Free Jack Hammer by Tabatha Vargo, Melissa Andrea

realizing that my parents did a lot of talking with their bank accounts.
    I guess community service was better than jail time. Blaine was eighteen, there would be no more juvenile detention for him, and there would be no more slaps on the wrist. From here on out, everything went on his record and prison was a very real possibility. Hopefully, he realized that.
    Knowing our night together wasn’t the first time he’d broken into the old library didn’t matter. I still felt like crap knowing he was being punished for doing something ridiculously sweet for me. An old abandoned library—he couldn’t have chosen a better place. It truly was beautiful.
    “Hello? Earth to Chelsey!” Lynn poked my side with her pencil.
    I felt the sting of her pencil before I heard Lynn’s voice break through my thoughts. I blinked and lifted my head.
    “I’m sorry. What?” I asked.
    “Did you just take a nap?” She giggled.
    I pinched my lips and narrowed my eyes. “No, Lynn. Not everyone sleeps through all their classes,” I snapped.
    It was wrong to be so snippy with her, but I’d been that way for the last month and he was to blame. He was the jerk I couldn’t seem to stop thinking about. Basically, he sucked. A lot.
    I gathered my papers and textbook and shoved them into my bag. I’d moved on from denial and reached the angry stage. I couldn’t settle for a D. I’d go down fighting for my GPA.
    “I have to talk to, Mr. Liam. There has to be something I can do to make up this grade.” The second the words left my mouth I held up my finger to ward off the perverted comment on Lynn’s lips. “Don’t even say it.”
    I knew Lynn’s sick mind. Therefore, I knew her way of thinking. Sexual favors for good grades. She was thinking it. Plus, I knew for a fact she thought Mr. Liam was a sexy, older man. Yeah, Lynn was that girl.
    She hid her grin as she pinched her lips together. That was all the verification I needed that she was thinking exactly what I thought she was.  Her mind was always in the gutter. No, her mind lived there—had the gutter fully furnished with scented candles.
    She stood and slipped her backpack over her slim shoulders, before covering my shoulder with a reassuring hand. Her smile was soft when I looked up at her, letting me know she was going into serious mode.
    “All joking aside, Chelsey. It’s not the end of the world. You’ve busted your ass over the years. I’ve watched as you committed social suicide and became practically invisible to everyone but me and Blaine Wesley.”
    His name triggered a spark up my spine, and I looked away from her with a frown. I didn’t want her to see how badly his name stung. “I told you that was nothing. We agreed it was better if we just—”
    “Yeah. I get it.” Her knowing eyes moved over my face and she chuckled. She shook her head and sighed in aggravation. “Well, while you’ve been busy ignoring him and drowning yourself with assignments, he’s been busy watching your every move.”
    Her words shocked me. I hadn’t seen much of him, and every time I did, he wasn’t looking at me. He was looking at every other girl. His eyes stayed on the ones who drooled over him and screwed him with their eyes when they passed him in the halls. He wanted the girls who dressed in sexy clothes and wore too much makeup. Those were the kind of girls who were good for Blaine. Those were the kind he needed. Not me. It was as if he didn’t know I existed anymore.
    “Yeah right,” I said.
    “I’m serious, Chels.  I don’t think either of you are really committed to leaving the other alone.” She nodded at my tainted test paper. “And that D tells me exactly where your brain’s been lately.”
    I shook my head.
    She didn’t know what she was talking about. She wasn’t there when we had our last conversation. She didn’t see the serious look in his eyes when we agreed to leave each other alone. I did. I saw it and I felt it.  The burning sensation still