The Boyfriend Deal(3)

Tyler took my hand, tugged me into the hall, and then closed the classroom door. I was pretty sure Mrs. Lundstrom didn’t mean for that to happen, but she didn’t exactly stop him either. As I looked around, I realized we were completely alone and it made my palms sweat a little. I didn’t think Tyler had anything nefarious planned, since there wasn’t an audience, but for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what he could possibly want to say to me that required him to drag me from class. I could practically feel the stares on the other side of the door as everyone speculated about what was happening in the hall.

“If you wanted my attention, all you had to do was ask for it.” He smirked at me, but there was laughter in his eyes. I was glad someone found this amusing.

“I was trying to prove to my ex that I’ve moved on. You just happened to be handy.”

“Who are you trying to convince? Will it make you sleep better if you tell yourself you didn’t mean to kiss me? That I was just in the right place at the right time?”

My eyes narrowed at him and I pursed my lips, wanting to argue the point, but what was the use? He was kind of right. I hadn’t intentionally kissed him this morning, but I’d definitely wanted to for almost my entire life. And something told me he knew about my infatuation with him. But then, every girl in school was infatuated with him, so it wasn’t a big stretch to come to that conclusion.

“Look, you need me, whether you want to admit it or not.” He smiled at me again. “So why don’t we make a deal?”

“What kind of deal?”

If he thought I was going to sleep with him just to chase off Hunter, he was sadly mistaken. Of course, if that was all he wanted, he could get that anywhere. It was no big secret that was why he dated Alicia. She gave him everything he could possibly want, so I was a little confused as to why they kept breaking up.

“You need a boyfriend so Hunter Prescott will stop following you around like a lost little puppy, and I need a nice, stable girlfriend that I can take home to meet my parents. Mom is threatening to send me to military school if I don’t change my ways, and as I see it, you’re exactly the type of girl she wishes I would date.”

“You mean someone who won’t let you get past first base?”

He nodded. “Besides, you have that wholesome girl-next-door quality. You’re the exact opposite of the girls I usually date, and if Mom sees the two of us spending time together, then she’ll forget this insane idea of sending me away.”

“So you want to pretend to be my boyfriend?” I wasn’t certain I’d heard that right. And if I had, while it was very tempting, I could see major flaws with his plan. For one, my heart was going to get trampled because I was seriously ga-ga over the boy. For another, Alicia was going to destroy me if she thought for one moment Tyler was serious about me.

“We each get something we need, and in a few weeks, we can break up. Dating me will open the door to other guys asking you out and get rid of your stalker, and my dating you will keep me out of military school.”

The boy was seriously crazy. He really thought anyone would believe he would date me? Like he’d said, I was the exact opposite of the girls he usually hung out with. No way was anyone going to believe he’d suddenly fallen for the band geek, not even if they’d seen our kiss this morning in the hall. The determined set of his jaw told me he was going to make it work, one way or another. Why couldn’t a boy come after me with that sort of determination for real? Aside from crazy Hunter. I hoped this didn’t come back to bite me in the rear. The last thing I needed was another psycho stalker on my hands.





Chapter Two



Tyler



Now that I’d had her lips on mine, it was kind of hard to look away. Who would have thought sweet little Hadley could kiss like that?

“Dude, what was that?” my friend Luke asked in a hushed tone so the teacher wouldn’t hear. “Since when do you have a thing for geeks?”

I shrugged and smirked. “She may be a geek, but that was a pretty hot kiss. I think my lips melted a little.”

Luke snorted.

I was being an asshole and I knew it. I’d like to blame my behavior on some life-altering event, but the truth was my parents had always had a great relationship, no one had ever beaten me, and I’d never been in trouble—despite what my mother thought. I drank a little too much, partied a little too hard, and definitely chased after any girl that caught my eye, but it was all a front. None of that was who I really was.

My dad had been a geek in school, and I’d heard horror stories of him being shoved into lockers, laughed at during gym, and called names because of his braces and glasses. Mom had been the popular girl he’d always wanted and thought he’d never have. But then he’d had a transformation during high school. He’d gotten contacts and the braces had come off … he’d filled out a little and suddenly he had Mom’s attention.