May sucks in a shaky breath and then pushes back her chair and stands. Her head is down, hair curtaining her face. I reach out to help her, but she edges past me and heads for the door. I grab our bags and run to catch up.

Chapter Thirteen

Who does this guy think he is? This Teller. Trying to touch me. Trying to help me?

I can hear his footsteps behind me as I rush out of the classroom, and I want to grab him, punch him, kick him, SCREAM into his stupid face, but I barely have the strength to push open the double doors.

“May!” He has the audacity to say my name, like he thinks he has the right. “Hey! May! Wait up.”

I am just going to ignore him. I’m not sure where I’m going—definitely not to the nurse’s office, which is always the most useless place in every school—but wherever it is, I need to figure it out, fast, and get the hell away from this shit. I’m trapped in a hallway of lockers that’s just like every other hallway of lockers in every other goddamn hellhole high school on the planet. You’d think before they sent us here, they could have at least attempted to make this place look different from Carter. You’d think that, but you’d be wrong, because the public-school system doesn’t give a shit what happens to you when you’re a leftover.

“Hey! I have your bag.” Zach’s behind me, panting.

I whirl around, hair whipping out, and grab my bag from his outstretched hands. “Great. Thanks. Bye.” I turn and keep moving down the empty hallway.

“Wait.” He’s still here, breathing down my neck. He’s really testing the limits of my self-control right now. “I want you to know. When we met the other night, I didn’t know…who you are. Not that I wouldn’t have talked to you, but, like, I wasn’t trying to trick you into liking me. Or being nice to me. I didn’t know…”

“So instead you tried to sneak into class late? So, what, I wouldn’t figure out who your mom is? Who you are?” I stop myself from continuing. This guy isn’t worth my words.

He groans. “No. I mean, sort of, I guess, but I wanted…I thought maybe if you got to know me instead of my last name…I had a good time with you the other night. I haven’t had fun talking to another person in so long….”

“I don’t care.” Why won’t he leave me the fuck alone?

“And you obviously figured it out now. That I’m…that my mom is…the lawyer. For the guy.”