I pointed at the last slide that was still up from yesterday. “I’m guessing that.”

“What would I do without my new lab partner? I’d be lost.” He grinned and nudged my hand with his pencil.

I jerked back so hard the chair screeched across the floor. Coach Ashford looked up with a frown from whatever sports magazine he had his nose stuck in. So did several kids from the front of the class.

Hayden sent me a puzzled look.

“Hey. Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you,” Cory said.

I had to catch my breath. “Yeah, I’m a little jumpy.”

“Hey! Hey! No talking or I take the slide down,” Coach said.

Groans sounded and even a few death glares were directed at us. I started scribbling down answers as my heart thundered.

I had the gloves on, but it’d still caught me off guard. At my old school, no one casually touched me. It was like I was a carrier of the plagueat least up until the night Dustin had touched me outside the grocery store.

I shuddered.

Coach got up, walking down the aisles. “Time’s up. Pass them over.”

Cory reached over, almost brushing my arm as he grabbed my quiz. My anxiety level spiked through the roof. Clenching my hands, I glanced up and saw Hayden turned around in his seat, dark eyes fixed on me.

What? I mouthed at him.

He looked pointedly at Cory before he turned back around.

“We start a new section on Monday,” Coach announced toward the end of class. “We are moving on to human” He paused, glancing down at his notes. “Anatomy? Yep. That’s it.”

After the bell rang, I nearly tackled Hayden outside the classroom. “What’s up with the look you gave me?”

His smile was dazzling, overly innocent. “What are you talking about?”

I struggled to keep up with his long-legged pace. “Did you think I was going to touch?”

“More like, did I think Cory was going to touch you?” he asked as we stopped at our lockers. “Cory was getting way too friendly with those hands.”

With a decent amount of dread, I slowly opened my locker. Nothing inside. Relief coursed through me. Day four and no dead things equaled awesome. “He tapped me with his pencil. I don’t call that friendly. And I have my gloves on.” I wiggled my fingers.

“Whatever.” He slammed his locker shut, hands empty. He never took books home.

I wondered how, and if, he passed any of his classes.

* * *

Half an hour after dinner, Hayden led me outside through the garage. “Where are we going?” I asked.

“You’ll see.”

I raised my brows as he headed straight for the dense tree line. “We’re going in there?”

Hayden chuckled. “Yes.”

“Why?” I hurried to catch up with him.

“We need somewhere private, where we don’t have to worry about anyone walking in on us.”