Page 24 of Don’t Love the Boy Next Door (Hotties Next Door #2)

Chapter Twenty-One

Phoenix

As Katie and I make our way into the school building Tuesday morning, I feel his eyes on me.

Nope, nope, nope. I won’t look his way. Because he doesn’t exist. I managed to ignore him all day yesterday and I’ll continue doing it until it enters that thick skull of his that I don’t want to talk to him.

It’ll be a little tricky going to The Rock E’s gigs because he’ll be there, but as long as I keep telling myself he’s wallpaper, I should be okay.

Before Sunday happened, I thought about watching them practice because it’s been a while since I did that. But no way. Not while he’s there. It sucks because his brother and Cody are good people and I want to support them and Katie. But nope.

“You’re in your head a lot,” Katie says as she pulls her locker open. “Still thinking about Ethan?”

“Ethan who?”

Katie’s eyes move further down the hall, where I’m pretty sure Jerkface is surrounded by his adoring fans.

Seriously, I thought I was past the whole Jerkface thing.

I guess he and I will always be enemies.

I can’t wait until I’m out of here so I’ll never have to see him again. But ugh, that’s like two years away.

“He keeps looking at you,” Katie tells me.

I open my locker and fish out the books I’ll need for first period. “Whatever.”

“I think he feels bad.”

I slam my locker shut. “I don’t give a crap how he feels. Does he even have a right to feel bad? I mean, he frickin’ tricked me. Played me like a fool. I don’t want to talk about him.”

“Okay. Let’s talk about…”

I’m hardly listening to her. I know, I’m sucking as a bestie right now, but my eyes are caught on a certain jerk.

He’s, as expected, in a pool of girls, but he’s not even looking at them.

Nope, because his eyes are on mine. Gosh, why are they so darn beautiful?

They pull me in, make me forget that I’m supposed to hate him.

I spin around, mentally scolding myself for staring at him. But my eyes seem to be in control now because they dart his way again. He’s still looking at me.

He has no right to look at me!

The girls pull and tug at him, but he doesn’t break his gaze from me.

Giving him a hard glare, I whirl around to go to class, when I remember I need to pass him to reach history.

Ugh, I share that class with him. I managed to skip yesterday, but I can’t do that again.

But whatever, he doesn’t exist, so I should be okay.

Katie calls after me that she’ll catch me later. I wave to her.

Approaching the mass near my classroom isn’t easy. Breaking through it is impossible. The bell hasn’t rung yet, so there’s no excuse for them to get lost. And I can’t use that bug trick again. Not because it’s not right, but because it won’t work a second time. I’ll just have to push through.

Ugh. They’re as strong as a house. I use each and every part of my body to try to shove them away, but they won’t budge. Seriously. It’s been over a month and they’re still obsessed with him? Why? He sucks.

The Rock E’s have been gaining more popularity, but so what? That’s not a reason to fawn all over him like pirates to treasure.

I’m still pushing and shoving to no avail. Ethan’s eyes catch mine and some sort of look flashes across his face.

He moves slightly to the left, and the crowd follows him like moths to a flame. He moves again and they copy. He slides further and further away from the classroom, finally clearing the path. He hasn’t taken his eyes off me once.

I give him another glare before entering the classroom. So what if he moved the crowd to let me in? “Still a jerk,” I mutter under my breath.

The bell rings and Ethan and his fans drag themselves into the classroom. Most of them don’t even have history now and Mrs. Holden has to yell three times for them to leave.

Some teams are still presenting their reports to the class.

I try to pay attention, but it’s really hard when a certain someone can’t keep his disgusting eyes off me.

What’s his deal? Katie says he feels bad?

Nope, I think he’s having too much fun grinning at me behind me back.

I mean, it must have been so much fun to trick me like that, and now he keeps staring at me because he wants to remind me about it. As if I need a reminder.

Gosh. I can’t take it!

My hand shoots in the air. “I need to go to the bathroom.”

I’m out the door like I’ve got super-speed and rush to the bathroom.

I don’t really have to go, so I stand before the mirror and gaze at my reflection.

If someone were to look at me, I’m sure I seem okay.

But I’m not okay. Not one bit. Because no matter how much I tell myself to ignore him, to be done with him, I just can’t.

And it’s so, so stupid because he’s a jerk.

He hurt me. And I can’t stand it that he’s staring at me all the time. Why freakin’ why?

I must be in the bathroom for about ten minutes. As I leave, my face smacks into something hard. Something hard that smells good. I know that smell. It belongs to…

I spring back, staring into deep, blue eyes. Eyes that are filled with…I’m not sure what. Guilt, maybe? Or I might be imagining it.

I flinch away from Ethan like I got hit with boiling water, backing up until I bang into the wall behind me.

He inches closer to me, closer and closer, until there’s practically no room between us.

“Get away from me,” I say through clenched teeth.

He backs up a little, enough to give me room to breathe, but he’s still way too close. Because he’s so huge, I don’t have room to slip away. I glance around, maybe for someone to stop my soon-to-be my murder.

But…he doesn’t look like he wants to hurt me. His eyes are soft, and there’s some pain in there, too.

But I shake all that off. I mean, this guy is good at being fake, knows how to play girls. So even if he seems guilty and sincere, I know it’s a joke.

“I said get away,” I warn.

He runs his hand through his hair. “I just want to talk to you. You’ve been avoiding me and I feel like I owe you an explanation.”

“There’s nothing to explain. You’re a jerk and that’s that.”

He sighs, messing up his hair again. Does he think that affects me like it does other girls? No way in heck.

Then why is my heart pounding at his close proximity?

“Phoenix, please just let me explain.”

I glance around the hall again. No one is around. Lucky me. “I told you I don’t want anything to do with you. How are you even out of class when I am?”

“I snuck out.”

I roll my eyes. “Or maybe you sweet talked Holden?”

He stares into my eyes, so deeply it does something weird to my insides. Like, they feel tingly for some reason, and my heart skips a beat. What the heck? I hate this guy.

“I’m going back to class.”

“Wait. Just please wait a second.”

I give him a glare. “Holden will mark me absent and I’ll get detention.”

“Then I’ll talk to her. Tell her it was my fault.”

I roll my eyes again. Of course he’s so confident in his good looks and personality that he thinks he’s got our history teacher wrapped around his finger. That might be true…but so what?

“Please, Phoenix.” His voice cracks.

I go still. Is he…really genuinely bothered by this? His eyes look anguished, like he’s been losing sleep.

I wave my hand. “You have five minutes and then I’m out of here.”

He nods, taking a deep breath. Then his eyebrows furrow. He holds out his hands like he’s begging me to hear him out and not jump down his throat.

I cross my arms over my chest. “Four minutes.”

He shuts his eyes for a second. “I just want to tell you that I didn’t mean to hurt you. I…” He takes in another deep breath before slowly releasing it. “I just…couldn’t do it under my real name.”

I lift a brow. “Do it?”

“Protect you.”

I glare at him. “I don’t need your protection.”

He steps closer. “Of course I know that. You’re one of the strongest people I know. But when those jerks were trolling you...I couldn’t sit there and not do anything. I had to defend you, support you. And I had to make a fake name because you hated me.”

I don’t say anything for a few seconds. Then I look up at him. “What made you think I needed anyone to defend me?”

He bends closer, and I back more into the wall, not that I have much room. Any further and I’ll meld into it. “I saw how much it hurt you,” he says. “You try to put on a brave face, but those comments can bring down even the strongest person.”

I’m thrown off for a second. He actually cared that I was hurt? But hold on…

“What do you mean you saw it hurt me?” I ask. “I thought you didn’t watch my channel.”

“It was when you came to my house to work on the project. We were supposed to do research on an artist, but I noticed you looked really bothered. I checked out your latest video and I saw the hate. I…I couldn’t take it, so I made LiamC to help you.”

I just stare at him. “You couldn’t take it? What do you mean? You hated me.”

He shuts his eyes again for a second. “No. I didn’t.”

I give him a look like I don’t believe him. Then I roll my eyes. “Sure.”

He stretches his hand out to the wall, resting it near the left side of my head. He’s getting really close now, but for some reason, it doesn’t upset me as much as it did that last time, after he confronted me about that video where I roasted him.

“I didn’t hate you, but I always managed to say the wrong thing to you. I’m really sorry for everything. I think we got off on the wrong foot and I’d like for us to be friends.”

I gape at him. “Friends?”

He nods slowly. “If you can forgive me.”

Forgive him? After all the pain and embarrassment he put me through? He had me convinced he was this cool, sweet, super kind guy. But he’s not that.

I slide away from him. “I don’t know if I can. I mean—”

He slips toward me, this time placing both hands on either side of me so I can’t escape. “LiamC was me. I’m that guy you had fun with. Who you stayed up for hours chatting to and gaming with.”