Page 119 of I Don't Need Your Protection

A humorous grin stretches across his lips as he takes me in, and then saunters over to me. His brows wrinkle. “What are you doing, Simmons?”

I glance down at my body and see that my arms are still in the “chicken” position. I quickly drop them to my side as my cheeks heat up. Then I glare at him. “What are you doing here?”

“Didn’t your brother tell you? I’m going here now.”

I gape at him. “You’regoinghere? As in, you’re a student?”

“Well, I’m not a janitor,” he says with a laugh.

“That suits you more,” I nearly bark at him.

With another humorous smile, he folds his arms over his chest. “Are you upset I’m attending your school? Didn’t anyone ever teach you to share, Carly?”

“You can’t share with evil people,” I mutter.

“Don’t worry, kid,” he says, using the nickname he always called me when I tagged along with my brother and his best friend. They both hated it, but I’m only a year younger than my brother, and Ryder is my age. They always treated me like I was five years younger than them, though. “You’ll survive.” He winks and walks out of the room with his tour guide.

With the largest sigh I’ve ever released, I plop down near Raven, which is a little hard to do because there’s barely room left on the sofa, and smash a cushion to my face. “What has happened to my once decent life?”

“You really didn’t know he was coming?” Addie asks.

“No.” I lower the cushion and roll my eyes. “I bet mybrother purposely didn’t tell me his best friend was invading my turf because he wants to mess with me. A bunch of jerks, the two of them.”

“Just ignore him,” Raven says as she continues to pound on her controller. “You don’t have to interact with him if you don’t want to.”

“Yeah, pretend he doesn’t exist.” Sophie turns the page of her book. “People like him like to get under people’s skin, but if you ignore him, he’ll get bored and move on to something else.”

“You think so?” I ask.

“It’s not worth getting worked up over him,” Addie says. “You’ll just make yourself miserable.”

“I agree,” Caleb says. “Continue living your life as though he’s not here.”

I twist my nose as I consider their words. Of course that’s easier said than done. Ryder Bennett has been a thorn in my butt the last few years. I have a feeling he’ll continue to mess with me for the rest of our time here.

How on Earth am I going to survive this?