Chapter 203 - More Wanted
Chapter 203: More WantedZac picked Roxie up after going home to shower and change.
He had left the bungalow before sunrise, gotten to Dylan’s to take his truck, then gone home long enough to deal with his parents and put on clean clothes.
When he arrived, his hair was still damp near the temples. He wore a black sweatshirt and smelled like soap instead of beer.
Roxie climbed into the truck and looked him over.
"You smell better."
Zac started the engine. "Good morning."
"You smelled like beer and Dylan’s couch last night."
"You still let me into your bed."
Roxie faced the windshield before he saw her smile.
Nobody at school knew Zac had slept inside her bungalow. They would see his clean clothes and the truck. They would see Roxie arriving beside him as if he had picked her up from home like any other morning.
They had no idea he had crawled into her bed at four in the morning.
They definitely had no idea what happened after.
Heat moved into Roxie’s face.
Zac noticed while turning into the school parking lot.
"What are you thinking about?"
"Nothing."
"You’re turning red."
"I’m warm."
"It’s freezing outside."
Roxie opened the door as soon as he parked.
"Come on. We’re going to be late."
Zac laughed but followed her.
He caught her hand before they reached the entrance.
People noticed them immediately.
A few students smiled. Others whispered while looking between their joined hands and the photographs still moving around online.
Roxie had expected the girls who watched Zac for years to lose interest once everyone knew he had a girlfriend.
Instead, they seemed more interested.
A girl from calculus stopped near the lockers and looked directly at their hands.
"So how long were you hiding this?"
Zac looked at Roxie before answering.
"A while."
"That explains nothing."
"It explains enough."
The girl laughed. "Who made the first move?"
"Roxie."
Roxie turned toward him.
Zac continued before she could argue.
"She sat on my lap on the bus and acted like it was completely normal."
Roxie flipped him off.
Zac caught her hand before she could lower it and pulled her against him.
The girl laughed again.
"I knew all those fights meant something."
"They meant I wanted to hit him," Roxie said.
"Still does," Zac added.
Roxie dragged him toward AP Chemistry before he could say anything worse.
"You talk too much."
"You liked me talking last night."
She tightened her grip around his hand and walked faster.
Zac laughed behind her.
Karen and Angela were already at their table when Roxie and Zac entered the classroom. Dylan and the others sat farther back and looked up from his phone when they passed.
Zac took the chair beside Roxie.
The room had grown used to seeing them together after one day, but people still looked. Most tried to hide it behind their notebooks or conversations.
A girl at the next table kept glancing toward Zac.
Roxie opened her notebook and tried to ignore her.
The girl leaned across the gap between their tables.
"Zac, did you finish the last problem from yesterday?"
"Yeah."
"Can I see it?"
Zac slid his notebook toward her.
The girl moved closer to read it, even though she could have taken the notebook back to her own desk.
Roxie looked at Zac.
He was already watching her.
The corner of his mouth lifted.
Roxie pinched his side beneath the table.
His body jerked.
Mr. Callahan looked over from the front.
"Is there an issue?"
"No," Zac said, still looking at Roxie.
The girl returned his notebook and thanked him.
Roxie waited until she turned away.
"You enjoyed that."
"She needed the answer."
"She needed to stand beside you for five minutes to read one equation?"
"It was complicated."
Roxie pinched him again.
Zac caught her hand beneath the table and held it against his thigh.
His grin made it clear he liked seeing her jealous.
Roxie should have been annoyed.
She was.
She also liked that his attention stayed on her while another girl stood beside him.
After class, Zac walked Roxie toward her next room. Karen and Angela followed behind them while Dylan went in the opposite direction.
Two girls passed and looked back at Zac.
He noticed.
Roxie moved closer without thinking.
Zac’s arm settled around her waist.
"You can stop smiling," she said.
"I’m not smiling."
"You are."
"I like when you do that."
"Do what?"
"Get closer because girls are looking."
Roxie pulled away enough to glare at him.
Zac tightened his arm and brought her back against his side.
"They’re curious," he said. "2 days they thought I was single. Now they want to know how long they missed something."
"They can stay curious."
"I’m not telling them anything."
"You told that girl I sat on your lap."
"That was on you."
Roxie elbowed him.
Zac kissed her forehead before releasing her outside the classroom.
The students near the doorway watched.
He knew they were watching.
Roxie knew he knew.
That was why he did it.
She entered the room with Karen and Angela.
Angela sat beside her.
"Everyone is talking about you."
Karen dropped into the next chair.
"Mostly about the hallway kiss. Some people have watched that video enough times to qualify as stalkers."
Roxie opened her notebook.
"I thought girls would finally leave him alone."
Karen laughed.
"You made him unavailable. That makes him more interesting."
"That makes no sense."
"It never does," Angela said. "They probably want to see whether he’ll still flirt with them."
"He better not."
Karen leaned toward her.
"You’re already jealous."
"I’m paying attention."
"You nearly stabbed him during chemistry."
"I pinched him."
"You looked like you wanted to stab him."
Roxie kicked Karen beneath the table.
Karen laughed while Angela told both of them to stop before the teacher noticed.
By lunch, several people had stopped Zac to ask questions.
Most wanted to know how long he and Roxie had been together. One boy asked whether their chemistry project had been fake. Someone else asked whether the Winter Formal fight had been about Zac.
Zac answered almost nothing.
That failed to stop anyone from asking.
Roxie sat at her usual table with Karen and Angela.
Neither girl planned to move just because Zac was publicly her boyfriend.
Across the cafeteria, Zac sat with Mason, Dylan, and Kyle. His chair faced Roxie even though it made the football table uneven.
Mason complained about it for several minutes.
Roxie had no food in front of her.
Karen opened her yogurt and glanced at the empty space.
"Where’s your lunch?"
"I’m not hungry."
"You need to eat. That is non-negotiable."
Angela pushed a bag of chips toward her.
Roxie took one so they would stop looking at her.
Across the cafeteria, Zac stood.
Kyle followed his gaze toward Roxie and laughed. Mason called after him, but Zac continued toward the lunch counter.
A few minutes later, he approached Roxie’s table carrying two trays.
Karen looked at the empty chair beside Roxie.
"You have a table."
"My girlfriend is at this one."
"That chair isn’t yours."
"Then nobody will miss it."
Zac pulled it closer and sat beside Roxie.
He placed soup, a sandwich, and a drink in front of her before setting down his own tray.
Roxie looked at the amount of food.
"What is all this?"
"Lunch."
"I know what lunch is."
"Good. Eat it."
"You bought too much."
Zac opened his sandwich.
"I wanted to feed my girl."
Karen covered her mouth with one hand.
Angela laughed into her drink.
Roxie stared at him.
"You stole my line."
"I made it better."
"You made it embarrassing."
"You said it in front of the entire football table."
"That was different."
"How?"
"It sounded better when I said it."
Zac pushed the sandwich toward her.
Roxie took a bite before he started arguing about it.
Karen shook her head.
"You two are exhausting."
"You liked us better when we secretly fought?" Zac asked.
"At least then I could pretend Roxie had standards." Karen looked him over and sighed. "Now I have proof she doesn’t."
Angela kicked her under the table.
Karen nearly dropped her spoon.
One of the sophomore cheerleaders looked at Roxie with a sweet smile. "Is this gonna be the normal now?"
Roxie smiled at them. "No..."
Karen closed her eyes. "Thank God."
Zac chuckled at them.
Mike Turner approached while Zac opened his drink.
Two basketball players followed several steps behind him, but they stopped near another table.
Mason, Dylan, and Kyle remained across the cafeteria.
Mike had chosen the moment carefully.
He had spent most of high school being compared to Zac. Basketball won more games, but football brought scouts, crowds, and attention. Mike hated coming second whenever people talked about Briarwick athletes.
His attention moved to the bruise beside Zac’s mouth.
"Rough week?"
Zac leaned back slightly.
"You could say that."
Mike rested his hand on the back of an empty chair.
"Guess football didn’t end the way everyone expected."
Karen stopped moving her spoon.
Angela looked toward Roxie.
Zac gave Mike nothing.
Mike smiled.
"We’re bringing it home this year. Somebody has to give Briarwick a championship."
The comment sounded casual.
Roxie understood what he meant.
Football failed.
Basketball could still win.
She remembered the final game. The team crying. The last play ending one yard short. Zac walking towards her with his entire future suddenly uncertain.
It was also the first night they had told each other they loved one another.
Zac’s hand settled on Roxie’s thigh beneath the table.
His fingers tightened slightly.
Roxie looked at Mike.
"Zac threw for more than four hundred yards. Coaches still called him after they lost."
Mike’s smile remained.
"Everyone knows he’s going to the military academy. State was his last chance to prove football could take him somewhere."
Tennessee came immediately to Roxie’s mind.
She opened her mouth.
Zac squeezed her thigh.
Roxie looked at him.
His face remained calm, but anger sat behind his eyes.
He shook his head once.
Zac picked up his sandwich.
"Good luck with basketball."
Then he took a bite.
Mike stood there for another second, waiting for something else.
Zac continued eating.
The dismissal worked better than an argument.
Mike’s smile tightened.
"Thanks."
He looked at Roxie once before walking away.
Karen watched him return to the basketball players.
"What a fucktard."
Angela glanced toward the football table.
"He waited until Zac came over here."
"Because Kyle would’ve thrown something," Karen said.
Angela looked at Mason and Dylan.
"Only Kyle?"
Roxie kept her attention on Zac.
He continued eating, but his jaw tightened each time he chewed.
"You should’ve let me answer."
"I knew what you were going to say."
"He deserved it."
"It isn’t his business."
"He thinks you have nothing."
Zac lowered the sandwich.
"I don’t care what Mike thinks."
Roxie knew he cared.
Mike had spent years being the other athlete people used to measure against him. He had chosen the exact part of Zac’s future that still hurt.
Roxie placed her hand over Zac’s beneath the table.
"You’re better than him."
Zac looked at her.
"At basketball?"
"At everything." She looked over his face. "You’re hotter too."
His mouth curved.
"That matters more."
"I knew you’d focus on that part."
Zac turned his hand and threaded their fingers together.
Some of the tension left his shoulders.
He pushed the soup closer to Roxie.
"It’s getting cold."
"I’m eating."
"You took one bite of the sandwich."
"I’m pacing myself."
"You bought me lunch yesterday."
"That was different."
"It really wasn’t."
Roxie picked up the spoon and took a few bites while Zac returned to his sandwich.
A girl approached the table before lunch ended.
She smiled at Roxie first, then looked at Zac.
"Are you still going to Kyle’s party this weekend?"
Zac glanced toward Roxie.
The girl noticed.
"I mean, Roxie can come too."
"How generous," Roxie said.
The girl laughed and rested one hand against the back of Zac’s chair.
"You should both come. Everyone wants the full story."
"There isn’t much of a story," Zac said.
"There has to be. Nobody hides a relationship this long without something good happening."
Zac looked at Roxie again.
His eyes carried enough amusement to make her grip tighten around his hand.
"We’ll see," he said.
The girl finally walked away.
Roxie watched until she reached the next table.
Zac leaned closer.
"You’re doing it again."
"Doing what?"
"Trying to break my fingers."
"You’ll survive."
"You liked her hand on my chair?"
Roxie turned toward him.
"No."
Zac smiled.
"You’re enjoying this way too much."
"I like knowing you care."
"You already knew."
"I like seeing it."
Roxie should have pulled her hand away.
Instead, she moved closer until their legs pressed together beneath the table.
Zac kissed her temple.
He kept his mouth against her skin until the girl glanced back and saw them.
Roxie liked that too.
After lunch, Zac walked her to class.
He waited outside the door while students passed around them, still holding her hand.
"You have to go," Roxie said.
"I know."
"The bell is going to ring."
Zac looked toward the clock, then back at her.
Roxie tightened her fingers around his.
"Go to class, boyfriend."
He bent and kissed her.
The kiss remained brief, but everyone near the doorway saw it.
When he pulled away, the tight feeling inside Roxie eased.
Zac finally left.
She watched until he disappeared around the corner.
The hallway felt different as soon as he was gone.
The noise remained. Students still moved around her. Nothing had actually changed.
Roxie felt the distance anyway.
Angela approached from the other direction and stopped beside her.
"You looked happy a second ago."
"I’m still happy."
Angela studied her face.
Roxie entered the classroom before she could ask anything else.
Three new photographs waited on her phone.
One showed Zac with his arm around her waist. Another caught him looking down at Roxie while she spoke. In the third, his hand covered hers on the lunch table.
Roxie saved all three.
Everybody knew they were together.
She still felt better when Zac was close enough to touch.