Chapter 2

My next two classes went by smoothly--with only a few people commenting on my height, surprisingly. I didn't really care, though, because I was too busy thinking about that guy I ran into.

Who was he?

He was a jerk.

He was so cute, though...

Stop it, brain!

"Hello, earth to Lauren?" Audrey asked tentatively.

I jerked upwards, startled. Audrey, and her friends Carly and Lily, and I were sitting at their lunch table, and I realized I had been spacing out.

I had originally wondered why people chose to stay in the cafeteria instead of leaving to get something better for lunch. It turned out that this school had a closed campus, though, which was going to be hard to get used to when I had the freedom to go wherever I wanted just a few days ago...

"Sorry," I mumbled, my eyes scanning the room. There were people all over, standing in lines, leaning against the wall, and seated throughout many tables.

Judging by the amount of near perfect looking girls and well built boys seated at the table diagonally across the cafeteria from me, I found the "popular table".

Focusing on that table, I looked down the row until I found...there!

The asshole from the hallway! He had a blonde girl next to him, so close she was practically on his lap, who was laughing and playing with his hair.

I looked at Audrey and tapped her on the arm. She turned to look at me, pushing her grown out bangs out of her face.

I pointed to where the asshole was sitting. "Hey, Audrey, do you know that guy?"

She saw who I was pointing at and did a double take. "Bad news, Lauren, bad news."

I frowned. "What, why? Who is he?"

The dark-haired girl, who I believe was named Carly, spoke up. "His name's Tyler Morris. He's the...player of the school, as stupid as that sounds. I'm not even kidding when I say he's slept with almost half of the junior girls and isn't ashamed of it."

She spoke with so much menace and disgust in her voice, I looked up at her in shock.

So, his name was Tyler. I turned back around to look at him again with a smirk. I jumped a little. When I looked at him, he was staring directly at me. Not wanting to look afraid, I smiled before turning away.

I thought over what Carly had just said. Obviously she had to be exaggerating just a little about how many people he'd slept with, but she continued talking before I could make sure. "I mean, sure, casual sex is okay if that's your...cup of tea," she started, waving her hands up in the air as she spoke. "But he's just awful about it. He barely remembers their names, not to mention never speaking to them again after he's done with them."

I frowned again, pondering over what she said for a minute before I looked at all three girls with a small grin. "So, basically, he humps and dumps?"

I expected them to laugh or had least nod or something, but all three girls had shock on their faces.

I was confused. "Isn't it true?"

"Aww, babe, that hurts my feelings."

I slowly turned my head around. Standing not a foot away from me, was Tyler Morris himself.

My cheeks were burning red. There was no way I was gonna embarrass myself in front of this jerk again so I put on a calm face. "Aww, you just couldn't stay away from me, could you?" I asked.

I saw surprise flash across his face but, just as soon, it was replaced by a smirk. I began to feel really suspicious as I noticed he had a drink in his hand.

He leaned forward and I thought he was going to whisper something in my ear, until I realized what was happening. My shirt, which happened to be white, was now severely soaked in what appeared to be grape juice. I gasped.

He smiled, "That's for what you did in the hallway." He walked away, leaving me with my jaw dropped open.

Without another look at my new friends, I stood up, seething with fury. Instead of going over and slapping Tyler like I wanted to, I got up and stormed out the door that lead to the hallways. Once I reached my locker, I tore my shirt off, not caring that I only had a tight, white camisole underneath.

I muttered a stream of curse words when I held my shirt in front of me, inspecting the damage. I sighed and threw it in my locker. I'd just have to deal with wearing only the camisole until I got to my gym class--where I would hopefully find a suitable replacement.

"Stripping in school? Now that's sexy," said a voice. I spun and came face to face with Tyler.

"Oh, yeah, it's not like a jackass threw his drink all over my shirt or anything."

His smirk grew bigger. "Feisty, aren't you?"

"Ugh, Seriously? Just go away," I hissed, strangely wishing Trent were here.

"What's your name?" He asked for the second time that day.

It's not like I was going to answer anyway, but just then the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. I smiled sweetly at him and flipped him off, grabbing my books and stalking off.

...

Tyler Morris

Fuck.

Who even was that girl? I'd never seen anyone like her before. She was tiny and more than a little attractive, I'd give her that. But it was her fiery attitude that had me both intrigued and pissed off at the same time.

And right now, pissed off was winning.

Who cares about her eyes or her infuriating smile? I don't give a shit and I certainly shouldn't be feeling guilty for dumping my drink on her, which I kinda was.

She sure was confident, though. When I first met her that morning, I had tried my hardest to be intimidating, only resulting in her burning me and walking away. I don't even know why she'd gotten under my skin so bad; all she'd done was bump into me...I tried not to let guilt seep in at how bad I'd overreacted. I didn't usually call anyone those kind of names, especially not random girls, but with the morning I had been having, her running straight into me was the last straw.

I was leaning against some lockers during sixth period, next to my best friend, Will, who was skipping class with me.

"Dude, do you know who that girl was at lunch?" I asked.

He shook his head. "No, but did you see her? Damn, she's hot."

I felt annoyance roll through me. Sure, she was hot, but she was also fucking bothering me. "You're so helpful," I muttered.

Obviously, it was just the fact that she actually stood up to me that was causing me to feel this way, but I couldn't quite shake the feeling that something was different with her.

All I knew was something about this girl kept me thinking about her, and I was going to figure out why.