The Academy - Forgiveness and Permission (Year One, Book Four) (17 page)

I was still blushing, avoiding eyes as I was sure they would be angry to discover what Nathan and I had been doing when we were alone. My mouth still opened at Nathan’s prodding. He slipped his fingers in my mouth and I bit down, chewing.

“Sang Baby,” North said, “you don’t know where his fingers have been. You’ll get sick.”

“I wouldn’t give her dirty fingers.” Nathan picked up my hand, pulled it toward his mouth and popped a couple of fingers inside. “Ain’t that right, Peanut?” he asked as he started chewing.

I tried to grimace around his fingers.

“God damn it,” Gabriel said, pointing a finger at Nathan. “You’re the one fucking up her fingers. I thought she picked up chewing her nails but I haven’t been able to catch her doing it. It’s been you.”

Nathan groaned, sucking the saliva off my fingers before pulling them out of his mouth. “They’re not messed up,” he said, but he checked my fingers over. “They look funny now because I just bit them.”

“How can you like that?” Kota asked me. “He’s biting you.”

I shrugged, pulling Nathan’s fingers out of my mouth and holding his hand in my lap to get him to stop. I was embarrassed now. “It doesn’t hurt,” I said, blushing.

“Let me see,” Kota said.

“No,” Nathan said. “That’s our thing.”

“I just want to see,” Kota said, although his cheeks tinged.

My heart fluttered in my chest. I couldn’t believe this. Why were we talking about this here in the courtyard? My eyes fluttered to the windows around us, wondering if other people were watching, or worse, if Mr. McCoy was lurking nearby.

At Kota’s prodding though, I opened my mouth. With his fingers inside my mouth, I bit down with the same pressure I used for Nathan.

Kota yanked his fingers from my face. “Ouch,” he said, waving his fingers in the air. “How can you stand that?”

“Doesn’t hurt me,” Nathan said, beaming. “It’s actually kind of nice.”

“Sang,” North said. “Don’t go biting his fingers. You’ll pick up germs and you’ll get sick.”

“Hey, why aren’t you worried about her giving me germs?” Nathan asked, taking my hand again and putting it near his face.

“You should know better.”

“Dude, she’s not five,” Nathan said. “She can make her own choices.”

“She can choose. She can choose not to get some crazy disease you’ve picked up from the two thousand dirty minions floating around here. She can choose not to get McCoy calling her into the office today.”

Nathan shrugged him off. He pecked at my fingertip before shoving one into his mouth, biting down.

“He’s probably right,” Victor said. He’d been the one I was avoiding looking at the most. Now when I did, he didn’t seem angry, only mildly curious. Part of me felt it was worse. Did he not care? “If McCoy sees you, you might get her detention again.”

“Fuck McCoy,” Nathan said, but he pulled my hand back out of his mouth, and instead held it in his lap defiantly. “That guy needs to back off.”

The bell rang for our next class. It was a relief to me. I enjoyed hanging out with the guys, but at the moment, I wasn’t sure how to handle them. I wanted to support Nathan, but I also cared about what everyone else thought. Did Nathan biting my fingers mean something?

Everyone hopped up. I was grabbing my bag when Silas stepped up next to me. He looked good in his jersey, despite it being a bright orange and brown. Not my favorite colors.

I was just putting my book bag on when he grabbed my hand.

“Come on,” he said, his dark hair shifting, nearly falling into his eyes.

I smiled after him. “In a hurry for biology?”

He smiled back at me, urging me forward. I waved goodbye to the others and rushed with Silas to our next class.

In biology, I fell into my usual seat and he dropped in behind me. I was putting my book bag next to my chair when Silas held out a closed hand.

“Here,” he said, his face failing to hold back a broad smile. “I got you something.”

I blinked in surprise and held my palm open for him. He released a pink and blue terry cloth sports band.

“Wow, cool,” I said, grinning and I put it on my wrist. “Thank you.”

“Look,” he said, and he held up his arm, showing a matching blue one, with a very thin pink stripe going through the middle.

My mouth popped open in surprise. “Silas ...”

“I wasn’t sure if I’d see you before the game, so I wanted to give it to you now,” he said. “I thought since it’s the first game, I’d start a tradition with you.”

“A tradition?”

“Maybe it’ll turn into a good luck charm,” he said. “All the pros have something. I’d rather it not be wearing the same underwear through all the games.”

I laughed, shaking my head. “Yeah, don’t start that. So it’s going to be us wearing similar colored wrist bands?”

He beamed, nodding. “I know you can’t come to all the games, but ...”

I blinked. “What do you mean? Why can’t I come to all the games?”

He tilted my head and smiled after me. “Well, I mean you can if you want, but there’s away games and you might be busy.”

“Everyone keeps telling me I’ll be busy. So far I’m busy with you guys,” I said.

Silas laughed, pressing a palm over his chest. “
Aggele mou,
you haven’t even started being busy yet.”

My mouth fell open. “It gets busier?”

He winked at me, but the biology teacher was directing our attention. I had to sit back and pretend to pay attention.

Silas sat back, but his long legs slid underneath my chair. Out of habit now, I rocked my ankles against his leg, slightly resting. This time though, Silas pressed his leg slightly back, which surprised me. I thought he wanted more room. When I pushed my foot slightly out of his way, he backed his feet up, slipping them around mine and pushed my ankles together with his legs, trapping my legs between his.

I smiled, staring blankly ahead as the biology teacher continued the lecture. Silas kept his legs around mine for the rest of the class. My heart was thudding the entire time. It felt like Silas nearly hugging me. I couldn’t stop thinking about him, which again left me guilty.

I wanted to trust them that they knew what they were doing, but I also was in way over my head. I had no idea what to do.

––––––––

M
arie returned home with us, finding the car after school was over. This time it was just Kota and Nathan and I. Luke went with Victor and Gabriel. North and Silas were sticking together after school to get ready for the first game.

When we got to Sunnyvale, Marie hopped out of the car but waited for me to get out.

“I think I’m going to hang out with Danielle this weekend,” she said.

I nodded, but understood her tone. She was waiting for me to tell her what I was doing. I glanced at Nathan, who was shaking his head but I didn’t understand what he meant. “Well, I think we’ll be ...”

“Hanging around here,” Kota said over me. He looked back at Marie. “We might pop over to my house or Nathan’s for a little bit but for the most part we’ll probably stay here.”

Marie nodded like she was expecting this. She headed toward the house.

“Kota,” I said quietly after Marie was out of earshot.

He leaned close to me as we approached the side door. “If she thinks we’re hanging out here, she’s less likely to bring Danielle over,” Kota said. “I’d rather if it were going to happen that we are actually here. Maybe next weekend. But this weekend, we’re too busy. You won’t be here.”

I nodded. It made sense but it distracted me at how easily he lied to her.

When we were inside, Kota had us all sit down and do our homework in the living room.

“Let’s get it out of the way,” he said.

Nathan grumbled but started pulling books out of his bag. Kota disappeared into the kitchen to grab water bottles and a packet of crackers for us.

Homework was usually not a problem for me, but today I kept my phone out in front of me on the floor as I worked. I checked the time every couple of minutes. I didn’t want to be late to the game.

“I’m going to take that phone from you,” Kota said, not looking up from the textbook he was reading.

“I’m just checking the time.”

Nathan lunged over and snatched up my phone. “Finish up.”

I grunted, but I figured I might have been a little distracting.

When the last bit of homework was finished, I snapped my books shut and started stuffing them all into my bag.

Kota glanced up. “Done?”

“Yup.”

He grinned. “Do you want to study?”

“Nope.”

Nathan laughed, dropping a hand on top of my head and rubbing. “At least she’s honest.”

“What do we do?” I asked. I wasn’t sure how to prepare for a football game or a party.

Kota closed his textbook, stuffing it into his bag. “Can you guys do me a favor?”

I picked my head up. A favor for Kota? “Yeah,” I said. “What do we do?”

“My mom hasn’t stopped bugging me about taking you out,” he said. He looked at Nathan. “I’m going to drive over to my house. When you guys are ready, Sang, you show up at the front door. Nathan, just climb into the back seat of the car and wait.”

Nathan started laughing. “No, I want to see this.”

Kota rolled his eyes. “Please? She’s asking me all the time why I’m not taking Sang out. Now I can show her I am. Maybe she’ll calm down. If you’re there, she’ll complain it isn’t a real date or something.”

Why was he waiting until the last minute to tell us? And why did he have to make it sound that he really didn’t want to go out on a date with me at all and was only doing this to appease his mother? It made me wonder if he really wanted to go out tonight at all. It confused me more that Nathan accused him of being jealous of Silas asking me out before. There was no way he could be jealous of Silas if he didn’t want to go out with me in the first place. “Okay, I guess,” I said, feeling unsure and glancing at Nathan.

“Yes, okay,” Nathan said, rolling his eyes. “I’ll play along.”

♥♥♥

A
half hour later, I walked toward Kota’s house. Nathan did his ninja thing, slipping through the yard and getting into the back of Kota’s car. He sprawled out into the back seat to not stand out. I thought he had the easy job.

I stepped up to the front door and touched the doorbell button, listening to it ring. Why did this feel more awkward than normal? Wasn’t the guy supposed to pick the girl up at her house?

Jessica, Kota’s little sister, answered the door. Her pink rimmed glasses were sliding down her nose but she adjusted them as she looked out at me. She beamed. “Hi, Sang,” she said.

“Hi, Jessica,” I responded. “Is Kota ready?”

“Yup,” she said, and she opened the door further, leaving it for me to close as she did a half skip off into the house. “Kota! Sang’s here.”

I closed the door behind me and turned around to find Erica appearing from around the corner of the hallway. She smiled at me, coming down the hall with her arms opened up for a hug.

“Hey girl,” she said. She never wavered, hugging me and air kissing near my cheek. I did my best not to stiffen. “Glad you’re here. I think he was getting nervous you wouldn’t show up.”

I grinned. Kota was nervous? “I’m here now,” I said.

“Kota?” Erica called into the house.

“I’m right here,” Kota said, coming from around the corner of the living room. He’d changed from his school uniform to jeans and a green polo shirt and a blue zipper hoodie with a Nike logo. He paused, looking me over in the same short dark skirt and pink blouse I’d worn earlier to school. “Are you going to be warm enough?” he asked. “It’s supposed to get chilly tonight.”

“No, silly,” Erica said, patting him on the arm with her hand. “If she gets cold, you’re supposed to give her your jacket. And maybe wrap your arm around her. And maybe kiss her or something.”

“Mom,” Kota said, groaning.

“What?” Erica said, grinning after him. “I’m your mother. I’m allowed to pick on you about your first date.”

My head rocked back and my mouth parted in surprise. This was Kota’s first date? Or what she thought was his first? Suddenly I was embarrassed at the ruse we were putting on. I didn’t want to lie to her any more.

“We should get going,” Kota said. “We want to get good seats.”

“Wish North and Silas luck from me,” Erica said.

Kota approached the hallway. He tucked his head toward me. “Sorry,” he whispered, and straightened again. “Do we have everything?”

“Wait a second,” Erica said from the living room. We turned just in time to get a bright flash in our eyes. Erica pushed the camera’s button again and another flash went off. “Kota, put your arm around her.”

Kota grunted, but shoved an arm around my shoulders, clutching around my collarbone. “Hurry,” he said.

Erica flashed another picture. This time I thought enough to smile for it. “There,” she said. “That’s better.”

“Can we go now?” Kota asked.

“Yes,” she said.

“We’ll be back ...” Kota paused, checking his watch as if trying to figure out a time to estimate.

“If you’re back before midnight, I’ll skin you both,” she said. She waved us off. “Make him buy you dinner, Sang. I’ll see you later.”

Kota shook his head, rolling his eyes and opened the door for me.

I was still giggling when we got into Kota’s car.

“It’s not that funny,” Kota said, starting up the engine.

“What’s funny?” Nathan asked. “Can I get up yet?”

“Wait until we get out of Sunnyvale,” Kota said as he shifted the car into reverse.

“Erica took a picture,” I said.

“Holy shit,” Nathan said. “I want to see.”

“Later. It’s on her camera. Knowing her, she’ll probably get it framed.”

“We need a picture, Peanut,” Nathan said. “We need a Honey and Peanut picture. We need a camera. Let’s stop and get one.”

“You’ve got a phone,” Kota said.

“Oh yeah. We’ll do pictures tonight.”

Kota glanced out his rearview mirror. He sighed. “Looks like we have a friend following us.”

I glanced back, spotting a car sliding out of Sunnyvale. There was a car between us but as Kota turned onto another road, the car followed. “Kota...”