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“Okay. Bye, Ellie. It was nice to meet you,” she said before Flynn all but pushed her out of his office.

“I should have locked the door,” Flynn said, and I laughed.

“It’s probably not too cool to get it on in your office at work,” I told him.

Flynn walked back over to where I was sitting and pulled me to my feet. “I don’t want to get it on. I want to have sex with you. Right now. In my office,” Flynn corrected.

“That’s whatgetting it onmeans, Flynn,” I said.

“Oh. But what would we be getting on? The desk?” Flynn was frowning.

“Never mind. But we can’t have sex. Don’t you have class in a few minutes?” I asked, pointing to the clock.

Flynn sighed and looked very put out. “In twelve minutes. That’s not enough time is it?”

I tried really hard not to laugh. My lips twitched uncontrollably. “I sure hope not,” I answered.

“This sucks,” Flynn complained, and this time I did laugh.

“Yeah it sucks. But I’ll just see you at home,” I said, kissing him again, though pulling away before he could latch on.

“At home. I like that. I like knowing you’re there at the end of the day,” Flynn said, smiling.

I wasn’t thinking about working at JAC’s or running into the Berettis. I wasn’t thinking about how much I hated living in Wellston and I wasn’t thinking about the thousands of memories that assaulted me every time I drove down the painfully familiar streets.

All I was thinking about was the man in front of me and how much he had come to mean to me.

“I love you,” I said, hoping that just this once he would say it back.

I tried not to be too disappointed when he didn’t.

Chapter Thirteen

-Ellie-

“I saw you talking to the freak this morning. What in the fuck were you two talking about?” Dania asked, sitting down beside me at our usual lunch table.

I gave her a sideways glance, my face not giving anything away. I had been very firm with Flynn, telling him to never talk to me at school unless I approached him first. I knew the shit I’d have to deal with from my friends and even though Flynn had come to mean more to me than just about anyone, I didn’t want to deal with the inevitable blowback should our friendship become common knowledge.

Did that make me an asshole?

Yeah, it did.

Did that make me a total coward?

Absolutely.

I was so tough, so untouchable most of the time. But for some irrational reason, Dania and my so-called friends’ opinions of me mattered. I certainly didn’t want to be seen as vulnerable. I didn’t want them to think I had gone soft. I had to be tough. I had to be hard. Otherwise I feared that the persona I had built would crumble around me. And then I’d be left with nothing.

But I hated the way Dania and Stu treated Flynn. It made me sick each time they bullied him. I even joined in though seeing his anger and despair broke a heart I didn’t know I had.

Why couldn’t I just tell them to stop?

Why couldn’t I stand up to them for once?

Because Ellie McCallum was a weak fool.

“It was nothing. Some stupid shit about English class,” I remarked dismissively, hoping Dania would drop it. But she didn’t. She had this strange obsession with Flynn Hendrick. She taunted and teased him to a level that didn’t really make sense. She had targeted him for a reason that I didn’t understand.