seven

                                    

                                          
Dash was at my locker the next morning before first period. This time, I noticed him immediately. He was leaning against lockers, his hair tousled as if he'd just rolled out of bed. His eyes met mine as I approached, and I could feel my heart start to race until I remembered I was upset with him. 
"Hey," he said.
I hesitated before saying, "Hi." 
"Glad to see your shirt's not inside out today." 
I wasn't really in the mood to joke around, so I stayed silent as I opened my locker. 
Dash let out a sigh. "I'm sorry, okay? I didn't mean to hurt your feelings yesterday." 
"You didn't hurt my feelings," I lied. 
"I just want to explain..."
I turned to him with a fake smile on my face. "Dash, as much as it must pain you to hear this, I really don't think about you enough for you to be capable of hurting my feelings." 
Whenever I was around Dash, I started acting like someone else. Someone who was bold and capable of inflicting pain. Sure, every word out of my mouth had been a lie, but I was getting much better at not feeling guilty about it. It both scared and excited me. 
Dash stared at me with an expression on his face I couldn't figure out. "You think about me." He stated it as though it was a fact, without even a hint of uncertainty in his voice.
It irritated me. I didn't want him to know how much I truly thought about him, for him to know the kind of power he had over me. "You were a fun distraction from my life. Now, I need to get to class. You should consider going sometime. You might learn something." 
I grabbed my textbook out of my locker and slammed it shut. But as I turned to walk away from him, he grabbed my wrist, pulling me back towards him. 
I stared at him with an open mouth. We were inches apart. For a second I thought about making out with him, right then and there, but then remembered we were in a hallway filled with other people. 
"I was trying to protect you yesterday," Dash told me quietly. "You don't want to be involved in that shit. That guy I was with...I just needed you to get out of there quickly." 
He finally released my wrist, but I didn't step back. I stared into those intense green eyes, the rest of the world falling away momentarily. 
"I don't think you're annoying," Dash added. "Strange, yes, but not annoying." His usual lopsided grin reappeared on his face. "So stop acting like you're bulletproof and instead say you forgive me because I'm bored of you pretending you don't like me." 
I wanted to turn him down, to show him (and myself) that I wasn't really that into him, that he didn't know me as well as he thought he did. But instead, I simply replied, "I forgive you." 
"Good." He winked at me. "Now, can you explain to me what you meant before about something called 'going to class?' I've never heard of that before."
I let out a laugh and rolled my eyes at him. "It's this crazy concept where you go to a room and have someone lecture you on stuff you may or may not ever need to know." 
"Ah, sounds like torture. Maybe sometime you'd like to skip it and do something that doesn't suck?" 
"Maybe," I told him with a smile. 
The bell rang indicating we had five minutes to get to first period. 
"Later, B," Dash said with a little salute. 
Callie approached my locker just as Dash walked away. "Were you talking to Dash Wolfe?" 
I shrugged. "Yeah, we're...friends."