Bad Boy's Pet

Number 14

Paige was only half listening to the teacher drone on about seismic activity in Geography class. The other half of her attention was on her phone. She had spent the better part of the weekend and first half of the week staring at it. That was when she was not replaying the scene of Cade pleasuring her and making herself absolutely miserable by condemning herself for enjoying it. She looked up when Mr. Kay started to walk toward her. “Miss Miller, what was my last statement?”

Her eyes darted around the class then to the board looking for a clue. Finding none, her gaze went back to Mr. Kay. She did not bother saying anything. It would just be more embarrassing for her. Mr. Kay shook his head then sighed. “I will not take your phone but you are getting detention.”

“Sir?” She blinked. She had never gotten detention before. When he pursed his lips she added in a subdued voice, “Yes sir.”

*

“It’s just detention Paige. Don’t look so sullen.” Nancy urged “I have been here a week and a half and have been in detention twice. It’s not that bad.” Paige nodded and took a bite of her sandwich. “On more interesting terms, what’s up with you and Cade?”

“Nothing.”

“You haven’t called him yet?”

“No.”

Nancy studied her for a moment and nodded. “What about things with Gaius?”

“Gaius is an idiot.” She declared grabbing her orange juice “I am thinking of calling the whole thing off. No s*x is worth the stress of dealing with a narcissist.”

“What did he do?” Paige asked.

“It’s not important.” Nancy shrugged and fished out her phone when it buzzed. A frown immediately formed on her face.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing.” She said quickly depositing the phone back in the pocket of her jacket before giving Paige a smile that did not reach her eyes. “Right, I have the last period free so I am leaving early. Will you be okay on your own or should I join you in detention? It should not be that difficult.”

“It’s alright.” Paige answered wondering if she would be within her lines to ask what was wrong since Nancy was hiding something beneath her smile. But they hadn’t known each other that long so she settled for, “Are you okay?”

“Yes. Why do you ask?” Nancy answered quickly taking a quick sip of her orange juice.

“Your voice. Your eyes. Your smile.” Paige pointed out.

“Well, aren’t you an observant one. I just had an annoying text from home. Nothing to worry about. Family be annoying sometimes you know?”

Paige nodded but she didn’t know. The only family she had ever had was her mother and she was more of a work in progress than an annoyance.

“You should eat quickly. We only have five more minutes.”

“Yeah.”

*

Paige dropped her phone in the basket Mr. Kay handed her and went to sit at a desk at the back of the class. She breathed a small sigh of relief when she realized she was the only one in this detention class. Perfect. Or at least it would be if Mr. Kay was not ogling her.

Deciding to ignore it, she pulled out her notepad and started to add details to her sketch. When she started it, she had no idea what it was going to be but the moment she looked at it after the first few strokes, she knew and she had let herself continue even though it made her blush.

“Miss Miller,” Mr. Kay called and she sighed inwardly.

“Sir?” She answered.

“Come here for a moment.” He asked and she tampered down the slight panic rising in her throat as she stood. She prayed silently that he would not do anything inappropriate. She had never been sexually abused before and she sincerely hope she never did. She knew it must be selfish to wish such a thing but she did not know what she would do if she actually experienced it.

She stopped a few feet away from him in an attempt to be cautious. “Did you need anything, sir?”

“Come closer Miss Miller.” He ordered and she took a step reducing the space between them to approximately three feet. He let out a small smile she would have found friendly and reassuring if he had not been sending warning signals up her spine since the day she walked into his class. When he tried to cover the space between them, she stepped back. “Miss Miller, are you avoiding me?”

She shook her head vehemently and swallowed the fear rising in her throat to answer, “No sir, I just feel uncomfortable when in close proximity to people.” It was not a total lie.

“Is that right?”

“Yes sir.”

“You look a little pale.” He said and she was getting ready to shove his hands off as he reached for her face but it only got so far before it was grasped. Both she and Mr. Kay turned to see the owner of the hands that had come between them and she almost sighed in relief when she saw Cade.

“Seems I will be joining your detention class.” He said casually with a small smile but something sparked behind his eyes that did not look cordial. That must be what made Mr. Kay try to yank his hand out of Cade’s grip although his effort did not yield much result until Cade let go by himself.

“Why would you be joining my class? Your detention today is with McArthur.”

“She had an emergency and told me to come here.”

“Strange. She did not call me.”

“Must have slipped her mind.” Cade shrugged and then turned to Paige for the first time since he entered the class. And she did not know what she had hoped to see in his eyes but it was certainly not emptiness. Like he was looking at a brick wall he had passed by so much it barely registered in his mind. “Aren’t you going to sit?” He asked and she nodded quickly and headed back to the table she sat at formerly.

He sat on the desk adjacent to hers and she wished he didn’t because from that angle, she could see him clearly and it was not good for her peace of mind. She tried to look away but it was next to impossible. It made her feel a little sad when he did not turn to her even once, preferring to scribble furiously in his notebook while popping gum he had thrown in his mouth the moment he entered the class.

She looked up when a stack of papers appeared in front of her with a slight bang. It was followed by a sheet of answers. “Grade these.” Mr. Kay ordered sounding angry. “And you, since you like scribbling so much and I hear you speak fluent Italian, write out the translation for these.” He dropped a small pile of papers in front of Cade who looked at them, then at him, then back at the papers.

“Sorry. I don’t speak Italian.” He told him.

“Your surname is Martinez.”

“And?” Cade answered smoothly making Mr. Kay fume.

“Fine. Then drag a chair to her table and help her grade the papers.” Cade looked toward her direction for half a second and then grabbed the pile of papers to be translated to Italian as well as the notebook he would be translating them into and got to work.

Did it hurt?

Yes, she decided. It did. He did not even want to be in the same space as her. Was that all because she hadn’t called? It seemed like an overreaction.

“Miss Miller?” Mr. Kay urged and she nodded then got to work.

For the next two hours, they worked in silence but she stole occasional glances at him. He wrote quickly. Since she had never been in the same class as him, she did not know that. She had seen his handwriting though and it was nothing short of art. She tried not to dwell on the fact that despite being an artist, her writing would look like chicken scratch next to his.

“Finally,” Cade stated standing up swiftly and heading for the door.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Detention is over.” Cade declared fishing his phone out of the basket to show Mr. Kay the time. The man gritted his teeth before turning his attention back to the book he was reading. “Aren’t you coming?” Cade asked Paige and she took a look at Mr. Kay who regarded her over the top of his book and decided it was better to face Cade’s coolness than be ogled by Mr. Kay.

She stood up with her bag and took the papers to Mr. Kay. “These have been graded sir and these have not.”

“Just take your phone and leave.” He ordered and she took her phone and walked out of the class ahead of Cade but after a few steps, he was ahead of her and walking away quicker than she could catch up with him. As if he was running away from her. What was that about?

She decided to ask him the exact same question and ran after him. “Wait up.” She called but he acted like he did not hear her. “Hey, wait.” He ignored it “Cade!” He stopped suddenly and she had to pull a Tom and Jerry stop to keep from slamming into his back. “We need to…”

She felt herself being lifted off the floor and then there was a subtle movement that brought them into a dark room. “F*ck.” She heard him breathe before his mouth covered hers.