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I didn’t look. Not immediately. I gave myself three whole seconds of dignity.

Then I glanced back.

He wasn’t pawing at Megan anymore. They weren’t touching. She was standing a few feet away now, talking to her best friend—whose name I couldn’t remember.

He was facing his open locker.

And watching me.

His expression hadn’t changed.

His eyes had. Something harder lived there now.

The football player beside him said something.

Chief didn’t react.

Then Clayton followed his line of sight and found me too. Wonderful.

I shut my locker. “Let’s go.”

Sadie didn’t comment. She grabbed my arm and hurried me in the opposite direction of trouble.

Another reason I loved her.

I ran into Ruckus before third period.

He was leaning against the wall outside the stairwell with two girls, making both of them laugh.

Of course he was.

Ruckus had the kind of face that got forgiven before he even did anything.

His eyes landed on me. “Oh, no,” he said.

I stopped. “What?”

“You’ve seen it.”

I smirked.

“Best manslut potential? Where’d they get an idea like that?” His expression turned genuinely offended.

“Research? Experience?” I offered.

“No, I mean the potential part,” Ruckus said. “That implies I haven’t reached it yet. Should I be insulted?”

One of the girls laughed. “I voted for you.”

Ruckus straightened. “There was voting?”

“No.”

“Then don’t toy with me.”

She laughed harder.

I started away.