My Fake Boyfriend Is the School Bad Boy novel Chapter 17

Chapter 17 Everyone Started Watching Us

:))

His long fingers curled around mine instantly. The grip was absolute. Heavy, hot, and secure. He didn’t interlace our fingers like a sweet,

awkward teenage couple. He held my hand the way someone holds a lifeline-entirely enveloping mine, pulling my arm close against his

side so our hips brushed with every step.

“Look straight ahead,” he murmured, his breath ghosting over the top of my head.

We started walking toward the massive oak front doors.

The transition from the parking lot to the front steps was a blur of cold air and the heavy thud of his boots matching the click of my

loafers. But the moment we stepped through the double doors and entered the main corridor, the atmosphere shifted.

The hallway was a sea of navy blue and plaid. The air was thick with the smell of floor polish and expensive perfume. Lockers clanged

shut. Laughter echoed off the high, vaulted ceilings.

We took five steps inside.

A guy from the lacrosse team, walking backward while talking to his friend, bumped into Ryder’s shoulder. The guy spun around, his face

instantly twisting into an angry scowl. “Watch it, man, what’s your-”

The lacrosse player froze. The blood drained out of his face so fast it looked comical. He stared at Ryder’s bruised jaw, and then his eyes

dropped down to our joined hands. His mouth literally fell open.

“M-my bad, Steinmann,” the guy stuttered, backing up so fast he nearly tripped over his own expensive sneakers.

The interaction acted like a drop of ink in a glass of water. It spread.

The girls standing near the nearby lockers stopped mid-sentence. They turned their heads. Their eyes went wide, tracking the movement

of Ryder’s thumb slowly stroking the back of my hand.

We kept walking. The Red Sea parted.

Students literally stepped out of our path, pressing their backs against the metal lockers to give us room. The chaotic, deafening noise of

the morning rush began to die down. It didn’t happen all at once. It was a wave of silence that rolled down the corridor ahead of us,

followed immediately by a frantic, buzzing undercurrent of whispers in our wake.

‘Is that… Raisa?”

“What is she doing with him?”

“Look at his face, did he get into another fight?”

1/3

81

12:39 Fri, Jul 10

Chapter 17 Everyone Started Watching Us

“He’s holding her hand. He’s actually holding her hand.”

:

I kept my chin tipped up, my eyes fixed firmly on the large analog clock at the far end of the hallway. My heart was beating so fast it

blurred into a continuous, painful hum in my chest. I felt completely naked under the weight of a hundred stares.

81

Ryder’s presence beside me was a massive, solid wall of heat. He walked with a slow, predatory saunter. He didn’t look at the students

staring at us. He looked through them. His jaw was locked in a hard, uncompromising line. He was daring anyone to say a word. Daring

anyone to challenge him.

We passed the main office. Through the glass windows, I saw Mrs. Gable standing by the reception desk. She had a stack of files in her

arms. She looked up.

She stopped moving. Her eyes locked onto me, wide with absolute shock, before snapping to Ryder. The files in her arms slipped,

scattering across the receptionist’s desk. She didn’t even try to catch them.

I didn’t break eye contact with her. I held her stare for three long seconds as we walked past the window, letting her see exactly what my

‘distraction’ looked like. The rumor about Mr. Harrison evaporated into thin air right there. No one would believe I was sneaking around

with a boring calculus teacher when the school’s most dangerous problem child had his fingers tangled in mine.

We reached the intersection of the A and B wings. This was the busiest part of the school, right next to the massive glass trophy cases.

Standing right in the middle of the intersection, holding a venti iced coffee, was Harper Vance.

Chloe was standing next to her, mid-laugh. But the laugh died in Chloe’s throat as the surrounding crowd went dead silent. Harper

frowned, annoyed by the sudden drop in noise, and turned around.

Harper’s perfectly glossed lips parted. Her eyes darted from my face, to Ryder’s leather jacket, down to where his large hand completely

swallowed mine. The absolute, unadulterated shock on her face was a physical blow. She looked completely lost, her carefully constructed

narrative torn to shreds in a matter of seconds.

The silence in the intersection was heavy and thick. Everyone was watching. Waiting for the explosion.

And then, right behind Harper, a girl from my AP Biology class stepped out of a classroom. She didn’t see us right away. She turned the

corner, looked up, and stopped dead in her tracks.

The heavy, 800-page AP Biology textbook slipped right out of her grasp.

The sound of the thick book hitting the polished linoleum floor echoed like a gunshot in the silent hallway.

I flinched, my shoulders jumping at the sudden, sharp noise. My instinct was to pull away, to hide, to apologize for the disruption.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify