Maverick~
I left class with a smirk tugging at my mouth. Vanessa thought she was slick, trying to humiliate Malia in front of everyone. Too bad her aim was trash.
All it took was a sentence from me and she folded. I told myself I didn’t do it for Malia hell, I don’t do anything for anyone but myself.
I did it because her laugh grated on me, because people who bark too loud need to be reminded they’re not the main show.
But as I stepped out of the room and the hallway noise swallowed me, all I could think about was the way Malia had gone still, like she’d folded herself smaller just to avoid breaking. Her shoulders had drawn up tight, her hand frozen over her notebook.
Ethan, her Ethan, had just sat there, twirling his pen, his head turned toward his other nerdy friends too busy to
