,” he said. He held his hands out towards my ankle. “And now you have one.”
I just stared at him blankly as the bell rang around us. His logic was a little lacking, but I guess I could see where he was coming from. Besides, we were in it now, so there was no use getting upset about it.
“Just help me walk,” I said.
“Oh, right.” Jude wrapped his arm around me so I could lean my weight on him, and we made our way down the hallway.
“You didn’t have to actually kick me.”
“I was trying to make it believable.”
“And how exactly am I going to explain this? I doubt you want me to tell them you kicked me.”
“Well, let’s think about this for a minute,” Jude said. “I wonder how a cheerleader could have possibly hurt her ankle.”
“You can be annoying sometimes, you know.”
“And you love me for it.”
Sloane @its_sloane
Never tell your friend you’re worried about something. It will end with you getting kicked in the ankle
Call Me Jude @judeturner
Ok but did it work or not
Sloane @its_sloane
I’m not talking to you
Hudson @hudsonshaw
Jude… why on earth would you kick her in the ankle
Call Me Jude @judeturner
Because she needed an injury
Hudson @hudsonshaw
WHY
Call Me Jude @judeturner
BECAUSE
Group name: Summerfield Cheer
Members: Sloane, Jess, Kelsey + 15 others
Paige
Sooooo are we all just ignoring that Sloane is casually tweeting with Jude or
Cate
Well she is his guide
Paige
Being his guide doesn’t automatically make them friends
Sloane
It would be kinda depressing to not be friends with him as his guide
I have to spend all my time at school with him
Alisha
Well you don’t HAVE to
Sloane
??
Alisha
I mean… he’s been here for weeks. He should know his way around by now
Fiona
Makes one wonder why he wants to stick around you so much
I glanced at Jude, who was sitting next to me on the cot in the nurse’s office. They couldn’t be right, could they? He didn’t have some ulterior motive to spending so much time with me, right? No, he just needed me as a guide, and that was it. Of course, that was it. What other reason could there be?
“Is the ice too cold?” Jude asked.
“What?”
He brushed my ankle, which was propped on an ice pack. “Is it too cold? Or too warm? I can?—”
“It’s fine,” I said. I was pretty sure he was starting to feel guilty about kicking me now that my ankle was swelling up, but I didn’t blame him. I knew he was just trying to help in the best way he knew how. “Actually, I’m surprised she hasn’t told us to go back to class yet.”
“I told you before,” Jude said. “Hanging with me offers some perks.”
“Like a get-out-of-class free card?”
“Well, maybe not get out of class entirely, or we wouldn’t be in this mess,” Jude said. “More like take a longer than necessarily needed absence from class.”
“Like when I got out of class early to rescue you from being locked out.”
“Exactly. Look how much I’ve helped you already.”
I laughed and shook my head. “Nobody has ever accused you of being humble, have they?”
Jude laughed as well. “Definitely not.” He ran a finger along the bottom of my leg, causing goosebumps to appear. He blinked a couple of times. “Actually, sometimes it feels like there’s almost nobody who knows me at all anymore.”
I stayed silent for a moment, not quite sure what to do with that statement.
“Why do you say that?”
Jude shrugged, his eyes trained on my ankle instead of on me. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter.”
“Of course, it matters.”
“You’ll think I’m stupid,” he murmured. “Complaining about problems most people would be thrilled to have.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
“I—” He snapped his mouth shut as the door swung open, and a senior girl walked in.
“Oh!” She stepped back in surprise when she saw us sitting there. “Sorry. I was just looking for Nurse Tammy. I guess she’s…” Her gaze landed on Jude’s hand, still resting on my ankle. Her voice went weak as she said, “out.”
“She went to the office to fill out some forms,” I said. “She’ll be back soon.”
The girl nodded and stepped away slowly, still not looking at me. “Right. Um… I’ll come back then.”
She slammed the door closed again and, based on the sound of her footsteps, ran off. I sighed. Between us holding hands last week and now being found here together—alone—I was sure we were feeding the rumor mill greatly.
I looked at Jude again, hoping he would continue on with what he was saying before, but he remained notably silent. As much as I hated it, the moment was lost, and it wasn’t coming back.
“Can I ask you something?” I asked. “Why do you get me to keep showing you around the school?”
Jude frowned and looked up. “What?”
“I mean, you’ve been here for like a month now,” I said. Everything the girls had been saying in the group chat was rattling around in my mind. “Do you still not know the layout of the school?”
“Do you not like showing me around?” Jude asked in a hurt voice.
“No,” I said. I shook my head. “I mean, I don’t not like it. I actually really like doing it. But… I’m just curious if you actually need me to or if…”
“Or if what?” Jude asked. He looked at me intently as if he was daring me to say the words we were both thinking. But I wouldn’t be the one to bring it up. Not now.
“I don’t know,” I said. I forced a laugh and shook my head. “Sorry, I don’t even know what I was thinking. Of course, you don’t know your way around yet.”
If I hadn’t known any better, I would have said he looked disappointed.
Jude
How’s your ankle
Sloane
Throbbing :)
Jude
Oops
Sorry
But did you parents get mad at you for skipping class
Sloane
They did not
That was the one win
Jude
Will you be okay for cheer practice tomorrow?
Sloane
How do you know I have practice tomorrow?
Are you watching me?
Jude
;)
Sloane
I want it to be fine for the game on Friday so I might sit out the tumbling
I’ll see how I feel in the morning
Jude
I’ll keep you company while you sit out
If you need to that is
Sloane
You want to watch the cheer practice with me?
Jude
If that’s okay with you
Sloane
Of course it is
I’m just worried about my coach’s reaction
Jude
I’ll win her over with my boyish charms
Sloane
And the other cheerleader’s reactions
Jude
Do you think they’ll like me?
Sloane
We both know they are all in love with you already
Jude
Yeah I know, it’s just nice to hear you say it 3
Do you need a ride?
Sloane
I usually just get a ride with Jess
Because my sister refuses to go to school that early
Jude
I’ll drive you
So she doesn’t have to go out of her way
Sloane
You don’t even know where she lives
Jude
That’s irrelevant
Sloane
I’m 90% sure she lives closer to me than you
Jude
As I said, irrelevant
Be ready at 6:30