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six

With less than ten minutes until the bell, the hallways were packed.

The most direct way to get to my first period class was down the main hallway, but with everyone moving through it, I knew I would just end up getting jostled all over the place, so I turned left after my bank of lockers and headed for the back hallway.

This one always had the doors closed on both sides because the music classrooms were this way and they wanted to keep the sound from them contained.

It was further from most of the classrooms, so nobody used this path unless they had a locker here, leaving it way emptier.

Normally, it was a great plan. But my old normal didn’t account for me not wanting to pass Sebastian making out with his girlfriend against his locker.

I’d somehow completely forgotten his locker was down this hallway until I spotted them.

I quickly doubled back, trying to look busy doing anything else, but the people were constantly streaming in through the doors I’d just come from.

Most people took this hallway as a one-way, going only the way that I’d been walking, so turning back would be nearly impossible.

I awkwardly pressed myself against a window, hoping I was somewhat hidden from the view by the locker as I watched Tiffany pull away from Sebastian.

“I have algebra before lunch,” she told him as she reapplied her lip gloss.

She started to turn in my direction and I worried that she was going to see me and ask why I was following them, so I dropped to a crouch behind a trash bin.

A few people gave me odd looks, but I ignored them as I peeked around the corner of the bin to watch them.

She put her lip gloss back in her bag and turned her attention solely on Sebastian, keeping her gaze away from me.

I didn’t risk standing up just yet, though.

“If you meet me, then we can go to McDonald’s together. ”

“I’ll be there,” Sebastian said. Tiffany pecked him once more on the lips before turning and flouncing down the hallway, her glossy brown ponytail swishing back and forth.

And then, because the universe hated me, Sebastian happened to turn at that exact moment and make eye contact with me. For a second, he looked confused. Then he just smiled, looking a little bit like he was laughing at me, which I guess was fair since I was still crouched behind a trash can.

“Nellie, what are you doing there?”

I awkwardly stood up from behind the trash can I’d been standing in front of and gave a small wave. “Oh, I was, uh… just looking for something that I dropped earlier.”

He raised his eyebrows. “In the trash? ”

“Well, yeah, I, uh…” I scratched the back of my head, trying to think of any sort of plausible excuse. “Well, I thought that somebody might have thrown it out for me because I dropped it on the floor. So I thought I’d come looking, and it’s not here, so what do you know?”

I tucked my head and started to walk down the hallway as quickly as possible, hoping that he would just let me go. But as I passed by him, he grabbed my arm and said, “Whoa, come back.”

“I’m going to be late for class,” I said, still not looking at him. I knew if I looked up, my face would be bright red.

“No, you’re not,” Sebastian said jubilantly. “If I’ve still got time to waste before class, then you do too.”

He lifted a finger under my chin and tilted it up, forcing me to look at him.

I hated him for the movement as soon as he did it, but he didn’t seem to notice the way I narrowed my eyes.

I think it was probably for the best because I didn’t want Sebastian to think that I was trying to fight him or something.

“What’s up with you today?” he asked. “You’ve been all out of sorts since you got in the car this morning.”

I wondered if I should say it. I could just come right out and tell him that even though it was clear the kiss had meant nothing to him, it meant something to me and I didn’t appreciate that he was ignoring it completely.

I could tell him it had been my first kiss and I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life pretending it hadn’t happened.

But that would mean talking about the kiss in this very public hallway.

And more importantly, it would mean opening up to him about something that I wasn’t sure I was ready to share.

I’d always known Sebastian was more experienced than me, and I was sure he knew it too, but I didn’t want to draw attention to it either.

“It’s just Monday,” I said instead. “You know how it is.”

He turned back to his locker to keep grabbing his books, and I eyed the end of the hallway, wondering if I could make a break for it before he could catch me.

He was a normal boy, maybe, but he was a soccer player, and I was the most unfit person to ever walk the earth, so he would catch me in no time.

Plus, I would probably need another ride home from him sometime soon, if Dean’s current track record was anything to go on.

If we didn’t have this conversation now, we were probably going to have it then.

Maybe it was better that it wasn’t happening in a moving vehicle.

“Funny, I’ve never seen you bothered by Mondays before.” He turned back to me as he zipped up his bag. “Actually, I always thought you thrived on the first day of school.”

He wasn’t totally wrong about that. I spent most of my weekends hiding in my room and avoiding my parents, so coming back to school on Monday always refreshed me.

I didn’t dread it the way everybody else seemed to.

But that would undermine what I was trying to say now.

So I said, “Well, normally I have coffee. I didn’t have any this morning. ”

Sebastian raised an eyebrow. “When did you start drinking coffee?”

Of course he would know that I didn’t drink coffee. He knew everything about me, and I was so stupid for thinking that I could possibly lie to him.

“Oh, you know…” I waved a hand. “Ages ago now.” I dr agged the words out, and the more that I said it, the more it sounded like a lie.

But Sebastian just looked curious and said, “Okay, well, let’s go by the cafeteria and I’ll buy you a cup.”

Then he slammed his locker door closed, put his hand on my lower back, and started to guide me.

My brain pretty much shut down because Sebastian Novak buying me a cup of coffee could not happen.

Besides the fact that I didn’t want a cup of coffee even if I had just told him that I did.

I couldn’t let him find out I was lying.

“I really should get to class.” I started to step away, but he went from having his hand on my lower back to grabbing my waist and pulled me in. Before I knew what I was saying, I snapped, “You have a girlfriend, you know.”

Sebastian raised his eyebrows at my words. “Wow. Never thought I’d hear such a fight from Little Nellie.”

“I’m not Little Nellie,” I muttered. “My name is Nora.”

He looked at me curiously. “Sorry. I didn’t think you minded.” I wondered how he could come up with that possibility in his mind. I mean, of course I minded. I got annoyed with it every single time. “If you don’t want me to continue, I won’t.”

I tried to imagine it. I tried to imagine Sebastian Novak calling me anything other than Nellie, calling me Nora just like the rest of the world. My heart sank a little bit because even though I hated the nickname and I didn’t want anybody else to call me it, of course I wanted him to call me it.

“No,” I said before I could stop myself. “I don’t mind. Don’t stop. ”

Sebastian was one of those guys who pretty much always had a smile on his face, but there were different versions of his smile. There was the goody, every day smile and then there was the blinding one he made when he was genuinely happy. And this time, that smile appeared.

He released his grip on my waist but kept his hand on my lower back as he continued to guide us through the hallways and down the steps.

There were crowds of people everywhere. Even if I wanted to have a conversation with him about the kiss, which I wasn’t sure if I did, I couldn’t do it anywhere here.

I guess he knew I wasn’t telling the truth about the coffee or he realized we didn’t have enough time to get to the cafeteria before class, because instead of heading there, we headed into the stairwell.

He had to go upstairs while I had to go down, but before separating from me, he leaned in slightly as said, “I’ll see you later, Nellie. ”

I turned around so hard that my face hit his, our noses bumping into one another.

He pulled away quickly but not quickly enough for me to avoid feeling it, to make my body not wonder what it would have been like if I had taken that chance to kiss him again.

And immediately I knew I was in so much trouble.