look like it could belong to Bran or any other guy in the class for that matter.
“All right, good,” Mr. Barron grumbled as Bran let the phone slide back into its pocket. “And it had better not happen again, O’ Connor.”
“No Sir, it won’t,” he promised and came back to slide in beside me at our lab table.
I waited until everyone had gone back to their lab, including Morganna Starchild who was staring with sharp interest at the two of us. But when she finally turned around and focused her attention on flirting with Elian Darkwing again, I felt free to talk.
“You didn’t have to do that,” I murmured to Bran. “I mean thank you—it was amazing—but you really didn’t have to do it.”
“I know.” He gave me a smile that was surprisingly attractive on his homely face. “But chivalry isn’t dead—at least where I come from. I couldn’t leave a lady in distress.”
“Where did you come from?” I asked curiously as we resumed doing the lab. “I mean, I know you’re not from this armpit of a town but where did you transfer in from?”
“Someplace very far away,” was all he said but there was a distant and almost melancholy look in his no-color eyes that touched me somehow. Wherever he came from, it seemed like he missed it and wished he was back there instead of here in Frostproof at Nocturne Academy.
Not that I blame him—Frostproof isn’t exactly the most exciting place on the planet. It’s just this tiny little town in the belly button of Florida, right in the middle of a bunch of orange groves. The town’s website likes to point out that it’s a short distance from Legoland (if you call an hour and a half drive through the middle of nowhere short.) But really, the orange groves are all it has going for it. In the spring when the orange blossoms bloom, the whole place smells amazing.
And that’s it. That’s the nicest thing I can say about my hometown.
God, I wanted to get out of here so badly sometimes I could taste it.
We finished taking each other’s pulses, making small talk as we did, and I was surprised to find that Bran had a quick, witty sense of humor. Several times he made me laugh and I found myself really enjoying his company. There was just something about him…I didn’t know what it was but it was definitely there, like a gem buried just under a thin layer of dirt.
Which may not seem like a very nice description of a person, but it was the best I could think up.
As class was about to end, Bran reminded me that I’d better take his cell phone on the way out the door and he would take mine.
“I’ll walk with you to your next class and we can switch there,” I told him.
“Works for me,” he said, giving me that smile again that had no business being so attractive.
I was a little dazed about the fact that I’d just offered to walk with him even knowing that Morganna Starchild was going to make jokes about us. But suddenly I didn’t care so much what she said.
Yes, she might make my life here at Nocturne Academy hell, but I wouldn’t be here forever. Someday soon I was going to get far away from this crappy little town and never look back.
Of course, at that moment I had no idea then how soon my exit from Frostproof was going to be or how far I would go.
But I was about to find out…
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