Chapter 9

For the rest of the day I managed to avoid Andre like a plague – he is a plague alright! A plague out to break my best friend’s heart!

I was still in the process of processing his sudden appearance and Mr. Jorge wants ME to be his student guide! No thanks. I gladly let Aaron do the honors of showing him around school. I bet he had a bloody good time getting to see the many girls to fling with while pretending to date Siobhan on the side. I wonder if those girls I saw staring at him in the hall know he has a girlfriend.

Since it was officially the first day of school avoiding him was very much easy. Here in Edwin and Co., the first day of resumption isn’t that big of a deal since the teachers still have to put their notes for the term together. So since I had no classes for the day I spent my time in the library and the press room where I made plans with Shewa, the president of the School Press. Apparently, she was considering submitting a request to the School Board to begin an Edwin and Co. radio station to be aired every Friday. Also, Edwin and Co’s iconic, anonymous adviser, Ask Diddy, will be aired on the radio station instead of being published in the school newspaper alone.

I did all that while deliberately avoiding the Rios twins. Finally, after the final bell, Siobhan came to drag my ass out of my hiding place.

“Where were you?” she asked.

“Doing Head girl stuff,” I replied evasively.

She snorted. “Oh yeah, that. Whatever. I haven’t gotten a chance to talk to Andre all day!” she complained.

“He hasn’t spoken to you? Well, maybe you should seek him out and speak to him.” I said.

“Yeah well, it would have been easy if he wasn’t always surrounded by those wannabe bitches in our class and those Class 2 senior girls hanging on to his every word.” She pouted and shrugged. “Well I guess I can’t blame them, he is hot isn’t he?”

She looked at me for an answer and I shrugged. I wasn’t about to divulge my feelings about whether or not I found Andre Rios hot or not. He is annoying that’s for sure.

“Come on!” Siobhan laughed as we walked to class together to get our bags. “Admit it, every girl thinks he’s the hottest thing that has happened so far in this term so don’t lie. Tell me what you really think.”

What do I really think? What I really think is I can’t forget the moment I turned around at the beach to see him standing behind me, tall, hot, and handsome, his dark hair blowing slightly in the wind, his dark eyes lit up with amusement as I berated him for talking about my boobs. What I really think is that his lips would be softer than they look if I kiss them. And I want him to kiss me.

But when I looked to see the stars in Siobhan’s eyes I couldn’t help but keep those thoughts to myself and settle for, “Yeah I think he’s hot.”

She cheered. “Of course he is! That’s why I have to date him before some other idiot gets her fingers stuck on him.”

I frowned. “I thought you guys were dating already?”

She looked slightly guilty as she turned her face away. “Well not yet. He hasn’t officially asked me out but he does ask a lot of questions and wants to know about me so I’ll be damned if he doesn’t ask me out now that he’s here! Come on I’m the hottest girl in school, you said it yourself. It’s only right that he dates me. Who else would he go for? Rebecca?” she asked with a mean laugh.

“Right. I’m sure he only has eyes for you,” I mumbled. We entered our class and sure enough, there was Andre telling stories about his summer to half the female population in class. There were some guys there too, no doubt envying his new popularity.

Siobhan cast a wistful look in his direction but if I know her as much as I do she won’t be joining the group of people eagerly trying to get his attention. She was too classy for that. She would rather wait till she had him to herself so that her charms would be more effective.

She picked up her bag and I did the same.

“Why didn’t you tell me he was coming to Edwin and Co. though?”

“I wanted it to be a surprise. I know how much you worried about me dating someone I barely knew so this was supposed to be the bombshell.”

“Well, it was a bombshell alright. Now let’s see if he can get his head out of his ass and notice you.”

Siobhan finally laughed and the look of worry she had when she saw the number of girls around Andre wiped off. Linking her hand through mine she leaned on me and the both of us walked to the seniors' quarters to our rooms. We went for lunch after changing into our Edwin and Co. stenciled shirt and jeans.

Later that evening after doing a bit of studying I went to my bathroom, a fairly large bathroom, and took a shower, washed my hair with some shampoo, and let the cool water run down my body. I turned off the shower and rubbed the water off my body, combing through my wet light brown hair – my hair goes a shade between dirty blonde and light brown depending on the light and that’s a huge thanks to mom’s awesome genes.

I had just worn the silk nightdress I had gotten during the summer vacation, hung my bathroom robe on the door of my closet, and turned around when I almost had a heart attack. There on my balcony was Andre sitting on the balcony slab with one leg over the edge.

“What the heck?!” I cried out holding my chest to calm the heavy beat of my heart. Thank God my balcony light was on so I could see his face otherwise I would have had a heart attack. “What are you doing here?” I asked walking to the balcony. I didn’t make it out though because he jumped off the balcony and started to walk toward the open door of my room. I was tempted to take a step back because of his intimidating height and the dark look on his face but I stood on the threshold and crossed my arms in front of me, hoping he couldn’t hear my heartbeat.

“Making sure you weren’t trying to avoid me.”

I snorted. “Why would I be avoiding you?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe because an innocent comment set you off back at Mainland?”

“An innocent comment? About my boobs you mean?!” I laughed mirthlessly. “Look Andre, whatever you think you’re doing I don’t care, this is my apartment and I need my space.”

He took a step forward and I reached my arm out to hold him back, my fingers coming in contact with his hard, rippled stomach through his dark red shirt. I quickly withdrew my hand and glared up at him even though my heartbeat increased a million miles per hour. He looked like he just came out of the shower, his hair was damp and tempting. I wanted to run my fingers through his strands and pull on them until his scalp hurt…and bled.

He smirked. It was annoying to see him test the limits of his effect on me – and many other girls perhaps.

“Why are you here?”

“I thought you might need help with that,” he pointed to the strap of my nightgown and laughed. "You have a thing with straps after all."

“Haha very funny. Look, Andre, get out please, you can’t just show up at my apartment and make stupid jokes about something that happened during the summer break.”

“Oh yeah? I wasn’t making a joke, see.”

Before I knew what was happening he jerked the strap of my nightgown down.