So what if she had gained a few pounds? The girl spent her whole life being neglected and malnourished by her parents, so it was good to see her at a healthy size. She wasn’t a model-thin stick figure type. She was awomanwith curves and skin and softness. Ashtyn was sexy as fuck and she didn’t even know it. That made her even sexier. I could’ve said something to Kendra but that would’ve given off the wrong idea. I didn’t need Ashtyn thinking I’d be her white knight, so I kept my mouth shut and let her handle her battle.
“Shit,” I muttered as I walked through the door to the art room.
There sat Cade, chatting up some younger girl with hair as white as snow. He looked like a typical jock in his GP Football t-shirt and dark jeans. He tousled his hair with his hand and the girl beside him giggled. One of those fake giggles that girls used when the guy wasn’t that funny, yet they wanted to make him feel like he was funny. Annoying as hell.
“I’ll be sitting here,” I said firmly.
The girl cowered, looking terrified as I hovered over the seat she occupied next to Cade. Her dough eyes filled with fear. I kept my face stern and motioned for her to vacate.
“Sorry, sugar, you should probably find another place to sit,” said Cade.
“Yeah, yeah so–sorry. I’ll be going now.” She scrambled across the room to find an open stool far away from me.
“Was that necessary?”
“Yes, it was. If I have to suffer through this class, I’ll be doing it next to you. And listening to that giggle all semester? Fuck no.”
“You could’ve sat right there.” He pointed to a stool at the table next to us. The room was arranged with tables that fit four stools each–two on each side. How it worked left four people back-to-back. You were either facing the front of the room–staring at Reynolds and his giant desk–or you faced the wall of windows which looked out over the tree line.
“I’m not going to sit facing the front, numb nuts. I want to face the window,” I explained.
“You sure about that…” he trailed off and motioned his head toward the front of the room.
I glanced behind me even though I knew who had walked through the door. I sighed when Reynolds greeted her, finally looking up from his notebook. “Miss Hawthorne, I was surprised to see your name on my class roll last week. What is this, your fourth or fifth time? I’m glad you’re here.”
Ashtyn stood by the door and a blush crept up her neck at his comment. Of course, little miss perfect art student would be in my class. And of course, our teacher would have a stiffy over it.
“You know I can’t pass up an opportunity to take art again,” she smiled. Fucking smiled. A real, genuine smile. Not one marred in sarcasm or anxiety like she gave me.
“Looks like your usual seat is still open.” He pointed toward me and she followed his gaze. Her seat was directly behind mine facing the front. Which meant I would have to look at the back of her head whenever Reynolds was giving instruction. Which meant my mind would be solely focused on the fantasy of pounding her from behind as I yanked on her hair. Which meant a perpetual boner in art class sitting next to Cade, of all people.
Ashtyn stiffened and Reynolds grinned. He was a younger teacher. I’d be surprised if the guy was twenty-five. He had dark hair that he kept combed back and wore an exciting array of argyle sweater vests. Paired with his dark-rimmed glasses, he looked like a Clark Kent wannabe.
The girls, and some of the guys, swooned over him since he was practically our age. He was attractive in a nerdy, desperate kind of way. The way his eyes lit up when he saw Ashtyn made me seethe in anger. He didn’t even try to hide it.
She marched to herusual seatand tossed her bag to the floor with a thud. She unceremoniously sat her perfect ass on the stool and faced the front of the class like a suck-up.
Cade elbowed me in the ribs and winked.
This guy.
“What?” I gritted my teeth as I spun back around to face the windows.
“This is gonna be fucking good,” he beamed.
“What is?” Asked Ashtyn. She spun around to us and narrowed her eyes. “What’s going to befuckinggood, Cade? Please enlighten me because I know you were talking about me. And if you do anything–anything–to ruin my favorite class, I will make you regret the day you stepped foot in this room.”
“Shit, you weren’t kidding when you said she was a little,” Cade motioned with his finger in a circle near his head.
Ashtyn’s eyes darted to me and I smirked. I couldn’t help it. She was so easy to rile up. Did that make me an asshole? Yes. But damn, it excited me to see her fired up. She spent so much of her time trying to be tame and timid, yet I made her come alive.
Alive with anger, rage, and contempt, but still.
"It looks like everyone's here, so why don't we get started?" Reynolds interrupted as he stood from his desk. "Welcome to art class! Some of you are first-timers, others I've gotten to know pretty well over the years." He paced the length of the room as he continued. "For those of you who don't know, you can call me Daniel if you’d like. I know it's not customary for students to address their teachers by their first name, but we're in an art setting. I don't need the formalities here, just your raw emotions and ingenuity, so we should all be as relaxed as possible."
I snorted and Ashtyn glared at me. I met her stare, my elbows resting on the table behind me, my knees spread so I was almost touching her legs. Manspreading like a motherfucker. She shifted slightly to inch herself away from me, so I extended one leg and propped my boot on the rung of her stool, teetering with the idea of giving it a shove. Ashtyn glanced down at my foot and scowled before turning her attention back to Reynolds–Daniel, as he was known by his fans.
"Whether this is your first time in my class or your fifth,” he smiled at Ashtyn. “You'll stay on pace with my lesson plan with the option of altering the assignments. As you all know, we don't have the staff here to make multiple-level art classes, but we will make do." He pushed his thick glasses up his nose and continued to drone on about what we would be doing for the semester. "I hope you like the seats you chose because they will be yours for the next few months. Sitting before you are your GP-provided sketchbooks. Actually, I bought them, but it's all the same right? Okay, now that we got that taken care of, I'd like you to sketch something. Anything you want. Pencils are up at the front if you don't have one."