Chapter 6: Gentleman

“Why do bad things always happen to me?” I threw my backpack on the couch and looked at my brother. He was in his Spiderman pajamas and drinking his cup of morning coffee. Very mature for a twenty year old.

“C’mon it’s not that bad,” He said. I glared at him. It’s his entire fault that I’m in this situation.

“Oh really? Well, how would you like it to walk four miles in a thunderstorm to school?” I threw the nearest item I could at his head; in this case, it was a throw pillow. It made sense because it was called a ‘throw pillow’ and I threw it. I lived it up to its name.

“Ahem, I actually had to. And it will do you good, you look like you’ve been gaining a few,” Michael laughed. I scoffed and looked down at my thighs. I was not gaining anything. I am still a size five.

“Whatever. If you would just drive me then the problem will be solved.” I said. Michael put down his coffee cup and walked to the stairs. He looked at me for a few seconds before sprinting up the carpeted stairs. I ran after him, my combat boots making a very loud thumping sound while dashing up the stairs.

“Just call grandma and ask her to give you a ride,” He whined. I rolled my eyes and started pounding my fists on the locked wooden door. My idiot brother had locked himself in his room because he was scared that I might rip him to pieces for refusing to drive me. But, sadly to say, I don’t have that power. So no matter how much I want to rip him to shreds right now, I can’t.

“Oh yeah, just let her drive into the school parking lot and kill a few kids with her reckless driving!” I explained.

“Yeah, that was a pretty bad idea,” Michael laughed. “Why don’t you call Carter or someone, I don’t ever want to go back to that damn school.” Michael was being serious now.

“Fine, whatever,” I ran down the stairs and took out my phone. I quickly found Carter’s number in my contacts and pressed ‘call’. It rang for about twenty-five seconds before going to voicemail. I threw my phone down in anger. I was going to be late again and I’m going to have another detention. But… if Shane was there with me then maybe it wouldn’t be as bad. I kind of enjoyed his company.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, what am I even thinking? I enjoyed his company? I cannot be falling under his magic spell can I?

About five minutes later, while I was sulking on the couch, Michael came running down the stairs. He had gotten dressed into his normal attire for a day in his college classes. He picked his coffee cup up from the counter and started walking towards the door.

“If you’re so stressed about it, just don’t go to school today. I ditched plenty of times. Even though it wouldn’t exactly be ditching, because I told you that you could, it’s still the same concept.” Michael smiled at me. I frowned. I would if I didn’t have a big exam today in… oh my god, it’s in science. Mrs. Sealocks class. I’m going to die. I’m going to be dead. The only way I would be able to get there in time is if someone came and picked me up within three minutes, and that’s not going to happen.

“I can’t I have a science-“ I couldn’t finish my sentence because Michael had already walked out the front door. “Some brother he is,” I mumbled.

My iPhone’s screen lit up; I had a new text message.

“This better be from Carter, explaining himself on why he… couldn’t pick me up,” It was from an unknown number, but I knew exactly who sent it. Shane.

It’s thunderstorming outside, do you have a ride to school? ~Shane

I smiled at his concern and quickly replied.

No, my stupid brother won’t drive me because he had to go to classes and Carter won’t answer his phone.

Not even an instant later, I got a reply.

Good, I was hoping that you would say that. Get your backpack and go outside on the front porch.

I stared at the text. Why does he want me outside? I shrugged it off and grabbed my backpack off of the couch. Once all the lights were off, I walked out the front door and froze when I saw who was leaning up against one of the support poles. Shane’s hair was dripping wet and his ‘Pierce The Veil’ band tee-shirt was soaked. The funny thing was, he even had an umbrella in his hands; I guess he didn’t use it.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, it was a very stupid question.

“Oh you know, just coming here to pick you up,” Shane laughed. I blushed.

“Thank you so much. You are such a lifesaver. I would be missing the exam in science if it wasn’t for you… and you know how much Mrs. Sealock hates me and-“ Shane cut me off by a wave of his hand.

“Are we going to go to school? Or are we going to talk about how much Mrs. Sealock hates you?” Shane picked up the umbrella and handed it to me.

“Oh, right.” I opened the umbrella. Shane started walking to his car, without the umbrella. He was getting soaked. At least he wasn't wearing his leather jacket, his baby. “Don’t you want the umbrella?” I yelled over the sound of the rain.

“No, I’m okay. You use it, I wouldn’t want your beautiful hair getting ruined,” Shane jogged the rest of the way down my driveway to his car. I stood there, shocked. Did he just call my hair beautiful? My hair is far from beautiful. Right now it was extremely frizzy because of the humidity and it probably looked like a rats nest. “You coming Kaelyn?”

Shane’s voice snapped me out of my trance. I put the umbrella over my head and walked out to Shane’s car. While I was shaking out the umbrella, Shane leaned over the middle piece of his car and opened the door for me.

What a gentleman.

I smiled and got in his car. When I first sat down, I noticed that he had set two towels down, one on each of our seats. That was a really smart thing to do because his seats were black leather.

“You can just throw the umbrella in the back,” He told me. I nodded and put it on the floor in front of the backseats. He started his car, and right away he turned on the heat full blast.

“I’m sorry that you got soaked,” I said, trying to be a conversation starter.

“Don’t worry, I wasn’t planning on going to school anyways,” He admitted. My nose scrunched up at his words; it was a habit of mine. Whenever I’m confused I usually scrunch up my nose or run my fingers through my hair.

“Why not? You have to go to the exam, don’t you?” I asked. I kind of felt weird, sitting in the ‘bad boy’s’ car. It was a big leap from what I’ve been doing the past two months.

“Not necessarily. Mrs. Sealock will let me do anything I want, after some persuading. She would even give me an A if I didn’t even take the test.” He chuckled.

“Gross,” I mumbled. A bunch of worst case scenarios came to mind.

“Not like that Kaelyn, she’s married and very old! Sometimes I think that you’re not that innocent at all,” Shane looked at me when we stopped at a red light. Does he think about me? He thinks that I’m innocent? Does he think that I'm innocent because of the way I act? Or does he think I'm innocent... like, being a virgin innocent?

“You think about me?” I did not mean to say that, it just came out. I looked over at Shane; he was biting his bottom lip, on the opposite of where his lip ring was.

“Um… maybe,” He spoke up. Again with the maybes. What the heck? Does he not know how to give a straight answer.

“That was a yes or no question,” I stated. I crossed my arms over my chest and looked at him. He was smirking.

“Well, what would you say if it was an actual yes?” He questioned.

“I would say that you’re crazy because thinking about me can’t be a good thing,” I put a lot of emphasis on the word ‘I’. “All I do is ramble or as I like to call it, ‘word vomit’, I’m a goody goody so I barely get invited to parties or anything, and I have like- no social life whatsoever. After breaking up with Ryder, the only friends that have actually stuck with me have been Grace, Sierra, and Carter. So basically, if you’re thinking about me you must be thinking about a bunch of crazy fucked up shit and all the rumors you’ve heard about me,” I finished my word vomit and could hear Shane’s laughing clearly. He wasn’t even trying to hide it.

“Well, you certainly do like to ‘word vomit’ and calling you a goody goody is such an understatement, like- you probably don’t even realize how much it is. Up until yesterday, I thought that you would never get a detention-”

“What, do you keep tabs on me or something?” I questioned.

“Possibly,” He said mysteriously.

“Great. So, I’m in a car with a crazy stalker.” I propped my elbow up on the ledge next to the window and rested my head on my hand.

“Hey, don’t start with name calling, it’s a very rude way of bullying,” Shane said defensively.

“As if you’ve never called someone a name, worse names than what I just called you,” I pointed out.

“Touché,” He said.

“You know what Collins, you’re not as bad as most people think you are.” I smiled.

“Thank you, Ms. Green,” He said as we pulled into the school’s parking lot. I can’t believe I just had a full conversation and I only rambled once! I saw students start filing into the school, wringing out their umbrellas on the way in. The rain was still pouring down at a rapid speed. One person caught my eye, Ryder. He was staring straight at me. He had this look in his eyes; they were filled with jealousy, hatred and… regret. This was the first time that I had seen him actually staring at me with regret. Regret in those big, beautiful brown eyes that I had fallen in love with.

“Are you okay, Kaelyn? You got really quiet all of a sudden,”

“Yeah… I was just um… thinking,” I grabbed my backpack and was about to get out of the car when Shane grabbed my wrist.

“Are you sure?” His icy blue eyes were piercing through mine.

“Yeah,” My voice cracked. Why was I reacting this way? I looked through the windshield again and saw that Ryder was walking up the steps into the school. I let out a sigh of relief; he wasn't staring me down. Thank god.

“If you say so… we should probably get going, the bells going to ring in a few minutes.” Shane said. He got the umbrella from behind us and handed it to me.

“No, you use it this time, it’s yours,” I insisted.

“No, like I said before, I don’t want your beautiful hair getting ruined by the rain,” He argued.

“No, I refuse to take it,” I crossed my arms over my chest, I was being childish and I knew it. Why do I feel so comfortable around him? I’ve only truly talked to him for a day and now… we’ve been getting along quite well.

“Please take it. I’m already soaked anyways so what does it matter?” He placed the umbrella in my lap and stepped out into the pouring rain.

“Stubborn ass boy,” I mumbled. I opened his car door and stepped out. I opened the black umbrella and had to run through the rain to catch up with Shane. Once I caught up to him, I lifted the umbrella up so that it could cover both of us. Shane looked at me and smiled. We walked through the school’s back door together, just as the warning bell rang. Shane took his umbrella out of my hands and threw it on the ground next to the trashcan.

“Go to class, I’ll catch up with you later,” He mumbled. I glanced at him before running up the stairs. When I got to the top I looked back down at him.

“Thanks again for driving me. And, have fun persuading Mrs. Sealock about your grade.” I said. He looked up at me. But, before he could reply I ran up the last flight of stairs and down the hall to the science room. I made it just in time, because seconds after I walked through the wooden door, the bell rang. Mrs. Sealock glared at me. I shut the door and made my way to the back of the class. There were two seats left, and both of them were next to Ryder. I cursed under my breath and sat down at the one to his right.

***

The exam went smoothly for me, I was confident that I got an A. Shane never showed up for class, which wasn’t a big shocker… but it did make me wonder what he was doing. Why am I so concerned about him? I mean seriously, I’ve heard some nasty things about him but, ever since he let me borrow his jacket, he’s struck me as different. He doesn’t seem like the tough bad boy but, I could be wrong. He could just be being genuinely friendly or he could be playing me. I could be like all the other girls, all the ones he never called back, all the ones he charmed and I could be like all the other girls who meant nothing.