Page 94 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 11

Monday

“See you at lunch,” Jacob said as we stopped outside my first class.

I swear his eyes dropped to my lips.

But I didn’t get a chance to find out if he’d been about to kiss me, because Sophie grabbed my arm and pulled me backward into Mr. Halifax’s room.

I was just able to wave goodbye to Jacob. “Sophie,” I hissed. “I think it was about to happen.”

“And I love that for you, but we were going to be late.” She hurried to the back of the room.

I sat down next to her. We were practically the first people in here.

She sighed and put her chin in her hand. “God, look at Mr. Halifax’s ass in those jeans. I think he only wears jeans when he’s on edge, you know? It’s so hot.”

“That’s not what you were saying about him on Saturday.” I really did not want to be early to Mr. Halifax’s class. And I certainly didn’t want to stare at his butt in a pair of jeans. I opened up my calculus book and just stared at it so I didn’t have to look at him.

“But we agreed that it couldn’t possibly be Mr. Halifax texting you.”

We had agreed on that. But I wasn’t 100% sure. Wanting something to not be true and it actually not being true were two entirely different things. “What if it is him though?”

“Ew. No. Stop it.”

I sighed. Why was it gross when Mr. Halifax liked me but hot when he liked her? I shook my head. I didn’t need to analyze this. “Sophie, what if I sent him scandalous pictures of me in a bathing suit?”

“You didn’t.”

I think she just wanted to believe that it wasn’t Mr. Halifax. There was significant evidence that was kind of pointing at him.

“He’s not even looking at you, Scar. If he was your stalker, wouldn’t he be like...stalking you better in class?”

I slowly snuck a peek at him. He was kind of doing anything he could to not look over here. I’d always thought he acted that way because Soph made him uncomfortable. But maybe he was trying not to look at me. Since he just liked making out with me in dark closets. I groaned and faceplanted my book.

“Mr. Hunter is just so hot,” some girl said a few seats ahead of me.

I groaned again.

“Ignore the trolls drooling over your father,” Sophie said and patted my back.

I turned my head to look at her. “He’s going to follow me to college once he finds out about our secret lair that I didn’t ask for.”

“First of all...it’s your secret lair.”

“Don’t call it that.”

She laughed. “I’m joking. Of course it’s ours. And second of all, my dad promised he wouldn’t tell your dad. No one is going to find out. You might want to consider moving your bedroom to that guest room though. That way you don’t have to tiptoe through the house whenever you sneak out.”

“I’m not going to be using it obsessively,” I said.

“If you say so.”

“I do.” And I didn’t want to talk about this anymore.

Because I had much more pressing matters to discuss.

“Do you think Jacob is going to ask me to officially be his girlfriend? Now that I have his varsity jacket?” Uncle Rob and Mr. Tanner thought so.

But it was probably best to ask someone my own age.

The bell rang, signaling the start of class.

“Oh, definitely,” Sophie said.

I smiled. “Yeah?”

“Absolutely. He’ll probably do it at dinner tonight...”

“Miss Hunter and Miss Hunter,” Mr. Halifax said. “Are you planning on talking during my whole class?”

I cringed.

“Sorry, sir ,” Sophie said and bit her lip.

Mr. Halifax cleared his throat and turned to the board.

I was glad that Sophie had a short term memory about seeing Mr. Halifax put on the mascot head. But I hadn’t forgotten so easily. She’d said that any teacher who made out with students was disgusting. So...what was she doing right now trying so hard to hook up with him?

I stared at Mr. Halifax as he started writing on the board. He was definitely the right height. And the right build. And he was certainly old enough to be such a good kisser.

I did my best to pay attention to his words as he explained the problem on the board. But it was hard when you were worried you’d made out with your teacher. And weird. And very uncomfortable. How did my parents ever survive this hell?

“And before class ends, I have your grades from our first pop quiz last week.”

I sighed. I had not done well on that quiz. It had happened the morning after I’d stayed up late texting my kiss thief.

“I hate having to keep my hands to myself,” Sophie said as Mr. Halifax walked down one of the other aisles of desks.

I knew she was looking at his butt. And I did my best not to follow her gaze. I wanted nothing to do with Mr. Halifax’s butt.

He handed out the tests in our aisle and stopped at my desk. “Miss Hunter,” he said.

“Is something wrong?” Sophie asked. She leaned forward on her desk to make her cleavage look better.

He cleared his throat. “I was speaking to the other Miss Hunter.” He turned to me.

No! Why?! Ah! I tried not to cringe as I looked up at him. “Can I help you with something?” Ew. Why had I said that? It sounded so suggestive. At least I hadn’t bit my lip or anything.

“It’s more of if I can help you with something.” He placed my quiz down on my desk. “You always got A’s on the quizzes last year.”

I stared at the big fat C on the paper.

“If you need some extra help after school, I’m always available.”

“Oh. Um...thanks. I just didn’t sleep well the night before.”

He raised his left eyebrow. “Is everything okay at home?”

Stop asking me so many invasive questions, Mr. Halifax! “Everything is fine,” I said. “I just...I’ll do better on the next one.”

“Well, my offer stands.” He rapped his knuckles on my desk and then walked back down the aisle.

What the actual F just happened? I looked over at Sophie.

Her jaw was actually hanging open. She snapped her mouth closed and turned to me. “That sick fuck,” she hissed. “He’s actually trying to bang you.”

“Shhhh!”

“Well he is. Oh, is everything okay at home?” she said in a deep voice impersonating him. “I’m always available after school.” She leaned over and tapped on my desk. “My offer stands, baby.”

“He did not call me baby.” I pushed her hand off my desk.

“Scarlett, that perverted teacher is trying to get in your skirt. He probably read your mom’s book and thinks your whole family likes to hook up with teachers.”

Ah!

The bell rang and I practically sprinted out of class. This isn’t happening. This isn’t happening. I kept my head down as I made my way to my next class.

Sophie caught up to me and looped her arm through mine to slow me down. “Or...”

“Please say something that will make me stop freaking out. Because I’m freaking the F out, Soph. Mr. Halifax can’t be my kiss thief. He can’t be. He’s yours.”

She laughed. “He’s hardly mine. We’ve never kissed. At least, not outside of my dreams. And he’s never once asked me to hang out with him after school.”

“Soph!”

“I’m joking. And I was going to say or he’s actually a just a great teacher and he’s worried because you totally failed that test.”

“A C isn’t an F.”

“Well it’s not an A either.” She sighed. “I knew he liked bad girls. I just didn’t realize he liked dumb ones.”

“Hey.”

“Sorry,” she said. “I’m just pissed that he wants to fuck you against his chalkboard and not me.”

The visualization was too much for my brain to handle. “I don’t feel so good,” I said. “I think I need to spend the rest of the school year in the nurse’s office.”

Sophie laughed and kept her arm hooked through mine so I couldn’t flee. “Better idea. Play up flirting with Mr. Halifax to make Axel jealous.”

“I’m not doing that! And I’m done trying to make Axel jealous. I’m fully Team Jacob.”

“Atta girl. You two really are cute together. And I’m sorry I might have made you miss your kiss with him earlier. Maybe he’ll kiss you tonight.”

I hoped so. I didn’t want to kiss any more random guys while searching for my kiss thief. I’d only ever really planned on kissing one person. I pushed thoughts of Axel out of my head. I’d spent enough of my life thinking about him.

We walked into our next class and sat down.

“So...” Sophie said.

I turned to her.

“We never really talked about the Axel thing.” She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

Just when I was trying not to think of him. “What Axel thing?” But I already knew what she was going to say.

“That he asked me to homecoming. I didn’t know what to do. I want us all to go together and...”

“It’s fine,” I said.

“I just didn’t want you to take it the wrong way. I have zero feelings for Axel. Like none. Gross. It’s Axel.” She scrunched up her nose like she was repulsed by him.

Axel wasn’t gross. Not in the slightest. But I understood what she was saying. “And I have zero feelings for Mr. Halifax.”

She smiled. “Well, I know you’re all in on Jacob. But I would be remiss not to mention how Operation Too Hot to Handle was actually a glowing success.”

“How so?”

“Axel is out of his mind with jealousy right now.”

I laughed. “He’s not.”

“He carried you through the woods like a cave man and tossed you into the Caldwells’ pool. He’s practically a jealous barbarian.”

I shook my head. “He thinks of me like a sister.”

“No, he thinks of me like a sister,” Sophie said.

“Then maybe he should start threatening you to stop making out with his team instead of me.”

“What?”

I sighed. “Before he pushed me in the pool he said if I kept making out with guys on his team he’d hook up with the whole cheerleading squad.” It felt more like a threat than an amendment to our stupid deal.

“So jelly,” Sophie said. “Besides, he’s already hooked up with like half of them.”

“Ew.”

“And you’ve basically hooked up with half the football team.”

I laughed.

“Six more to go. Just in case you and Jacob don’t kiss tonight, I’m going to do some research about our last six and come up with a game plan.”

I didn’t love the sound of another operation.

But I loved that Sophie had momentary lapses of memory.

Because I really didn’t want to talk about Mr. Halifax anymore.

Seriously, why the heck had he singled me out like that in class?

I couldn’t have been the only one that had gotten a C on a random pop quiz. I shuddered.

But maybe I also had momentary lapses of memory. Because I certainly never entertained Soph’s Gigi theory ever again. It just wasn’t possible. Yuck.

And maybe the Mr. Halifax thing wasn’t possible either.

I hoped.