Betting on You

34

t h i r t y f o u r

The school was abuzz with gossip from the team's victory party, on Tuesday morning.

I had been reluctant to even come to school, but I was forced to put on a brave face and see what, if anything, Jared had mentioned about the phone call a few days ago. Would he say anything? Did he tell anyone?

Apparently, and thankfully, he hadn't. Instead, the gossip going around the school was much juicier than that. And, surprise surprise, it centred around Harmony. I can't say that I was surprised. She liked being the center of attention, whether that was in a positive or negative light. And more often than not, that light had been negative.

Apparently, she got drunk pretty early on and had sex with Roger Gardner, a member of the team, in a closet. And then again with Tommy Heart, in a different closet. And then she tried to give Calum - yes. Calum - a blow job in the bathroom but he pushed her off of him and the whole thing made a scene. She hadn't gotten home until late the next morning when both our parents had been out. I think it was pretty good timing, seeing as I had just gotten back from Luke's place just minutes before.

Luke. Hm.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that he didn't really budge on the whole bet thing with Jared. I was actually quite shocked when it didn't turn into another argument. Instead, he told me that he didn't want to talk about it. Not yet, at least. He said he would soon, but that he couldn't tell me yet. Somehow that was supposed to suffice.

I didn't sleep that night, and I was sure he didn't either. We had been lying so far apart in his bed but somewhere in there, I had drifted off for a second and when I had woken again he had me wrapped in his arms.

Nevertheless, there was a tension between us that would probably stay there until he decided that he wanted to open up to me. And until he decided to do that, we were taking a break from our... friends with benefits, thing. So that we could both just get some... space.

He didn't like that very much.

"Hey!"

I flinched at the sound of Jaime's voice, the smile on her face contagious and immediately mirroring on my own lips as I continued to switch things in and out of my locker, "Hey! How was your weekend?"

"It was alright," she shrugged, "I have this really big exam for Advanced Maths on Thursday though and I spent most of my spare time trying to understand what the hell is going on." She groaned, her smile dropping as I shut my locker.

Together we made our way down the hall in the direction of the library. It was the third period now - her lunch and my spare, "So I take it you haven't had any luck finding a tutor, then?"

"Nope," she sighed, shaking her head, "Everyone I've asked is either busy or is just as lost as me. I don't know what I'm going to do."

But I couldn't help the way my smile grew, "That's actually perfect because I got you a tutor."

To that, she halted me in the middle of the hall, her eyes wide and her brows raised, "What?"

"Mhm," I hummed, "I may or may not have gotten you someone who could help you out-"

"Oh my gosh, who!" she squealed, excited, and I couldn't help but laugh at her as I glanced around the corridor, seeing no one paying us any mind, "Wait. It's not Stephanie, is it? Because she's currently failing and couldn't give a shit about the material."

"Of course it's not Steph," I laughed, "He is at the top of the class in both functions and data, and advanced maths."

"He?"