by Kate Morris
“Why’d you ignore me?”
She considered lying but knew that she was terrible at it. “Because, Roman, I don’t know what you want from me.”
Jane got out and shut her door. She wanted to slam it, but the repair if she damaged it would cost more than her savings account. Instead, she started walking. Roman did the same and stayed right with her.
“Hey, I think you should go your own way from here. Go hang out with your friends. This isn’t going to look good for you walking in with me.”
He looked a little hurt by this and said, “Why would it not look good? And what the hell would I care what they think anyway?”
She puffed air through her nose to express her disbelief and said, “Um, yeah, I think you do. You all do. You’re all full of your own opinions and self-worth. You think the rest of us care what you think, too, but we don’t. You do care what your friends think.”
“That’s bullshit, Jane. You don’t know anything about me, and you won’t even give me a damn chance. I’m trying here…”
“Then stop!” she said.
He did. He stopped walking. He planted his feet and wouldn’t take another step. Jane also stopped and looked back at him.
“What are you doing?” she asked, glancing inconspicuously around to see if anyone was observing them. She didn’t want anyone to think they were dating, and she sure as heck didn’t want anyone to think they were having a couple’s argument in the school parking lot.
“No,” he said.
“What?” she asked nervously and looked around again.
“No, I’m not going to stop trying. I don’t want to, and I’m not going to.”
She took two steps toward him, closing the gap. “Why are you doing this? Your friends will shun you for even being seen with me. You should go ahead. I’ll wait a minute and then come in.”
“Nope,” he said and took her hand walking forward with her.
Jane pulled free but kept going. She shot him a look to let him know she was angry. Her cheeks were hot.
“Better,” Roman said with a smart-alecky smirk. “Now, when you get to class, read my texts. I want you to come over after school. And before you try it, Dez already told me you don’t have to work today. No excuses.”
“I’m not coming to your house,” she argued irritably.
“I need to show you something,” he said. “Read the texts. It’ll make more sense.”
“Nothing you texted me is going to change my mind. You need to go your own way and let me go to my locker.”
“If you don’t agree to come over after school, I’ll kiss you right in the cafeteria at lunchtime in front of everyone.”
This actually caused her to trip on the curb. Roman chuckled and caught her elbow.
“Are you crazy?” she hissed with wide eyes.
He smiled. “Maybe.”
Jane strode with purpose, trying to ditch him, but he easily kept pace beside her. He had long legs, and her short ones were no match. They hit the sidewalk leading to the building, and she stupidly peeked out of the corner of her eye to see if Stephanie’s group was loitering by their cars. Of course, they were. Jane sped up.
She tried to avoid people’s strange stares as she went down the long, never-ending hall and turned right into another hall where her locker was located. Unfortunately, Roman followed because his own locker was two down from hers. She kept her head low until she got there. She reached for the lock to work her combination and just about passed out. There were six photos taped to her locker. They were from Terry’s party. In all of them, she was wearing that stupid, skimpy blue bikini. Four of them were taken from farther away while she was in the pool next to Roman talking. She glanced quickly around and saw Stephanie and her gang coming toward her.
“Let me handle this,” Roman said beside her, making her jump at his reappearance next to her.
He casually plucked each photo from the locker as if he had nowhere better to be and folded the tape over the back of each. Then he placed them in the back pocket of his black jeans.
“Oh. My. God!” Stephanie announced loudly, drawing a curious crowd.
“Back off, Steph,” Roman warned.
Some of the boys from their clique were tagging along pulling up the rear. A few of them made comments about her looking ‘hot’ in her bikini and whistled. Jane wanted to crawl into her locker and die. She’d perfected the art of living invisibly and laying low. This was neither of those. How many people had seen those pictures? Who took them? Were they also on the internet? Of course, they were.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me, Roman,” Stephanie said with great dramatic flair. “Are you two actually dating? Or is this just a fuck-buddy type situation?”
“That’s none of your business,” he said and planted his feet far apart. Jane tried not to flinch at her crudeness. What the heck was an f-buddy anyway? People who were buddies who hooked up apparently. That was super gross.
“Nice fake tits, trailer trash,” she accused, practically spitting in anger.
“What?” Jane whispered in a croak, touched the middle of her chest, and self-consciously stooped her shoulders so that others would not stare and speculate.
“She’s not fake. Not like you,” Roman said, defending her. “Jane’s all real, I assure you. Nothing fake about her. And she knows how to act like a lady.”
It was an insult. It was meant to be, too. Stephanie did not like it.
“Look, Roman, it’s her or us. She’s not hanging with us. That’s not fucking happening. We’re not interested in friendships with the local criminal element trailer trash.”
In a bold move, Roman reached down and took her hand firmly in his. Stephanie made a loud huffing response and stomped off. Two of Roman’s guy friends gave him the thumbs-up or a high five. Another nodded as if giving conspiratorial approval. Roman just offered them all a blank face. Jane wasn’t sure if he was trying to assert himself, but his friends seemed to respect him. It didn’t hurt that he was physically kind of a big guy. Since she’d come to this stupid school, from day one, she knew the power and presence that Roman Lockwood held here. Stephanie may have been the queen, but he was their king.
Then he simply turned back to her locker and offered her a grim smile.
“How’d they get those?” she asked. “Who took them?”
“Probably Skylar,” he answered.
“Thanks,” she said humbly. Then she touched her chest again. “That was so…”
He looked down at her as the first bell rang and offered a sympathetic expression. “You can repay me by coming over after school. Dez is coming, too. I need to show you something.” His tone was serious. “I’ll wait for you out by my car after school.” He touched her sleeve and left.
Jane rushed to class and met up with Dez at lunchtime. There was a lot of hooting and catcalls being cried out, but she did her best to ignore them. Roman sometimes sat with his friends at lunch, but he was absent. He was also absent from AP English and Chemistry. She didn’t see him again until Government and Civics class. He was there early and had switched seats to sit directly behind her. She offered a lopsided and uncomfortable grin that probably came off as a sneer as she took her seat and stashed her backpack underneath. Mr. Hawkins introduced the day’s lesson, and they began a discussion of the weekend’s reading homework.
Jane had a hard time concentrating. All she could think of were those horrible pictures and how embarrassed she felt all day. And Roman possibly still had them in his pocket. Mr. Hawkins excused himself to use the restroom, which was unusual. Teachers didn’t ever leave the classroom unattended.
“Hey, Jane,” one of the boys near her said and twisted in his seat. “Wanna’ go swimming?”
“Stow it, Ronnie,” Roman said, his deep voice commanding, to which the dude immediately turned back around.
“Where were you during third and fifth periods?” she whispered and twisted sideways in her seat to see him better as the class all went abou
t talking and sharing funny things on their phones and not doing what Mr. Hawkins instructed, which was to continue the discussion of the homework until he came back. Roman’s direct stare unnerved her, so Jane turned back around.
“Doing research,” he said.
“Where?” she asked over her shoulder.
“In the library,” he answered. “Did you ever read the texts?”
“Yes, but I didn’t really understand them. Why were you telling me about Randall and his flu?”
“I’ll explain it when we get back to my house.”
Dez turned toward them and asked Roman, “So we’re still on for after school?”
“Yeah, I just gotta pick up Connor.”
“You’re so great with him, Roman,” Destiny praised and winked obnoxiously at her. Jane shook her head at her friend as imperceptibly as possible.
He didn’t say anything, so Jane couldn’t see his reaction. She turned slightly in her chair and peered slyly. He was staring right at her again. Crap! More embarrassment and looking like a weirdo loser. She turned back around.
“My mom’s picking me up today,” Destiny said. “I’ve got this homecoming committee meeting, so I’ll be about an hour late getting to your house. But I’ll be there.”
“Good,” he said as Mr. Hawkins returned to the room, and the class instantly silenced itself as if they’d been working all along.
Jane tried again to concentrate on the lecture. He was talking about chemical warfare being used in the Middle East and how it was implemented decades ago by another regime also run by a madman. Then she felt Roman’s fingers twirling the tips of her hair. It only lasted a second, but it sent a shiver through her. What the heck was he doing?
“Yeah! Blow ‘em outta the desert back to the Middle Ages!” Ronnie commented loudly and out of turn.
It angered Mr. Hawkins, who looked pale and sweaty. He’d seemed a little sick the other day, too. Jane hoped he wasn’t getting ill. She really didn’t want a substitute teacher to replace him since he was her favorite teacher. Plus, she genuinely liked him.
Others in the class chimed in and offered stupid suggestions about how to handle the problems in the Middle East. It got loud. Boys always got loud. Their laughter even became uproarious. Typically, Mr. Hawkins would get them quickly back under control, but this time, he just seemed irked. He glared angrily at Ronnie, which surprised everyone. Then he verbally started attacking him.
“You stupid, small-minded little idiot!” he yelled.
“Hey, man, chill. I was just…”
“Shut up!” Mr. Hawkins blared, causing many, herself included, to jump.
“Mr. Hawkins,” Roman started. “I think he was just making a joke.”
Their teacher walked down the aisle closer to Ronnie, having ignored Roman’s comment. It escalated. Mr. Hawkins began ranting at Ronnie, and Ronnie squirmed nervously in his seat. Then their teacher lunged. It caused Ronnie, his desk, and Mr. Hawkins to tumble over onto the ground in a loud crash. Everyone was too stunned to move at first. Then Jane’s gaze shot to the side as Roman went sprinting past her and up the next aisle over to help neutralize the situation. Only it didn’t.
Mr. Hawkins started screaming and mumbling gibberish, throwing punches at other students, Roman included and ended up sprawled on his back. Roman and two of his friends were holding the man down.
“Calm down, Mr. Hawkins!” Roman shouted above the fiasco. He looked over his shoulder at her and said, “Jane, get help!”
She sprinted from the room and went next door to Mr. Pietro’s Biology class. Within seconds, the other teacher was running toward Mr. Hawkins’s classroom. She didn’t stop there. She found two more male teachers and sent them that way, too.
When she finally returned to the class, the other teachers had him subdued slightly. Roman was standing back from the scene and went to her the second he spotted her. Some of the girls were crying. Jane didn’t want to cry. She wanted out of there. This was just like when her mother’s boyfriend, Fred, wigged out on a ‘bad batch’ and nearly killed two people in the room, her mother included. Only Fred’s eyes weren’t as bloodshot as Mr. Hawkins.
She stepped closer to Roman, who took her hand in his. This time, though, she let him, and she didn’t dare let go.
Chapter Eight
He escorted Jane and Destiny from the classroom a few minutes later since one of the other teachers excused them for the rest of the day. Roman believed they just wanted them all out of there. Someone had already called 9-1-1. The principal also showed up with some of the other official school people like their part-time police officer.
“Are you okay?” she asked him with wide eyes.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
Jane didn’t back down, “Are you sure? It looked like you might’ve got hit a few times.”
“Not a big deal. Just a scuffle,” he assured her.
“What the heck?” Destiny asked rhetorically as they went toward their lockers in the other wing where the senior class lockers were assigned.
“That’s what I wanted to have you guys over to discuss,” Roman told them.
“Mr. Hawkins?” Destiny asked.
“Not exactly,” he said. “Hey, are you still going to homecoming committee? Or do you want to leave with us now?”
Destiny paused, still too stunned to think, “Uh, no, I’ve gotta go. This is our last meeting before homecoming this coming weekend.”
“Got it. Big stuff,” he said lightly, trying to lift their spirits.
“You know it,” she agreed with a sunny smile.
Jane was silent and had that same frightened look in her eyes she had Friday night at the pool and again after work. She glanced nervously over her shoulder more than once as they walked down the hall.
“Oh, hey, Jane,” Destiny said, “I forgot to tell you. Brian asked me to homecoming.”
“What? Oh, yeah, great, Dez,” she said and nodded, although her brow was knitted together with worry.
“We’ll be there,” Roman said.
“Awesome,” Destiny said, although Jane was staring straight ahead, probably at nothing but bad memories. “Wanna’ go dress shopping?”
She elbowed Jane, who said, “Sure. Although I’m not entirely sure I’ll be much help with picking out your dress. Your mom’s gonna be better at that than me.”
“Well, dummy, you can’t go in old jeans and your dad’s rock concert tees.”
Jane chuckled, then it hit her. “Wait, what? Why would I be going? I’m not going.”
“Yes, we are,” Roman said. “Remember? I already told everyone last Friday.”
“You were just coming to my rescue. Again, apparently.” She shook her head, which caused her hair to fall over her face.
“No, I wasn’t,” he said. “We’re going, too.”
“Yes!” Destiny nearly screeched. “I’m so glad you’re coming. I’ll book us a spa day in two weeks.”
“No, way. I’m not going to homecoming. I don’t do things like dances and…anything social setting like that. I’m not going to be Carrie and have Stephanie and her crew drop a bucket of animal blood on my head.”
“Don’t worry,” he said. “You’ll be with me. They won’t bother you. Or your fake boobs.”
Destiny laughed even louder this time.
“I don’t have…I mean, they’re not,” Jane stuttered.
Roman chuckled and said, “I know. I’m just giving you a hard time. You really need to lighten up, Livingston. Besides, it’ll be fun.”
She vigorously shook her head this time.
“No, remember?” he asked about their conversation this morning. “I’m not giving up. I’m not going away, either.”
“Are you taking some sort of sick, masochistic pleasure out of torturing me or something?” she asked, pausing near her locker.
“See you guys in a little bit,” Destiny said as she retreated.
They both sent her a wave, and Roman turned right back to Jane. “We’re
going.”
“Not going.”
“What size are you? A six? A four? Smaller?”
“None of your business,” she said and then frowned. Before she could turn away, he caught the crimson staining her tanned cheeks.
He smiled, “Do you even know? Have you ever worn a dress?”
“Funny,” she said with sarcasm. He thought she was cute when the little line between her brows pinched like that. It meant she was irritated, but it was just cute to Roman.
“If you don’t get a dress with Dez, I’ll just go get one for you. Slinky, black, about this short?” he asked, holding his hand up to her upper thigh. She slapped it away, making him actually laugh out loud, something he rarely did.
She ignored him and got into her locker. He did the same but kept his eyes on her the whole time. She was frazzled. Good. She needed to come out of that shell and start living in the world.
They walked out together into the late afternoon sunshine, which was certainly an improvement from the recent weather of cold and wet. He opened her door for her, but she paused and looked up at him.
“I’m not going to homecoming with you, Roman Lockwood,” she stated firmly, using his last name, too, as if that would make it more forceful and authoritative.
He cracked a smile and said, “We’ll see. I have the next two weeks to win you over enough to stand to be in the same room as me.”
“It’s not that,” she said, looking at her scuffed gym shoes that had seen better days. “You know that’s not why, and I don’t mean to be rude, either. It’s really nice of you to ask.”
“I don’t care what they think, Jane,” he said, feeling slightly exasperated at their situation. She had a lot of trust issues. “You have a lot to learn about me. We’re going. Me and you.”
“You and I,” she corrected.
“Maybe I do need help with that English Lit paper,” he joked, getting the tiniest glimpse of a smile. “Ready? I need to pick up Connor. He actually gets out earlier than us, but he has to stay in their latchkey program till I pick him up.”
