Falling Under by Gwen Hayes Read Free Book Online Page A

American. Donny called him Ameriphobic.
    Mr. Frank, the history teacher, partnered up the class for a project. This was never a good thing. Mr. Frank didn’t understand about the chasm between the star-bellies and the rest of us. He also didn’t comprehend that pairing me up with anyone at all was bad, but pairing me with a boy dropped my IQ into single digits.
    As he read the matchups out loud, my skin prickled with heat and my ears began ringing. Because there were only two names I was listening for and I hadn’t heard either yet.
    Please, God, no.
    “And lastly, Theia and Haden,” he read from his notes.
    My nerves danced like they were trying to get out of my skin. I turned slowly towards Haden’s chair, trying to swallow and trying not to look like I wanted to pass out.
    He stared back at me, his face unreadable and his dark, dark eyes as mesmerizing as ever. The rest of the class left their seats, making their way to their respective partners while we sat staring at each other.
    I wished he would smile, but then I remembered the way he had smiled at me in the hall—the wicked, knowing smirk that made me even more self-conscious than I already was. No, it was best he didn’t devastate me.
    He raised his brow as if to question and indicated the now-empty desk in front of me. I nodded and pivoted back in my seat. A few seconds ago, my face could have fried an egg, but now my skin was suddenly stone-cold and clammy. We were doomed to an F on the project. I didn’t see a way around it.
    I didn’t look at him but knew when he sat backwards in the chair. Instead, my full attention went to the deep groove scratched into my desk. The air between us fizzled. Did he feel it? I tried to catch my breath, but the more I tried to inhale, the more I felt consumed.
    “Are you going to be okay?” he asked.
    “Sure,” I answered as if the room hadn’t shifted sideways in the last thirty seconds. I forced myself to look at him. He wore a sapphire blue button-down shirt with a slight sheen and well-worn jeans. The shirt molded to his frame and begged to be touched.
    My heartbeat filled my ears, at first a rapid staccato rhythm that resolved into a deeper, resonating thump, like too much bass in a car stereo. I was aware of my blood being pulled in and out of my heart the way the moon directs the tide. And then the pounding hiccuped and the beat was no longer my own again.
    Did he feel it too ?
    I knew the rest of the world was moving right along, time was inching forward, and lives were being led all around me, but I was in the eye of the hurricane as far as all of that went. Timeless and still, we regarded each other over the empty desk between us.
    His eyes were fringed in lush, dark lashes and his lips were rich, plump, forbidden. I imagined kissing them and my tongue swept across my mouth as if he were whetting my appetite. He hissed and reared back in his seat, shocking us both with his reaction and flinging us back into the present.
    I was mortified.
    “Look, I haven’t even read the chapters yet. Maybe I should do that first and then we can talk about the project. Okay?” Haden asked, his voice sounding tinny and a little fake.
    I nodded. It made sense. After all, he had just started school here. Of course he needed to catch up. Still, disappointment tasted like dry popcorn and caught in my throat. He turned around, and I stared at his neck, wanting to crawl over my desk and kiss him there. His nape turned red in the spot where I stared and he picked up his stuff and moved back to his desk. As if he knew what I was thinking.
    And couldn’t get away from me fast enough.

CHAPTER FOUR
     

     
    A wakening in the yard again made me angry.
    I didn’t ask for this. The ghoulish nights and humiliating days seemed unfair. It wasn’t as if the life I led directed me to this point. Nobody worked harder to stay out of trouble than I did, so why did it stalk me in my slumber?
    The labyrinth beckoned, and as usual I