Chapter 9: Anita

I walked out of Mr. Hopkins office as if the floor was laid with hot coal. I knew that Mr. Hopkins wanted to talk to me. Ask me the million dollar question that made his face grimace with anger; why the hell had I lied. The truth was I didn´t know, there were a thousand other ways to try and get Evan's attention, this just seemed to be the perfect way to do it.

Then again, I wanted him to like me for me, not be-cause of what happened in the closet or because I'd tak-en the blame for him when he cheated on a test. If I'd told Evan that it was me in the closet, would he want to get to know me for the wrong reasons? In the end, Prin-cipal Hopkins gave me detention for two weeks. Light punishment for cheating, but everyone in that room knew that it was a lie.

Whatever.

It wasn't like anyone was going to say anything about it. Not when it was my word against Evan's, but I was counting on the fact that nobody would question us, so the punishment was less irritating than it should have been.

"Wait!"

My feet locked up when I heard his voice call out and I looked over my shoulder, eyes wide in surprise when I saw Evan was right behind me. I wanted to turn away and run, but I was so stumped by his attention that I couldn't make my feet move in any other direction but towards him.

"Hey," he said with that winning smile of his.

I blinked, screaming at myself to run away internal-ly.

Crap, what have I done!

I was already regretting it. I shouldn't have lied for him. It had been an impulsive action that I was now to-tally cursing myself for because this was the worst posi-tion to find myself in. I hadn't thought about how I was going to get him to realize it had been me with him in that closet, but this... what if he thought I was doing this for him because of that? Because I expected something from him.

I didn't. After all, I wasn't stupid. Evan fucked some random girl from another school at a party, a girl he might never see again. A girl that didn't even go to our school. He probably never planned, or thought, to see her again.

That was the real reason why I hesitated to tell him anything. If he didn't make the first move, then it would just be more humiliating for me, because he didn't seem the least bit interested. High school could be a cruel place. If people found out, or if he told anyone, even one of his friends and they shared it, people would think I did it all so I could trick him into having sex with me.

Only, it wasn't like that. I never expected anything to happen with Evan; I'd done what I did that night for me. Things were now headed in a different direction from what I had planned.

"Why did you do that?" He asked.

I blinked again, realizing I'd been spacing out when his voice brought me out of it. He was frowning down at me, and it made me panic.

Right, I'm in trouble right now. What had I been thinking?

That was easy enough; I hadn't been thinking at all. I was stressing the entire time internally and then put my-self out there to take the fall, something I never did. I disliked punishment, especially since I'd have to go home and explain exactly why I was getting punished. Getting caught cheating was pretty bad, and I'd just real-ized I had more to worry about than I thought.

"Hello?"

One of his eyebrows was lifted, and he was giving me a strange look. Of course, he was, because I kept star-ing at him with wide eyes and my mouth gaping open, but not saying anything.

"Hi," I blurted out, then wanted to kick myself.

The other eyebrow went up, and his lips twitched like he wanted to laugh at me, but he was kind enough not to do it in my face.

"Okay, seriously, why did you lie for me? We don't know each other, right? Or do I owe you?"

A stab of hurt pierced my chest. Of course, he didn't know me. Well, he didn't know he knew me was more appropriate. I knew he didn't realize who I was, but still, hearing him say it was a little heartbreaking. I was tempted just to turn and leave it all right there. Leave him, leave my thoughts of him and the plan to get him to recognize me. I would feel so much better if I stopped chasing after something that would never hap-pen.

I didn't do that, though, instead I forced myself to calm down as I faced him.

"I don't know why I did it," I said honestly, calmly. "It just... happened."

"How could that just happen?" He retorted, the frown back. "You're going to be in some serious trouble; you know that, right?"

I shrugged, even though I didn't feel quite so blasé. "It doesn't matter now. It's done already, and if I go back in there and say I lied, then I'll just get into more trouble, and so will you, probably."

"You're probably right," he said, nodding slowly. "Anyway, I'm Evan. Stewart. You probably know al-ready, since he was shouting it and all, and you're Anita, right? Or so I heard."

"Uh, yeah, that's me," I mumbled awkwardly, ignor-ing how my insides trembled when he said my name.

"Anyway," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "Thanks for doing what you did. It helped me out a lot, I really can't afford to get in trouble, and I'm grateful. So, I guess I'll be seeing you around."

He shot me a wide smile before he walked past me to head for class. He didn't seem to notice he'd left me frozen once more, from that dazzling smile. I was happy, too, that he finally knew my name. Even if it did get me into trouble.