The girl slid her hands up Tom's chest. "Are you seriously like treating me this way?" He laughed nervously. Thank goodness for David taking Lacey away. He held her wrists and stepped back. "I haven't really had time. But tell me, how am I treating you?" He folded his arms. "Like Umm... well." She looked up, creasing her forehead as she thought. "Okay, for like, starters, you're treating me like I don't exist." He smirked. "Really? How so?"She gasped. "You ass." She hit his arm. "You're like totally not taking this seriously." "I might be." He laughed."No, you're not. "You're not mad at me anymore are you?"She rolled her eyes and folded her arms. "I so am. A whole lot more than I was five minutes ago." He chuckled. She eyed him. "Okay so I'm not." "Hey don't keep him all to yourself Shels." Another girl rested her elbow on his shoulder. "Thomas Wade, where the hell have you been?" He looked from one girl to the other "Uhh... school. My school. I'm allo
"Have you seen her?" Tate asked Tom once he found him among some friends. "Who?""Lacey." What's wrong with just calling her name? Everyone always says her first. That isn't even the problem. What did he mean by has he seen her? Did he leave her again? He told her she could move around, did she do that? She had to be around here somewhere. Was she safe? She doesn't know anyone here, anything could happen. "No." He did his best to hide his concern. "She's you're date dude. Don't ask me." Tate tilted his head, he didn't like Tom's attitude. "Really?""What? I haven't seen her." Tate sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Keep looking, before she ends up drugged somewhere." That was his own fear. He shuddered at the thought. The second Tate turned away from him, he took out his phone and called her. "Where are you?" He said when she picked, walking away from the group. "Walking home.""Why?" He walked out the front door. He can't draw too much attention to himself
It seemed Tom was right. No, there's no seem about it. He was right. By Monday morning, half of the school was talking about Tate and Lacey. And the news was still spreading. Lacey ignored them as best she could, and them included the girls. But unfortunately, three of them caught up with her after their second class. "Seriously Lacey. You never ever agreed to go to a party with us and Tate comes out of nowhere and you say yes?" Bethany vented. "Okay, calm down Bethany. Let's be honest here, if Tate Winston came up to you tell me you wouldn't say yes?" Fay asked. Thank goodness, Lacey didn't have to explain anything. "I know I would." Anita said."You would what?" Jody caught up with them. She hadn't heard the news before and it shocked her to hear it. Anita couldn't help but spill the exciting news. They had the next period free so they went to the lunch bar and took their seats. Lacey made sure to look at Jody's face. There was no hiding her shock. "Wait till Den
The chair scraped the ground when Tom stood up. He left the group without a word, just the same smile plastered on his face. When he backed them, the smile faded. He left the lunch bar and headed for his locker. The bell for the next class to begin would go off any minute. While he rummaged through his locker, Tate walked up to him. "Hey." "Hey." He kept his focus on his search."So, I talked to her." Awesome, the her thing again. "Who?" It's not like he didn't know who he was talking about. Tate shifted his weight. "Lacey. I swear mate, ask me who one more ti-" "Shut up. Say her to me one more time, and I would ignore you." It would be a good thing maybe. He definitely wasn't interested in hearing him talk about Lacey. "How do you expect me to know who her is when you also just talked about Lisa Stenton. "Good point. So I talked to Lacey..." He explained what he walked in on with Dennis and what she had said. "I didn't even know what to think of it. And I sti
Tom and Lacey stood by the door, both watching Sadey complain and give her reasons why it was necessary she went with them. Tom couldn't help smiling at how cute Sadey looked as she spoke, her big pleading eyes making him give in. He looked at Lacey who just kept shaking her head. Her will was stronger than his when it came to Sadey apparently. " I'll tell mom." "What? Why would you do that? This is supposed to be our secret." Tom said. "We might not be back till past your bed time. It's a school night and mother would be worried if she gets back and you're not here." "She'll be worried about you too and you get to go." She stamped her feet whining. "It's also a school night.""What if we get you something. Would you like that instead? What do you want?" Tom's suggestion had her excited. "Umm... choc- no! Ice cream." "There's ice cream here." He glared at Lacey, wondering why she would say that. "It's vanilla. I want strawberry flavou
"Toby!" Sawyer called out when his father's assistant walked through the door. Tom raised his eyes over his phone for a second and went right back to texting. "Hey! You got the suits." Why is Sawyer so excited? He looked up again and noticed the black suits Toby held in each hand. "What's going on?""You're attending a gala tonight." Toby replied. "Your father can't make it, so you would both be attending in his place." "Finally. I know why you're here." Tom stood up from the couch. "Well, you weren't answering dad's calls. He needed to know how you were and this just kills two birds with one stone. It's not a bad thing." "I never said it was. You should have told me. What time is this thing?" He asked Toby. "In two hours.""You still have time to do nothing." Sawyer elbowed Tom lightly, took his suit from Toby and headed towards the stairs. Tom sighed and followed after him. The boys stepped out of the car and headed up stai
Lacey slammed her door shut. What the hell was that? Standing in the middle of her room, she flexed her fingers and looked around, with Marvin's words repeating in her head over and over again. Making her grow hot with rage. Why on earth would he say that? That was his problem? But right now, she didn't want to be alone. She called Tom. "Hey. Can I come over?" There was no controlling the anger in her voice. "Yeah. Is everything okay?""No." She didn't want to vent or cry. She just wanted to be with someone who would comfort her without words. "Should I come pick you up?" He sounded concerned.She had no intention of telling him any of what had happened in the last ten minutes. Again all she wanted was to be around someone. Him to be specific. "No. I'll be there on my own." She adjusted her large t-shirt and leggings and rushed out the room. "The least she could do is defend herself." She heard Marvin say. "Lacey won't. She won't because
Tate's legs shook anxiously as he watched Lacey doing whatever it was she was doing. The fact that for days she had been giving him the slip and when he finally did get her to talk to him she just blurted at most four words and left was getting very annoying and frustrating. Yet no matter how many times he told himself to stop, he just couldn't. It may be frustrating, but it was what he wanted, a girl he would spend more time going after than he usually would. "She's really getting to you isn't she?" George's point brought him out of his thoughts. "It's not just me she's avoiding. I'm practically being treated the way Dennis is treated. She's like-" "Diana." David completed. "Remember how Bradley and Christopher both wanted to take her to prom and turns out Darin was hooking up with her?" "Maybe she has a Darin." George added.Tate shook his head. "She hasn't mentioned the boyfriend so I doubt it." He faced the boys. "Damn it! It's like she's this rear thin