The Wicked
: Chapter 21

The last thing I want to be doing right now is sitting at breakfast with Carson, Logan, and Levi. I want to be back under Penelope’s sheets, basking in the warmth of her skin and spreading her thighs. I want to wake her up with my face between her legs, my tongue tracing places that make her quake and writhe with pleasure.

Instead, I’m at the Raines-Briar kitchen table, watching Carson feed Logan pancakes like a pussy.

Levi has been pretty silent, shoveling eggs and bacon into his mouth like he hasn’t had a meal in a week – it’s making me nauseous. This whole morning is making me nauseous.

“You got some syrup right…” Carson leans forward and licks the side of Logan’s lips. “Here.”

She chuckles, leaning in to kiss him before he can sit back down.

“Dude,” I say, putting down my fork. “Why were we invited to breakfast if you guys were going to ignore us and play syrup sex games?”

“Hayden,” Carson’s mom chastises me from where she’s sitting at the breakfast bar.

Logan laughs, pushing Carson away. “We invited you to breakfast because we’re a family and we miss you.”

“And we had leftovers from first day breakfast yesterday,” Logan’s dad adds from his seat next to Carson’s mom.

Logan narrows her eyes at her father playfully, making this family breakfast seem like a cookie-cutter, Hallmark movie.

“No complaints here,” Levi says around a mouthful of food. “This shit is good.”

“And why are you eating like you’ve been hibernating for six weeks? Slow down, you’re going to get heartburn,” I snap, eyeing Levi.

“Something you want to talk about, Hayden?” Carson asks, cutting into his stack of pancakes. “You’re kind of pissy this morning.”

“Did our cycles sync?” Logan adds, her mouth quirking to the side in a humored grin.

I roll my eyes at the entire table, putting my fork down. “Just tired. You guys ready to go?”

Carson looks at his watch. “We have a half hour, relax.”

I push my chair out and stand up, feeling all the hairs on my arms lifting in irritation. “Just take your Jeep to school. I’ll see you there.”

“Hayden!” Logan calls after me as I go to leave, but I ignore her.

I press a kiss to Carson’s mom’s cheek. “Thanks for breakfast, Mrs. Briar. Sorry I’m a grumpy fuck. I’ll make it up to you.”

She pats me on the shoulder. “I know you will, Hayden. Have a good day at school.”

I give her the best smile I can before I start moving again, then head for the door. The day is hot already, but it’s a dry heat that makes it hard to breathe. Add that with the anxiety crawling up my spine, and I feel like I’m fucking suffocating by the time I’m sitting in my driver’s seat.

Yanking open the center console, I grab a bottle of Xanax and pour three into my hand. I take them down with the half empty water bottle in the cup holder and then try to suck some oxygen into my lungs to get my mind to calm down.

My body feels like it’s in overdrive, so mentally and physically exhausted from last night that I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it through the entire day.

I light a cigarette, holding the first puff in my lungs, then blowing it out slowly.

The only thing that gets me to crank the engine and head for school is the fact I get to see Penelope.

I don’t like the fact that just seeing her will make me feel level again, but it will. I don’t fucking know why.

I blare the stereo once my phone has connected to the Bluetooth, letting music take over the thoughts inside my mind, and push down the accelerator.

Luxington High isn’t that far from Carson and Logan’s neighborhood, so with the speed of my Maserati, I make it there in just under ten minutes. I park in the spot I’ve claimed as my own in the student parking lot and turn off my car. Making sure to take three deep breaths before grabbing my backpack, I step out onto the asphalt, my head spinning from the Xans.

I feel better, not 100%, but I’m definitely not on the verge of clawing my skin off anymore.

Even though I’m early, the corridor is already crowded once I’ve pushed my way inside, one room on my mind.

The classroom door is closed when I get to it, and I can see Mrs. Justice and Penelope both occupying their desks through the small glass window. I rip my phone from my pocket and shoot Penelope a text message to tell her I’m here, and once she’s looked down at her phone on the tabletop and read it, she moves her eyes to the window and meets my gaze.

Her eyes narrow, and I make a come here motion with my hand.

At that, her eyes roll a little, and her mouth drops open on a sigh like I’m frustrating her. It makes my mouth kick up into a smirk when she stands up and starts to walk to the door.

I turn to walk away, hoping when she exits the classroom, she understands to follow me.

As I dart my eyes around the hallway as I walk, I make sure no one else notices me or stops me to talk, but also look for somewhere private we can go.

Pushing into the first closet I come across, I close the door behind me and hope like hell she saw where I went. I count in my head as I wait, and when I’ve reached thirty, the door opens, and Penelope walks in.

She’s hurried, closing the door quickly and pressing her back to it.

“We can’t do this here,” she says in way of greeting, and I laugh.

“I just wanted to see you,” I say, stepping up to her and putting my hands on her waist.

“You couldn’t wake me up before leaving?” she snaps in a hushed whisper, her eyes burning with fire.

“You’re mad?” I question, my brow curling up.

“Yes.” She pushes my hands off.

“Baby,” I start, but she cuts me off.

“I woke up and you were gone. I don’t think you understand all the horrible things I’ve thought this morning. You can’t just fucking leave, Hayden.”

“I texted you,” I say in defense, regretting the words the moment they leave my lips and I see her face turn to stone. I want to laugh, but I think that may get me in more trouble right now. So, I try a different path. “I didn’t know that wasn’t okay. I won’t do it again.”

“Where did you go?” she asks, her tone softening.

“I had breakfast with my friends,” I answer, putting my hands back on her waist and stepping closer. “I should have woken you up, and I’m sorry.”

She looks at me like she’s trying to decide if she’s still angry, and I grin at her playfully, feeling my chest burn with the need to kiss her. Her lips twitch, and I lean forward to capture her mouth with mine.

Her hands replace my jaw, and she turns my head to deepen our kiss, slipping her tongue against mine. When she pulls back, her lipstick is on my mouth, and I have the urge to rip her clothes off and fuck her until she can’t breathe.

“Day one, and we’re already making out in a janitor’s closet.” She sighs. “I’m going to get fired.”

I laugh. “No, you aren’t.”

Her fingers dig into my jaw. “We need to set some ground rules.”

I nod. “Okay, what’re the ground rules?”

“No touching at school is number one,” she says with a tight smile. “We need to have a totally normal student-teacher relationship when we are here, okay? Act like a normal high school student, and I’ll yell at you for being disruptive or whatever.”

My brows pull down. “If you yell at me, my dick will get hard, and I’ll bend you over your desk in front of everyone – is that what you want?”

Her eyes narrow. “Hayden.”

I chuckle. “What are the rest of your rules, Miss Leyton?”

“Oh!” She holds up a finger. “That’s a good one. Make sure you don’t accidentally call me Penelope in front of people.”

“Anything else?” I ask, studying her green eyes.

“Just…” She starts, dropping her head back against the door. “Don’t fucking tell anyone, Hayden, got it?”

I pull her into me, kissing along her throat. “Got it, now shut up and let me kiss you since we’re already breaking rule number one.”

By the time I get to 3^rd period Government, I’ve taken another few Xanax and picked my nail beds to hell. I don’t know why I feel so fucking anxious today, but my relief is sitting at the desk in the corner of the room once I’m inside Mrs. Justice’s classroom.

Penelope looks gorgeous today, her hair up in a ponytail and her dress tight. I hadn’t noticed this morning because I was too busy getting lost in my need to touch her, but watching her from a distance for forty minutes sounds like the best type of edging a guy could ask for.

She glances at me from the corner of her eye as I walk through the class and sit down in the back, but once Levi drops down in the desk next to mine, she looks away.

“Hey,” he says, throwing his backpack on top of the desk. “What was up your ass this morning?”

“Dude,” I answer, my lips kicking up into a grin. “What are you? My therapist?”

He snorts. “No, I’m your brother, and I want to know why you were acting like such a dick. You pissed Logan off, and she’s going to tear into you later.”

“Let her.” I roll my eyes.

“Well…” he says, dragging it out. “Lo called a family meeting for tonight, your place. I’ll be with the student government, so record it if she starts to kick your ass.”

I let my gaze travel across the room to where Penelope is flipping through stacks of papers at her desk. “I have plans tonight.”

Levi must have followed my eyeline, because he groans in the back of his throat. “Goddamn, she’s torturing me.”

I look at him from the corner of my eye. “What?”

A sinister grin cuts across his face. “How much would you give me if I could get Miss Leyton to fuck me by the end of the year?”

I grit my teeth, twisting my head to the side to face him again. My nostrils flare as I try to keep all the violent and angry thoughts inside my head, and his brows pull down. I pull oxygen through my nose to calm down and remind myself that I need to be pretending I don’t know her.

“I wouldn’t give you anything, but good luck.”

The words sting my throat like venom, and more than anything else, I want to punch him square in the face for talking about her like that and spit that she’s mine.

He laughs, buying into my fake nonchalant bullshit, and I feel a weight lift from my chest as the lies pass as truths.

“I would destroy that ass,” he says, facing Penelope again and smiling like a dick.

This is going to be harder than I thought.