Malik (Carter Brother Series Book 1) (3 page)

“Miss Smith, are you and your friend coming into class or are you going to stand outside and gossip all day?’’ the teacher snaps from the door making us both jump.

“Sorry Miss Rose. This is Harlow Evans, the new girl. I was just trying to catch her up on our class,’’ Denny lies.

“I bet you were,’’ she replies snidely. “Come on then, I’m not standing here for my youth,’’ she snaps.

We both rush into the classroom and I hear Denny mutter, “Fat chance of that you old bat,’’ under her breath, but still loud enough for me and another student who snickers to hear her.

“So, tell me,’’ I beg her once we’ve taken our seats at the back of the class again. Denny really must like being tucked away. I’m usually one of the ones who sits closest to the teacher so I can hear above all the kids who act like clowns and play up in the class.

“Right, well, one day I was in the principal’s office and overheard ....’’

“Miss. Smith, Miss. Evans, would you like detention on your first day back?’’ the teacher shouts getting everyone’s attention on us.

“No thank you.’’

“Well be quiet. You’re here to learn, not to gossip, you can do that in your own time.’’

“Sorry Miss,’’ we say simultaneously.

When she starts up her lesson again, Denny gets out her notepad, writing something down before passing it over.

She’s one to read it aloud if we pass notes to each other, so wait until break and I’ll fill you in.

I write okay, before turning my attention back to the front of the class, although my mind wasn’t really on the lesson, but on the events of the morning so far.

Thinking back on my morning, I’ve managed to be hit on and I think insulted at the same time, made an enemy and made a friend. One I can already see me coming closer to. We’ve known each other less than an hour and already I feel like I can talk to her about anything. My mind also goes back to the boy Denny called Malik, which has me searching the room for him. Oddly I feel disappointed when I find he isn’t in this lesson, but also relieved because English is kind of my favourite lesson next to History. If he’d been in this class I would never have been able to concentrate on anything but his godforsaken beauty.

I’m just hoping the rest of the school day isn’t as eventful as this morning.

The rest of the day has been
mostly
uneventful. In each lesson I had been given curious glances, but it was at lunchtime that it really started to strike a nerve with me. I had a few girls make fun of me for reasons I will never understand. They didn’t even know me. I bit my tongue and carried on with my lunch like I didn’t hear the vicious remarks they were saying. Denny had given me a curious look when I first sat down at the table she was at with a group of her friends.

My first thought when I had met her this morning was that she must be in the popular crowd, but sitting down at lunch with her friends had me realising I was way off the mark. All her friends were pretty average students. Not popular, not unpopular, and none of them cared they weren’t either which I liked about them. Although I did find Denny didn’t talk to them as much as she did me. With me she seemed to be this outgoing bubbly girl who is friends with everyone, but at lunch she... well, she looked kind of bored if I’m honest.

Heading to my last lesson of the day, I drag my feet slowly. I wish I could skip and go home, but I’ve never skipped a day in my life. I just wish I didn’t have to take my next lesson. I hate math. It’s not that I need help with it or anything; I just find it completely boring.

Walking into the classroom the teacher doesn’t even glance my way, so I take the only desk that is empty, the one sitting towards the middle of the room. Once seated I feel more than one set of eyes on me, so curiously I look up to find in fact a few girls and boys are looking at me with either amused or shocked facial expressions. Wanting to avoid their stares I take out the math book Grandma had bought me from the list of textbooks the school had given her prior to my arrival.

I don’t really take notice of what’s on the page as I wait for everyone to walk in and the teacher to begin the class. It’s only when I hear a book slam down to the side of me that I snap my head back up, ignoring the chuckles from other students.

“You’re sitting at my table,’’ a husky voice says and time freezes when I raise my eyes and come eye to eye with those hypnotising dark brown eyes that captivated me this morning. He’s staring at me with an intense expression, a frown creasing his forehead.

“I’m sorry?’’ I ask, looking around to all the full seats. My cheeks flush when I find everyone’s eyes on us and I look back down to the table avoiding them and Malik’s eyes.

“You’re sitting at my table,’’ He repeats, his dark eyes boring into me, and my assumption from earlier was right, they are closer to black than they are to brown. His voice alone has the hairs on the back of my neck standing on edge, but his eyes have me feeling something else entirely.

“Yeah, it’s also the only seat that’s left in the classroom as you can see,’’ I snap gesturing around the room getting pissed at him. I hate it when I’m the centre of attention and with everyone staring, as well as Malik causing a scene, it has my defences going up.

I look back down at my book, trying not to let his presence bother me, but it does. I can smell his spicy cologne and never, and I mean never, have I ever known a boy to wear cologne before, they don’t usually care for hygiene. Then I make a bigger fool of myself when he sits down next to me. My body automatically leans in towards him, getting a better whiff of his scent.

“Are you sniffing me?’’ he says on a whisper leaning into me, his face just a breath away.

My back straightens once I realise how close I am to him, my face reddening from the mortification of what I just got caught doing. Only I could do something so embarrassing with the hottest lad I’ve ever laid eyes on. And he is. The hottest lad I mean.

Way to go Harlow; talk about making a fool out of yourself Harlow,
I scold myself.

“So, you smell me like I’m the best cooked meal you’ve smelt in years, and then go all shy on me. Tell me, how
do
I smell?’’ Malik whispers huskily, adding to my embarrassment some more.

“Like McDonalds,’’ I lie, not wanting to tell him he smells really fucking good. My face is still on fire and I’m hoping my long brown hair is doing enough to hide that from him. Then he leans into me and I hear him inhale deeply making me snap my head around to him horrified. The quick movement brings us nearly mouth to mouth; another move forward and my lips would be locked with his. The thought has shivers racing up my spine before I quickly come to my senses and move back.

“What are you doing?’’ I shriek, getting the attention of everyone in the room including the teacher.

“Smelling you love. You smell fucking good too,’’ he grins, showing me his straight white teeth.

Everyone in the classroom laughs, and the teacher tells them to settle down, but his eyes never leave mine, sending my stomach into a tailspin. God his eyes are so freaking intense. I’ve never met anyone like him. Or have anyone affect me to the point I feel like I’m paralyzed.

“Glad I pass,’’ I mumble, my voice having a slight hitch to it as I look to the front of the class.

I hear him mumble something under his breath that has me wanting to ask him what he said, but I keep my eyes trained forward. I’m hoping he buys my confident attitude because deep down I’m a crumbling mess, and for some reason, I feel if he knew that he would have a field day.

“Would you like a picture?’’ I hiss turning to face him.

“Why, you offering me one?’’ he asks looking surprised.

“God no, but then, you’ve been staring at me long enough that you wouldn’t need one anyway.’’

“You’re a little full of yourself aren’t ya love?’’ he says loud enough for people around us to hear.

“Malik please settle down and leave Miss Evans alone,’’ the teacher says, grabbing the attention of every other student who didn’t catch the first bit to turn around to watch us.

I tried, and I mean I really tried to concentrate on what the teacher was talking about during the class, but I heard the word equations, inwardly groaned and tuned her out, my attention going to the hot boy sitting next to me. I can feel him now and then staring at me, but because my face is still up in flames I’ve kept my head down to the table pretending to look at the book in front of me.

The rest of the class goes pretty much like this, making my back ache from all the tension that is building up inside me. I try rolling the kink out a few times by stretching, but my arms would brush up against Malik’s and a zap of electricity would shoot through my arm straight to the tip of my fingers making me gasp. So instead I’d spent the rest of the class avoiding touching him and not stretching.

As soon as the last bell chimes, I’m out of my seat and rushing out of the classroom before Malik can stop me to say something else. In all fairness I just wanted to avoid looking into those eyes again; ones I’ll no doubt be dreaming about tonight.

Running away so quickly was another great mistake I made today because as soon as I turn left out of the door I go barrelling into a hard body, both of us falling down onto the floor. I land on top of the hard body knocking the air out of my lungs.

Really Harlow? Anything else you want to do to embarrass yourself in front of the whole school today?

I didn’t realise I hadn’t moved from off the body and that I had shoved my head into the persons neck until the person beneath me starts to chuckle. My whole body instantly freezes when I recognise who the chuckle belongs to.

“I knew you’d come around,’’ Max says excitedly, his hands roaming my hips.

“Move them any higher and I’ll knee you in the balls; don’t think I won’t,’’ I warn him.

“Babe, I’m getting hard from your body lying on top of me, please don’t talk dirty to me as well,’’ he says before leaning in to whisper, “I don’t want the girls to think I cum too soon.’’

“Ewww,’’ I tell him looking down at him. I lift myself off him, but he tugs my hands making me fall back on top of him with a loud squeal. Then he takes me suddenly by surprise when he kisses me hard, wet, and completely unwanted. Everyone around us begins to whisper and I can hear the distinct sound of camera phones going off. When I feel his tongue trying to enter my mouth, I bite down hard on his bottom lip, but not hard enough to draw blood. Although if I did, it would be what he deserved.

“Get off me,’’ I shout, shoving him away as I get myself back up again, dusting my skirt and shirt off.

He follows me, his movements lazy and arrogant as he stands in front of me, his large shoulders straining in his school blazer.

“Awe, little Harlow, of course I’ll go on a date with you,’’ he says loudly, everyone gasping with surprise.

There’s a crowd surrounding us that I never noticed before, my cheeks reddening once again. I swear today I’ve looked like a red beet root all day. It’s then a figure towards the back of the crowd grabs my attention. Malik is standing there with a frown on his face looking between me and Max. Something inside me wants to go over there and explain what happened, but as soon as the thought comes, I realise how crazy I sound. We’ve just met; I don’t need to explain myself to him or anyone.

Not bothering to answer Max, I storm off to my locker to grab my books, getting pushed by a few girls on the way. It isn’t until I make it to my locker that I breathe a sigh of relief, glad I made it out alive or without turning back to knee Max in the balls as promised. My relief is short-lived when I look up to open my locker door and find a piece of paper taped to it with the words
HORE
written on it. The fuckers couldn’t even spell it right. Feeling eyes watching me, probably ready with their phones to record my reaction to the note, I grab a biro from my pencil case and write the letter W in front to make the word
‘WHORE’.
I feel like writing something clever on it, but I know it will just give them more ammunition to pick on me. The fact they’ve called a virgin a whore just amuses me. It must take some skill on my part, so I’m happy with that. In fact, I’m willing to put money on me being the only virgin in this school, although, the fat science teacher might also be put into the virgin category. I shiver just remembering his unbuttoned shirt that showed his hairy belly. It was gross and I had to sit through an hour of listening to him and watching him scratch at the hair on his belly.

Shoving the books into my bag, I zip it up before walking away from prying eyes. I’m dying to run home and away from the school, or to scream at todays festivities, but I don’t. I don’t want them to know how much they’ve gotten to me. Showing them weakness will just invite them to do more; I don’t need that in my life right now. I have enough in my life that I struggle to handle than to listen to a bunch of immature kids call me names and be pushed about.

I’ve been home for a few hours when I hear my Gram’s call my name from downstairs, her voice high pitched and out of breath. Worried she’s burnt herself, or fallen, I dash from my room in just my pyjama bottoms and tank top.

“What’s wrong? You okay?’’ I rush out when I reach the kitchen, my heart beating ten to the dozen. I feel like I can’t breathe and my chest feels painfully tight worried about what’s happened, but then I notice she’s standing at the kitchen side making a cup of tea.

She’s fine.

She’s fine I tell myself over and over again, but it doesn’t help slow my breathing down. My skin feels hot and sweat starts dripping from my forehead and down my back. My vision blurs, black dots spotting my vision.

“Hey, it’s okay. Just breathe baby girl,’’ Gram’s says grabbing my hand and placing it over her heart. I can hear her heart beating fast, but it’s not as fast as mine. “Breathe in, breathe out, slowly, that’s it, you’re doing good,’’ she coaxes, leading me over to the kitchen table, pushing me down onto the chair. My breathing starts to match hers, my vision becoming clearer and my heartbeat beating steadier as she talks me through it.

“I’m sorry. Are you okay?’’ I ask once I feel more like myself. I’m embarrassed she had to witness my panic attack. I had a few when my parents died, but mostly I’ve suffered from nightmares. It’s been an on-going thing that the doctors assured me my anti-depressants would help with.

“Oh baby girl, I’m fine. What brought on the panic attack?’’ she asks softly, wiping away the tears I hadn’t realised were there from my cheeks.

“I thought... I thought you were hurt. You shouted for me and I presumed you had fallen or something,’’ I tell her, feeling stupid about the whole thing.

“Oh God, I am so sorry girl. I didn’t even think. There’s nothing wrong, I just wanted to let you know we will be joining the Carter’s for dinner tonight. Mark is cooking a lasagna and between you and me, it’s the only dish he knows how to cook without burning it,’’ she chuckles.

My mind should have registered straight away what she said, but my mind is too busy thanking the lord nothing had happened to her. I breathe in a sigh of relief, looking up at Gram’s until what she said finally sinks in.

“What? You mean today? Now? I thought we were having mac and cheese?’’

“Oh, he offered earlier today and I never can turn down that man’s cooking or company,’’ she giggles.

I have to stop myself from saying ‘I bet you don’t’ to her, not pleased about having to go around there and have dinner. Although, I am curious as to what the four other brothers look like, though I can’t see them being anything compared to Malik. Just remembering his eyes and the way he looked at me earlier has me blushing.