Entangled by Nikki Jefford Read Free Book Online

foot.
    Her stomach fluttered when she saw Nolan. The tap against her foot was gentle and deliberate. It sent a current shooting up to her chest. He had the widest grin on his face. “Hey.”
    Graylee’s hand stilled inside her locker. She couldn’t remember which book she’d been reaching for. She smiled like an idiot. “Hi.”
    “I saw you standing here so I thought I’d come over and say hi.”
    “Yeah, cool.” Graylee noticed Thea staring from her to Nolan. “This is my friend, Thea. Thea, this is Nolan.”
    Nolan’s cheeks dimpled. “How’s it going?”
    Thea smiled back. “Good.”
    “Great, so you ladies have a nice day.” Nolan tossed Graylee one last endearing smile. “See you around, Graylee.”
    She and Thea watched Nolan walk away. They kept staring until he’d disappeared around the corner. Thea’s eyes glittered. “Well, isn’t he cute. How come you’ve never mentioned him before?”
    “We never really spoke till this weekend… at church.”
    “Uh-oh,” Thea said. Her grin widened.
    “What?”
    “I see a sin coming on.”
    Graylee swatted her friend. “He just said hi.”
    “That’s how it starts.”
    Graylee’s smile folded over on itself. Thea’s words reminded her of Raj. “Let’s get to class.”
     
     
    Graylee wasn’t sure why going to fifth period made her so nervous. Well, actually, she totally knew why, it just didn’t seem like the sort of thing that should continually unhinge her. That’s why she’d decided she was going to stare the problem straight in the eye. Yep, straight in those exotically slanted green eyes.
    That afternoon she made it to class before Raj. She took her usual seat beside Sadie and watched the doorway like a cat waiting for a mouse to scamper out of a hole in the wall. Raj was the mouse in this case, or more fittingly, the rat.
    But he didn’t show up.
    Mrs. Pritchett arrived, acting pricklier than ever. It was almost as though Graylee had imagined the battle-ax running out of the room after her blouse burst open last Friday. Students were still talking about it. Not in class, though. Not anywhere within a hundred feet of the English teacher. Laughter climbed its way up Graylee’s throat like carbonation in a bottle of soda after the cap is twisted.
    “What?” Sadie asked.
    Graylee quickly bit down on her tongue, but nothing got past Mrs. Pritchett. She glared at Graylee from her desk in the corner.
    “Miss Perez, your paper on Othello was two pages short.”
    It was the kind of remark she could have written on Graylee’s paper, but Mrs. Pritchett sometimes chose to share these comments with the entire class depending on her mood, which was just about always foul.
    “What happened, Perez?”
    The room went silent.
    Graylee fought the urge to shrug. “I didn’t have anything else to say.”
    “Nothing else to say?” Mrs. Pritchett intoned. “You couldn’t meet the minimum requirement on an essay about the greatest writer the world has ever produced?”
    Graylee’s eyes narrowed in on Mrs. Pritchett’s peach top. Ripping open a sweater wasn’t as easy as bursting open a blouse. Graylee chided herself for even thinking it, but for one fleeting moment she understood the anger that had prompted Raj to act out. But she was above magical retribution. Graylee would turn her cheek and take the punishment like any other student.
    Didn’t mean she couldn’t shoot Mrs. Pritchett a menacing glare as she took it.
    By the end of class, Raj still hadn’t shown. Had Mrs. Pritchett somehow figured out he was behind the blouse-popping incident? Impossible.
    Graylee passed Nolan in the hall on her way to sixth period. She waved and he waved back. Maybe he’d ask her out. It wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility. The sooner he did, the sooner she could put an end to any delusions Raj was entertaining in his head about the two of them and the world to themselves.
    It might even be worth breaking her own dating rule.
     
     
    “You’re in a