Free Serenity by Ava O'Shay

sleeve blouse. She’d unbuttoned the top three buttons, but she didn’t have much cleavage so other than a black scarf thing tied around her neck no one was getting a view. When he scanned his eyes down he discovered what was probably the culprit to her being asked to change her clothes.
    Her legs were incredible. Long, lean, and out in the open for the school to see. The school had a policy for shorts. They must be as long as the length of the person’s arm when at their side. Down to the finger tips. Ren’s shorts were wrist level. But she looked good. The shorts were a grey and black stripe pattern that aided in extending her already long legs. A thick brown belt hung low on her hips. She’d outdone herself. He did understand her anger at being called out on her clothes. Her shorts were short, however only about five inches of skin could be seen because she was wearing loose black boots that ended halfway up her leg. Another black belt cinched around the top of each boot holding them tight against her thighs. She was making him sweat, but he had his own problems this morning and decided he’d drag her into his crappy mood.
    “I wonder why t-t-today was different than all the other d-d-days your clothes were inappropriate.” He meant it to come out a bit snarky and sarcastic, but with his speech pattern fucked up it came out as more of a rude insult.
    “Fuck you.” She turned around and headed down the hall.
    Jolin closed his eyes and tipped his head back. What was wrong with him? His fall from grace was bad enough with his classmates, but when the teachers joined in it verged on ridiculous. Ren had been nothing but nice to him. Very nice in fact. He shouldn’t be taking his irritation out on her. Right now he possessed one friend and took off down the hall to chase down the only other prospect. “R-R-Ren wait.” She didn’t turn around or slow down. He caught up to her and grabbed her arm. “Ren. I’m sorry.”
    For a split second the hard mask she kept seemed to falter, and she looked confused. Had no one ever apologized to her before?
    Quickly she regained her tough exterior and pulled her arm free. “For what? Spreading a rumor that you did me yesterday?” She took a step backward. “Because I thought you made your feelings on me pretty clear when you knocked me on my ass,” she snapped.
    “What? No.” Jolin paused. The doctor told him to pause and give his mind time to catch up with his mouth. One, two, three, he counted off in his head. Ren looked like she was going to walk off again. “C-c-can we meet after school?” Jolin forced the words out before he could change his mind.
    She raised that damn eyebrow again. “So you can pretend fuck me and tell the world?”
    “I d-d-didn’t say anything.” He needed her to understand. His stutter was getting worse the more frustrated he became. “You know how the gossip train works. Blow it off. It’s no big deal. C’mon. We need t-t-to work t-t-together.”
    She readjusted her messenger bag. “Look, Casanova, I need a good grade on this lab project so why don’t you give me your stuff and I’ll do it myself.” Her hands moved to her waist, and she shoved out a hip. Jolin could definitely see why Mr. Carson thought she’d be a distraction. Best he sent her out before he broke the code of conduct between teacher and student and laid her out across his desk.
    “I’m not g-g-going to leave you to d-d-do the p-p-project alone. We c-c-can g-g-go t-t-o the library.” Dammit he needed a do over here. If he could get a few hours to pull himself together after this morning maybe he could talk to her without sounding like a skipping record.
    She gave him a ‘ you’re an ass’ look.
    “I mean. There are a lot of b-b-books there.” He couldn’t believe he’d just said that. What a moron. It’s a library.
    The corner of her mouth twitched. Her lips were beautiful.
    “I’ll meet you here at three.” He watched her ass walk out the door and