Good Boy by Megan Lowe
Chapter 13
“Iheard you and Cav got into it in English this morning,” Chloe says as she sits down at our table in the cafeteria. “I thought I told you not to do that if I wasn’t there?”
“What was I supposed to do? Tell him, sorry, we can’t do this right now, Chloe isn’t here?”
“Uh, yeah.”
I shake my head.
“I heard it got pretty heated.”
I take a bite of my salad. “He said some things; I said some things.”
“About what?” she asks.
“You, EJ,” I roll my eyes. “Honestly, I have no idea.”
She shakes her head. “What the fuck is going on with you two?”
“I have no idea! From the start I’ve tried to keep a low profile but he won’t let me.”
“He won’t let you?”
“I know, it sounds stupid, but what other explanation is there? You know I don’t do anything that would upset him—”
“Except fantasize about his dreamy eyes.” She puts her hands under her chin and flits her eyelashes at me.
I push her face away, laughing.
“And I know I shouldn’t have taken the bait today, but after what he did to my car…. I don’t know, I’d just… had enough of all his shit.”
She nods.
“But that was the first time I’ve outwardly stood up to him.”
She pats my hand. “I get it. And I wish I could tell you why Cav has picked you as his victim but well, I really don’t think we want to delve into his mind. Who knows what we might find.”
I laugh. “Thanks, Chlo.”
“But I would recommend you find another reason to flirt with him.”
“I was not flirting with him.”
She raises an eyebrow. “And I’m not gay.”
“I don’t like Cavanaugh McLaughlin.”
“You do, but that’s okay. Even I can appreciate the ‘falling for the bad boy’ thing. I’d say I have the ‘falling for the bad girl’ thing, but, well, I am the bad girl. How’s your little Poundr buddy by the way?”
“He, uh, stopped responding to my texts the other day.”
“That’s gotta suck.”
I shrug. “It is what it is. He told me when we first started talking that he wouldn’t have a lot of time once school started, I guess I just thought….”
“That he’d find time for you.”
I nod. “Yeah. I know it sounds stupid. I mean, don’t we all think we’re going to be the one to change a person?”
“We do, but I kinda like that deep down we’re all kind of optimists.”
I smile and give her a nudge. “Doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt any less when it inevitably fails to happen.”
“No, it doesn’t, but hope is a good thing. Except when it comes to Cavanaugh McLaughlin.”
I groan. “For the last time, yes, I like him, but no, I’m not going to do anything about it. He’s a crush, nothing more, nothing less. It’ll be like that time when I had a crush on Scott Eastwood when he starred in The Longest Ride.” I swoon for a bit, remembering him on that bull.
Chloe clicks her fingers in front of my face.
“Sorry.”
She rolls her eyes.
“You’re hopeless.”
“Didn’t we establish early on in this relationship I was the romantic one?”
“Yeah, but do you have to be so… soppy?”
“Soppy? How am I soppy?”
“I don’t know. Your eyes got all cloudy and I could tell you were imagining you and him on a beach somewhere, all loved up.”
I give her a shove. “It was a farm by the way.”
She laughs. “Still, I want you to stay away from Cav.”
“I do! Honestly, I don’t know what more I can do, short of transferring to a new school and that won’t happen.”
“Are you sure that’s not an option?”
“Yup.”
She sighs.
“Look, I’m sure it’ll be okay. I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing, or not doing as the case may be, and I’m sure he’ll get bored with me sooner or later.”
She scoffs. “If you say so.”
I nod. “I do.” The truth is, I don’t, but what else can I do?
“Want to put a bet on it?”