Strung (Seaside 0.5)(3)
Author: Rachel Van Dyken

Suddenly, she let out a squeak as she tripped sending her messenger bag flying across the floor.

On instinct, I ran up to her and knelt down.

“Crap!” She huffed, her hand reaching out to grab her books just as mine covered it.

She jerked in response and looked up.

Mouth agape, her eyes widened just slightly before a pretty blush stained her cheeks.

I didn’t know what to say. For the first time in my nineteen years of living, I was speechless. I was a writer — it didn’t happen often. But my brain just suddenly stopped working. I tried to pull out words, phrases, sentences — even a smile would have been helpful.

But those eyes.

Those deep brown eyes.

It was the first time in years that I actually felt like someone saw me — not just the rockstar, but me. And I craved it — in a way I never thought I’d crave something.

The pull — to just collapse into her arms — a stranger’s arms, was so overwhelming it freaked me out. Was I that stressed? That strung out?

Her eyelashes fluttered a few times.

My breath hitched in my throat as I offered my hand and helped her to her feet.

I’d spent my teen years writing about that moment — when you touch a girl for the first time — when your fingertips graze her skin.

My words — hadn’t done it justice.

An electrical current made its way from her body into mine, almost bringing me to my knees.

Just as I was about to say something, I heard Demetri approach.

“Knocking girls off their feet already, hmm Alec?” He patted me on the back and flashed the girl one of his typical Demetri grins.

I felt sick.

Sick because I knew in that moment — she wasn’t for me. If he wanted her, I’d bow out. I’d do anything — short of committing murder — to get my little brother back, even if it meant that the one girl he wanted was the only one who’d been able to make me feel for years.

My heart hammered in my chest as she returned his grin.

Their eyes locked.

It was like drowning and knowing that nobody was going to offer you a life raft. I felt the blow like someone had punched me in the stomach.

“Um…” She took his hand and shook her head. “He didn’t knock me down, he was helping me. I tripped and…” her voice trailed off as she swallowed and rocked back on her feet.

Demetri’s head turned to the side; he was captivated and amused. I could tell. “No worries. Demetri, and your name?” He invaded her space, making it so that his chest almost brushed across hers.

“Natalee, but everyone just calls me Nat.” Her eyes flickered from Demetri to me, “It’s nice to meet you both.”

Hah. Riiight… More like it was nice to meet sunshine standing next to me. Pretty sure right now she thought I was evil incarnate. Maybe it was because I’d forgotten how to smile. But how the hell was I supposed to be excited about the fact that Demetri already had her in his hold — and she had no idea.

“Yeah well” — Demetri shrugged — “We’re new in town. I’m sure you’ll be seeing more of us.” He winked.

She smiled.

My heart ached so I looked away, feeling a bit pissed at the whole way things were going down but unable to do anything to stop it.

“Right.” She started backing up. “Um, like I said, nice meeting you. I’ll just…” Yeah she turned and practically ran away.

“Dude,” Demetri swore, “Stop scaring them off.”

“I wasn’t scaring her off,” I said defensively, “I just didn’t want to be late for class.”

The tardy bell rang.

“For real?” Demetri threw his head back and laughed. “Who died and made you a nerd? Can they even give us tardy slips? We’re new.”

“Whatever,” I snapped. “Let’s just go.”

Of course the same class that the cute girl ran into was the exact same class we were going to.

And it was just my luck that the teacher looked like he’d swallowed a lemon when we walked in a few seconds late.

The teacher introduced us.

And bowed.

He freaking bowed!

My eyes scanned the room. All male expressions — totally bored. The girls? Yeah, looked overheated. I looked at every face, memorizing them, categorizing them, and purposefully chose not to look at Nat.

The last thing I needed was to burn into my memory the way her lips looked when she smiled, or those damn eyelashes. Were they fake or something?

“Well” — the teacher clapped — “Again, welcome to Seaside High.”

Demetri strutted towards the empty seat; I followed, my body tensing as I passed Nat’s desk.

I wasn’t sure if it was her or if it was just the ridiculous sexual charge in the air, but her pen fell from her desk right onto my feet.

Without thinking, I bent over to pick it up. Hey I wasn’t a complete ass!

I picked up the pen and held it in front of her; our faces were inches apart. Her eyes dilated as her breathing picked up noticeably. I flexed my fingers around the pen and stared. I stared so hard I was surprised I didn’t break that pen in half.

“I think” — I cleared my throat — “You dropped this.”

Our fingers brushed as I handed the pen back to her and walked to my empty seat.

My fingers were still buzzing by the time I sat down.

My heart was beating so hard it almost hurt.

A few seconds after I sat, she turned around and stared at me.

I met her gaze and all but jumped out of my chair and attacked her with my mouth.

I could make out the screen form her phone, a picture of me and Demetri was splashed across the front.

Just as I was about to give her a cocky grin, the teacher snatched her cell phone and said she’d get it back after class. Wanting to play the superhero, but lacking the know-how, I jumped to my feet and approached the desk.

“Actually,” Holy hell what was I doing? “That’s my phone, sorry about that.” I snatched the phone out of the teachers hands and on my way back to my desk slid my iPhone 5 across Nat’s desk.

Our fingers met again.

My knees threatened to buckle. I was officially losing my mind why the hell had I saved her like that?

When I finally took my seat and stuffed her cell phone in my pocket, I was shaking.

“Dude,” Demetri whispered, “There are easier ways to get a girls number, you know that right?”

My laugh was hollow, “Right, I was just helping… not hitting.”