Could he be more arrogant? It was kind of funny, actually. If he was trying to goad me, it wasn’t going to work.
“Or you’re intellectually unable to keep up?”
Disregard previous statement, because I was officially goaded. Did he think because I wasn’t in the AP classes he was in, that meant I wasn’t as smart or something? In my opinion, college classes should be taken in college.
“What is that supposed to mean?” I asked angrily.
He threw his hands in the air. “Finally! It speaks.”
He’d called me an ‘it’ again! That was the second time in a week!
Amused, he gestured at my stance. “Your reactions are hilarious. It’s impossible to resist.”
Silently, I gave him the one-fingered salute.
His smile dropped. Hah! Victory!
“That’s not very nice.” Asher informed me dryly. “Why are you so fu-freaking defensive all the time? Take a joke, would ya?”
From elementary school to this moment, I’d been told to learn how to ‘take a joke’ near a million times. Hey, I’m going to scare the crap out of you-learn to take a joke! Let’s swing Ivy up high up on the blacktop- why are you crying? Learn to take a joke!
Who was the joke intended to amuse? Certainly not me!
“How about you learn to make one? Why are you so rude? You called me stupid!” I shot back.
“No I didn’t! It’s not my fault that’s what you thought. Everything I say comes out wrong with you!”
“How many meaning are there to ‘intellectually unable to keep up’?!”
“Stop acting standoffish and prissy every time I’m in the same room and none of this will happen!” He paused. “On the other hand, you do look adorable when you’re mad. Like a furious bunny.”
Oh my jalapeño chilly fries- did Asher Grayson just call me adorable?!
Technically, his compliment should’ve been negated by him calling me a standoffish priss, but heck, that was nothing new. I’d been called worse. How was it that he could make my blood boil with fury one second and make it heat with shyness the next?
Still, I couldn’t let him think he’d won. “I wouldn’t have to act standoffish and prissy if you weren’t an arrogant jackass.”
Asher took a step toward me, and I stumbled back. Crap crap crap! You’ve done it now, Ivy!
“I’m an arrogant jackass?” His voice rose, layered with disbelief.
His anger fueled my own, but common sense hadn’t completely deserted me. “You act like one.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “That-you- wow.”
Ivy- one, Asher- six hundred, fifty-five thousand.
“Let’s get something straight here, shall we?” Asher moved toward me until he was only a foot away. My heart thrummed wildly at his proximity, and my capacity for speech flew out the window. “You don’t know anything about me. Maybe I am a jackass. Maybe I’m not. A girl who’s known me less than a week isn’t ready to make that call, you hear me?”
Oh, look, my vocals had returned. Half of me wanted to apologize, scamper to the door, and pretend that I hadn’t called the six foot four bad boy and head Plastic of our school a jackass. The other half, well…
My mother did always say I couldn’t keep my mouth shut when I needed to.
“Same goes for you, pal! You try to get me to talk, then when I do, you just insult me some more!”
At this point, we were shouting, and most of the class was riveted. We were too busy with our little Greek drama to pay attention, at least until Mrs. Knut cleared her throat.
“Start your routines, class!” Mrs. Knut ordered our audience. They slowly complied, but several kept shooting us curious glances.
Mrs. Knut turned to us, and she did not look happy. “I’m getting sick of this constant bickering with you two! If we’re going to have any chance at winning the NDT, you need to start working together cohesively. That’s why I’m going to assign you a project to do outside of school.”
“What?!” Our shouts were in unison.
Mrs. Knut’s round face curled into a radiant smile. “It’ll give you a chance to get to know each other. After all, dancing partners need to know every nuance of their counterpart, feel their slightest shift and understand the most hidden signals. You two aren’t going to accomplish that here. So, my assignment is…you two need to watch five dance-oriented movies and replicate a routine from one of them. And you need to record yourselves for at least ten minutes watching each movie,” she added.
“But-” I started.
“I won’t-” Asher and I were both cut off. Mrs. Knut gave us her Cheshire cat grin.
“Let’s not forget this class is the key to your graduation! Unless you want to be stuck here repeating your senior year?”
She couldn’t do that! Could she? No one else in the class had to ‘bond’ with their partner!
No one else in the class is constantly bickering with their partner, either.
“I expect the footage on my desk by…hmm. I’m feeling charitable, so next Friday?” Mrs. Knut suggested, then nodded decisively. “Yes, next Friday. I’d highly recommend getting started this weekend.”
And with that outrageous declaration, she flounced to another group.
Was that woman going loco with the Sharpie fumes? Her solution to two people who were fighting was to throw them together more? I sincerely hoped no one let her into the chemistry building.
“Great. Freaking great. Now I’ve got to cram everything I needed to do over the weekend into today,” Asher groaned.
Oh, and he didn’t say ‘freaking’.
“If it makes you feel any better, I was supposed to spend my weekend with Dana and Caleb, and now that’s shot too.”
“It doesn’t make me feel better,” he replied, voice thick with irritation. “This class is way more work than it should be.”
“Yeah, but we get to drop after first semester, so it kind of evens out.”
The bell rang, once again my saving grace. Before I could make my escape, Asher caught hold of my elbow. “Wait.”
“What?” I tried to shake him off, but he had a tight grip on me.
“Give me your number. I’ll text you my address, and you can come over on Friday.”
I stopped. Somehow, the fact that I’d have to spend all of Saturday with Asher at his house had eluded me. The budding nervousness and fear in my chest were not good signs.
“Why can’t it be at my house?” I tried.
He snorted, still not releasing me. “Let’s see, Marsha, the Brady Bunch are going to be too distracting for us to get the assignment done as fast as possible. We won’t have that problem at my place.”
What the-Brady Bunch? Seriously? And why was I Marsha? Well, it is better than the bitterly jealous Jan. Hmm. Should be getting called Marsha a compliment then? No, that would be more a compliment within an insult, which negates the-
“Robello?” Asher snapped me from my mental rambling.
“Fine,” I replied curtly. “But so help me God, if you try anything funny, you’ll be walking bow-legged.”
He dropped my elbow, surprised by my agreement. He didn’t seem a tad bit unnerved by my threat. Guess he’d heard a lot worse with his lifestyle. “I won’t try anything…unless you ask me too.”
Asher handed me his phone, a sleek Samsung Galaxy S5 with an expensive cover before I could reply with a scathing retort. I couldn’t figure out how to work the contraption.
“Stop stabbing the screen,” Asher said. “Give me, just tell me what your number is.”
I recited my phone number, shuffling away slowly. Asher was watching my retreat with amusement. “You can go now.”
So I did.
Chapter Five
So What if it Could Probably Solve the Country’s Debt Problem?
“Let me get this straight- you’re going to his house tomorrow?”
Dana was in shock. We were lying on the floor of my room, surfing the internet and chatting. When I’d
nonchalantly- in my opinion- informed her of why I couldn’t go with her and Caleb tomorrow, she’d spilled the nail polish over her hand.
She wasn’t happy that she’d have lobster fingers for the weekend.
“Yes! But it’s only for the project Mrs. Knut dumped on us.”
Suddenly, Dana grinned slyly. “You’re going to be all alone with the school’s-hell, the city’s- bad boy? What if tries to woo you, Ives?”
“Ouch!” she rubbed her arm where I’d smacked her.
“It’s not like that Dana!” I patted my warming cheeks. Thanks, Mom, for giving me the gene that made my own face turn against me. “And hey, I thought you hated the Plastics!”
She shrugged and propped herself up on her elbow. “Asher Grayson isn’t really a part of the Plastics. He’s not easily categorized. Actually, I’m starting to think that the Plastics just started following him around and he went with it.”
“Ivy!” my mom called.
I opened the door to my room and stuck my head over the banister to find her standing at the foot of the stairs. “What’s up, Mom?”
“Honey, Paul is coming over on Sunday, so make sure you have no plans that day, alright?” she checked, wiping her hands on a dish towel. Behind her, I could see my Dad grumbling as he vacuumed the carpet. Tonight was the baseball game he was anticipating, and if Mom let him, he’d be sprawled on the couch with Spencer eating us out of house and home.
“Sure, Mom. I’ll get everything taken care of on Saturday. I can’t wait to see Paul!”
She sighed happily. “Me too. Go on, it’s not polite to keep Dana waiting.”
Dana was sitting upright when I found her. She beamed at me. “Paul’s coming home?”
I hid my smile. Dana had a huge crush on Paul, although you’d have to drag her through the gritty part of a barn to get her to admit it. Dana was a girl of many tastes, and many crushes.
“Yup. Sunday, according to my mom.” I was excited. Paul was older than me and Spencer, and he was finishing graduate school in Colorado. We hadn’t seen him in months.
“Hmm, guess that means you’ll have to spend the entire day with Asher then, if you want to free your Sunday,” Dana snickered. Dang, and here I thought I’d distracted her!
I hauled my laptop to my knees and chose a movie on Netflix. “Shut it, Dana. I love you and all, but I have no problem duct-taping your mouth closed.”
“Okay, okay! Just be careful, Ives,” she said with concern. “Asher Grayson is dangerous.”
I frowned at her, and defended Asher. Why? No clue. But it didn’t seem right that she was judging him based on his reputation. “He’s not going to hurt me, Dana. He’s not an animal.”
She clicked ‘Play’ on the movie I’d chosen. “That’s not what I meant by dangerous.”
And that was all she said about that.
My alarm was currently my favorite song, but if it kept blaring every morning, I was going to start hating it.
I switched my iPod on and hummed along as I brushed my teeth and dressed in a turquoise hoodie and faded jeans. Dana had slipped out sometime during the night. She claimed that the worst part of a sleepover was the morning, so she’d vanish before I woke up every time.
I grabbed my favorite polka-dot tote bag and slipped the book I was reading into it, along with my phone, wallet, and gum. After some thought, I unplugged my iPod and stuck it in there as well.
Saturday always put me in a good mood. Not even the thought that I was going to be spending the glorious day with a certain guy was enough to rain on my parade.
Dad and Spencer were already eating while Mom tended to my little sister. Jodi was adorable, with baby blonde curls to her shoulders and plump cheeks, but she was like a mini- Godzilla, destroying everything her chubby little hands touched.
“Ibbeee!” Jodi butchered me name, but she was too cute to resist. I scooped her onto my lap and ate my cereal one-handed. Jodi pushed her palm against my nose like she was paying Jeopardy and my nose was the buzzer.
“Where are you going?” Dad asked, scribbling something on a sheet of paper. He hated Saturdays because the agencies he worked for wanted the paperwork in before Sunday.
It was pretty unusual for me to be up before the afternoon on a Saturday. Spencer had tried to rouse me several times, and each time had resulted in a heavy object sailing towards him.
“Um…I’ve got a project due Friday. I’m working on it with a partner.” There, that was truthful. No way in hakunna matata was I telling my parents the identity of my partner. Mom was a nurse, meaning she’d probably met some of the people Asher put in the hospital, and Dad was a lawyer. Maybe he’d even convicted Asher to his time in juvie!
Maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration. I was in the arts, and my imagination ran away with me. He wasn’t on FBI’s Most Wanted or anything.
Yet.
What I- and most of Darwin High’s student body- couldn’t understand was why would someone who didn’t care about pretty much anything be willing to sacrifice anything for his future? Asher went above and beyond in school, but that was the only area he showed any amount of effort. I was pretty sure he was the top of our class. Probably why Mrs. Knut could rope him into this so easily.
“Ivy!” Spencer flicked a Cheerio in my face. “Earth to Ivy!”
Jodi took the Cheerio from my cheek and popped it into her mouth. “Ew, Jodi, no!”
She smiled at me. Mom took her from my lap and stuck her in her high-seat, where Jodi promptly knocked over her food.
“I’ve got to go,” I bid my family goodbye and headed to my car. Asher had texted me his address at four in the morning- why he was awake at that hour wasn’t something I wanted to know- and I typed it into my Dad’s GPS.
It wasn’t hard to locate Asher’s house- pardon me, mansion. The dude was loaded! The neighborhood was ritzy, with manicured lawns, jumbo-pools, and Pomeranians wearing bedazzled shirts.
Asher’s place might have been the grandest of the entire street. The lawn stretched endlessly, and the house was painted a rich mahogany color and lined with gold. The door was ornamented and heavy.
I almost turned tail and went home.
Relax, it’s not a big deal. So the house could probably fix the country’s debt problem- so what?
My phone buzzed. I answered it absently, still fixated on the mansion in front of me.
“Are you planning on knocking soon or do you want to stare some more?” a deep voice rich with humor asked.
I looked from the phone to the house. Was that curtain drawn a little bit? “Are you watching me?”
“Yes,” he answered unashamedly. “You’re on my property, remember?”
“Well, if it’s not a problem with you, I think I’ll stare some more,” I huffed, hanging up.
Slowly, I locked my car and made my way to the front door, clutching my tote bag to my chest like a shield. The door swung open before I could knock.
“Thought you were going to stare some more,” Asher smirked.
“And give you the satisfaction? I think not,” I replied. He gave me a wide berth to enter, but I was still unmoving. It was sinking in that I’d be all alone with Asher Grayson in his house, with the nearest house like an acre away.
His smirk grew at my hesitation. Hitching my tote bag higher on my shoulder, I stomped in, hoping I left dirt stains on his spotless marble floor.
My breath caught as I walked into his house.
Oh…wow…
Spiral stairs curved upwards, like a path to heaven. Marble hallways branched to different rooms on the lower floor, and I spotted the edge of a screen door leading to another jumbo pool.
That wasn’t what left me astounded, though. Instead of a roof, the house had a curved into a glass at the top of the columns. Basically, his roof was made of glass that let light stream in, making everything sparkle.
“Wow…” I murmured. “What do you guys do when it hales?”
Asher was watching me with interest. “Nice, huh
?”
“It’s lovely,” I answered truthfully. I’d never expected Asher Grayson’s house to be so…opulent.
That’s because you judged him based on what you heard.
True. I hadn’t even been sure if he’d lived in a house. I’d been under the impression he resided in a lair.
Guilt swarmed me, and I made a mini- vow to try to be nicer to Asher. He was right. I didn’t know him well enough to call him names. I didn’t think I ever would, but that was besides the point. For now, we were stuck together, and until our project ended and we went our separate ways, I’d have to tone it down.
“We’re never going to finish if you keep this up,” Asher broke me from my thoughts. He fit in perfectly with the grandiose house. He was wearing a simple white shirt and dark-washed jeans, but he was gorgeous, just like everything else in here.
“Lead the way, then,” I gestured.
He beckoned me after him as he walked down the hall. I followed a few steps behind him, admiring the artwork hanging on the walls.
And I was kind of checking him out, but only a little.
Dana would be ecstatic to know she was rubbing off on me. Asher sauntered down yet another hallway, and I was completely lost. How did he find his way around this maze?
He opened a door on the right and walked in, not glancing to see if I was following. The loud noise my sneakers were making on the floor was enough.
The room was a small theater. He had a freaking cinema in his mansion! It was circular, so the seats curved around a huge screen on the wall. There were twenty seats or so, but Asher sat in the highest row. Picking my way up, I left a seat between us and sat down. He slid me an amused glance, but didn’t comment, thankfully.
“What do you want to watch?” Asher asked. “Pick any dance movie. Even if it’s in cinema,” he added.
Lifting a remote from a compartment under his seat, he stretched his legs on the back of the seat in front of him.
“Save the Last Dance,” I decided. I’d seen the first half of the movie, but Jodi had gone and spilled apple juice on the electric outlet and fried our cable.
“Why that movie?” Asher asked, turning his head to peer at me.
The Bad Boy's Dance Page 4
