The Wrong Path - By Vivian Marie Aubin du Paris Page 0,37

feet, then straddled the wall on Annabelle’s other side, despite her skirt, which she tugged around herself. It was, Annabelle realized weakly, the “safest” position.

She was keenly aware that no one was talking, and slowly looked down at the stairs, where every eye was trained on her. Startled, she straightened, looking back at them in bewilderment. Could they see up her skirt? She had perched on the edge of the wall with her legs crossed to keep that from happening. Was her hair messed up?

No… It was because she was one of the “in” crowd, and she was invading their territory.

“Stop salivating,” Ebony suddenly ordered, sounding exasperated. Annabelle looked over at her with wide eyes, and Ebony returned the look with an eye roll. “They see a pretty girl and they don’t know what to do with themselves. Just ignore them. How were classes today?”

Classes? Ebony didn’t know anything about her classes, and yet she was acting as though they’d been talking about them forever. Was she doing it to make Annabelle more comfortable? Or was it because she was trying to tell the others that Annabelle was okay to talk to? It didn’t matter. Annabelle wanted to throw her arms around her.

“Boring,” she admitted.

Ebony laughed and to her right, Will scoffed. Annabelle couldn’t bring herself to look at him above his chest, and quickly returned her attention to Ebony, who leaned back against the wall. “No kidding,” she drawled, then launched into a story about her teacher who had put half the class to sleep—complete with imitations.

As she sat there between the couple, laughing so hard she was almost in tears, Annabelle could understand what Will saw in her. Ebony was beautiful, she was funny, she was well spoken, and clearly a leader. What wasn’t to like about her? Shame on her for being upset, when there was no reason to be upset her friend—they were friends, weren’t they?—had found someone so wonderful.

To make amends, she looked over at Will with a smile, startled to find him watching her. She straightened, caught off-guard as she gazed into his unwavering dark eyes. She nearly gasped when she heard Ebony’s voice, breaking their stare.

“Hey, Will,” Ebony drawled. She looked down at her watch. “It’s almost 3:00. Didn’t you want to get home by then?”

Annabelle looked back at Will, who was staring at Ebony flatly. Then he gave her a fake, bared-teeth smile. Clearly whatever he had to do at home he wasn’t looking forward to. Annabelle tried to recall if Trevor had said anything about their mother and Will, but nothing came to mind. “Thanks for the reminder,” he said, lifting himself to his feet. He hoisted his backpack onto his shoulder, started to head to the door, sighed, then turned back to Annabelle. “You came in with Trevor, right?”

She nodded, stunned. “Yeah.”

“Okay.” He turned back to the door.

“Oh, Will, don’t make her wait for Trevor!” Ebony exclaimed, frowning at Will. Annabelle looked over at her in disbelief. “Will can give you a ride. Send Trevor a text saying you got a ride home with someone else. It’s silly for you to wait around for an eternity.”

“Oh, I-I usually just do my homework in the library—“ she protested quickly, not wanting to inconvenience Will. He probably liked the time alone. More importantly, he seemed unusually annoyed about something, and it was making her uncomfortable.

“That’s boring. Will, I order you to take Annabelle home.” Ebony stood up from the retaining wall and crossed to Will’s side, giving him a kiss on the cheek. Annabelle had to look away, trying to force down the strange twisting sensation in her stomach. “Call me later,” she purred.

“Belle?” Will sighed.

She dutifully rose from the wall, smiling weakly at Ebony. “I’ll see you later,” she said.

“You bet,” Ebony confirmed, grinning.

Annabelle walked through the door Will held open, both of them silent as they made their way through the empty hallway. She fidgeted uncomfortably as she tried to figure out what she had done in the last half hour that could have caused such a dramatic change in Will. He’d been so sweet and charming yesterday… Was he angry she had invaded his circle? Was he mad Ebony had made him give her a ride home?

When he unlocked the passenger door and held it out for her, she hesitated. “I can get a ride home with Trevor,” she said uneasily. “I don’t mean to inconvenience you.”

She couldn’t meet his eyes, but she could feel his stare. “You mean