Fearless The King Series Book One - By Tawdra Kandle Page 0,14

hadn’t even shared with my parents. It occurred to me in a sudden and painful way how solitary and lonely my life was. I had always known it had to be this way, so it didn’t even cross my mind to mourn what might have been. But now the longing to connect was consuming, as though part of me had been waiting for Michael all along.

He was standing outside the cafeteria as he had promised, which I decided was a good sign. He was talking with another boy, a tall and thin red haired guy I recognized from lunch yesterday. I knew the minute that Michael caught sight of me, because he pushed away from the wall and moved toward me, even as his friend continued to talk. The other boy looked at him, confused, until he saw me, and then I saw him grin and shrug as he went through the doors into the cafeteria.

“Hey,” Michael stood in front of me, his eyes never leaving my face. “You look… drier.”

I looked down at myself as though checking on my condition. “Yeah, I decided the wet look was over-rated.” I gestured to where he had been standing. “I think you blew off your friend.”

He looked over and shrugged. “Nah, he’s cool. He knew I was just waiting for you.”

“Really?” I thought most guys played it cooler than that. Michael continued to be an enigma.

He grinned and guided me toward the doorway and the lunch line. We didn’t speak as we chose food, although I saw Michael roll his eyes at my choices, and I clearly heard him thinking.

Is that seriously all she’s gonna eat? Get a quiet table, talk about this morning. Got to figure it out and see… just see…

I wasn’t surprised then when instead of heading for his friends at their normal table, Michael guided me toward the doors that led to the outdoor eating area.

“Do you mind?” he asked. “I know it’s kind of hot, but I wanted some… privacy.”

“No, that’s fine.” Privacy was abundant out here; I saw another couple sitting across the yard, but other than that, it was empty and quiet.

We stopped at a table that was partly in the shade. I looked at Michael’s tray as he set it down. It held two pieces of pizza, a plate of fries, some carrots and celery, two cookies and two cartons of chocolate milk. No wonder he thought I ate like a bird.

“That’s as much as I eat in a day. Where do you put it all?” I looked at him in amazement.

“I guess I burn a lot of calories.” He took a huge bite of pizza and shook his head as I picked at my fruit bowl.

“So…” he swallowed and took a swig of his chocolate milk. “You want to tell me about what happened in Chem today?”

I was taken so completely by surprise that I actually dropped my fork onto the table. I had expected questions, but not about that.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, how did you end up soaked?”

I tore open my cracker pack and nibbled on one of them. “I thought I told you. I was doing a lab and I lost my balance and fell.”

Michael gazed at me steadily. “That’s not what I hear. And it’s not what you told me this morning.”

I tried to remember what I’d told him. What I had said was all jumbled in my mind with his words and thoughts. “What do you mean?”

“It’s a small school. People talk. Everyone’s saying that Nell Massler knocked you over on purpose in Chem, and that it was pretty nasty.”

I bit my lip. “Yeah, I guess that’s pretty accurate.”

“What did you tell the teacher?”

I cast my mind back. “Same thing I just told you. I was reaching for a dropper and I fell.”

Michael frowned. “Why didn’t you tell her the truth? Nell needs someone to stand up to her. You can’t let her get away with that kind of crap.”

“I didn’t want to make it a big deal, okay? For some reason, Nell doesn’t seem to like me. At all. I don’t know why. But I can deal with it.” I gave up on the main part of lunch and moved onto dessert, breaking off a piece of cookie. “I’m not really sure why you’re even asking me about it. I thought you’d want to talk about… something else.”

He smiled slightly. “Like what?”

I rolled my eyes and sighed. “I don’t know. Let’s see, you know next to nothing