The intrigue factor ticked up another few notches. Like the look on her face when I drank the lemonade or the fruity scent that carried on the air outside, overpowering even the grease and grime of working under a car.

The cookies had hit my empty stomach well, same as the lemonade. As much as I felt like a dick for taking them, I wasn’t going to turn down free food—ever.

The pair went to their lockers at least twenty away from mine with their voices dropped lower.

I picked up whispered words, but not the whole conversation like before. The curve of her profile stood out in stark contrast to the sharp clean lines of the lockers. I couldn’t stop watching as her lips moved, full and pink, glistening slightly as the overhead lights bounced off them. Her lashes nearly brushed the lenses of her glasses as she pushed them up higher.

“Call me if you need to go over bio.” Her friend called out, and rushed down the hall with her backpack slapping her back.

The retreating cadence of her steps was the only sound other than the muted bang of the metal flexing as Bay struggled with her hands shoved into the locker.

I shut the locker I hadn’t needed open for the last few minutes and walked toward her.

Her shoulders tightened, but she didn’t stop her locker fight. There was a metal object wedged inside against both sides of the thin metal. Her lips were pinched and her forearms flexed as she rocked it back and forth trying to dislodge it.

“Do you need some help?”

She froze for a split second before going back to her task.

I leaned against the locker beside her.

Her gaze flickered to me before she resumed her ineffective struggle.

“Ignoring me isn’t going to make me go away. Do you need some help?”

Sweat glistened on her forehead. The banging intensified. With a growl and one hard yank, she flew backward with the metal in her hands. She’d brute-forced whatever it was free, but sent herself careening for a fall.

I shot forward and grabbed her hand, keeping her from skidding on her ass across the hall.

She jerked her hand from my hold and completed the fall. A curse mumbled under her breath and she popped up from the floor.

“I was trying to save you from that.” I gestured to the spot she’d gotten up from.

She rubbed her hand over her ass, wincing. “I didn’t ask for your help.”

“Just because someone doesn’t ask for help doesn’t mean you can’t offer it.”

She slammed her locker door closed with her improvised metal weapon in hand. “You’re starting to weird me out.”

“How am I weirding you out?”

“You’re up to something.”

“I’m up to nothing.”

She glanced down the hall behind me and then over her own shoulder. Her body relaxed a barely perceptible amount. “You’re up to something.” Peering sideways at me, she closed her locker.