First order of business in Mission Prove Yourself was finding a ride to Terrance's school the next day.

With no car of my own, my choices were a bus or Elena.

I had assumed Elena would be the faster, cheaper option, but convincing her to skip school with me proved to be harder than college-level calculus.

Which was why I was begging in front of our lockers before next period started. If we left now, we would get there before lunchtime.

I had done my research on the school the night before. Yearly tuition cost more than most mortgages. They boasted an impressive one teacher to fifteen students. Last year's graduating class numbered in the high two figures and had a ninety-nine percent graduation rate.

I would have hated to be the lone guy throwing off a perfect hundred.

"What do I get out of it?" Elena asked, putting the finishing touches on her makeup. Her parents were stricter than the Amish. Makeup was only one of several things Elena wasn't "allowed" to do.

Other students milled around us in the hall, chatting, laughing, and ignoring the battle of wills between my best friend and me.

"Helping find a poor kidnapped kid before he dies."

Yeah, I can be a bit melodramatic.

After finishing smoothing lipstick on her pouty lips, she shut the locker harder than she needed to. She seemed pissed about something, but I didn't know how me asking a question would have set her off.

She gave me a sympathetic smile. Maybe her ire wasn't in my direction.

"I want to help. I do. But you know I can't skip. If my parents find out, they'll kill me. Literally."

She was a bit melodramatic as well.

"Please?" I stretched out the simple word and fluttered my eyelashes, kind of like one would if they had a foreign object in their eye. Maybe if I seemed pathetic enough, she'd give in. "I'll do anything."

She chewed her bottom lip and looked like she was contemplating my offer of total submission to her will. There were a lot of things she could ask that I wouldn't be happy doing. Like doing her chores or painting her toenails.

Feet were gross.

"I don't know, Lexi. I have that calculus test today."

"You can retake it."

"Not if I skip." She whispered the word skip as if she were paranoid someone would hear and turn her into the KGB of public education.

"Wes will call us in. He does great voices."

Elena smirked. "I bet that's not all he's great at."

"I thought you were all about the new kid?"

I didn't speak his name. In fact, I'd done my best to not even think of him. It hadn't worked. The bastard had followed me into my dreams last night.

So, when that little bit of hope stirred in my gut that maybe Elena had already moved on, I didn't ignore it. I wasn't sure if I were hoping it was true because then I wouldn't have to see him again, or if that stupid, girly part of me I tried to shove down a hole was happy Lucas would be available.

Not that he'd have any interest in me.

"Wes is yummy, but I meant for you," she said, dashing all my meager hopes.

My face heated, and I avoided looking at her, ignoring the teasing in her eyes.

She knew about my little infatuation with my brother's sort-of ward. Wes had been nineteen, malnourished, and skittish when Damian had brought him home. It had taken six months for him to stop cowering whenever Damian entered the room, expecting a sharp word or a studded whip.

But he'd been different with me. I was his life preserver, the safe port in the storm. I thought it was because I was little and appeared non-threatening.

He didn't learn I had teeth until later.

In three years, he'd morphed into a new person. A cocky, shameless man-whore. Damian and I had stopped trying to remember his booty calls' names. It wasn't like we ever saw them a second time.

I was still the person he felt safest with. Platonically safe.

Lucky me.

He always flirted with Elena when she came around. She always shot that shit down. She was a good friend who wouldn't purposely cause me pain. Another reason to stay the hell away from Lucas.

"What are you going to tell Wes?" she asked, trying to poke more holes in my argument.

I hadn't thought of that. It wasn't like I could be honest. He would go straight to Damian and tattle. Not because he wanted to see me in trouble. He was just protective.

"I'll tell him we couldn't wait to see the Jonas Brothers movie."

She giggled. "He won't believe that."

I shrugged. "If I say Coraline, he'll try to come. He's allergic to boy bands."

Elena sighed. I could tell I was close to demolishing her resistance. One more push and victory would be mine.

"I'll owe you one. Just imagine what you can get me to do in the future."

"Karaoke night?"

I groaned. Leave it to her to pick something terrifying.

She giggled again. "I'm kidding."

Thank the gods. Anything would be better than standing up in front of strangers, trying to croak out some top twenty hit.

"There is something, though." She licked her lips, like a hyena cleaning up after a meal.

She’d played me. Bait me, hook me, and then reel me in.

I fell for it every time.

"What?" I asked, caution tinging my voice.

"Lucas asked me out a few days ago, but my parents said no." She rolled her eyes. "I'm seventeen, and they still treat me like I'm ten."

"You want me to cover for you?"

She gave me the kind of smile a cat gives a canary before devouring it. "Something like that."

I narrowed my eyes. "Spit it out, Lanie."

"I want you to chaperone." She did finger quotes around chaperone. "They said it'd be okay if it were a group thing."

"Three's a crowd, hon."

"Three isn’t a group. But I’ve got you covered. You know Garrett? Tall, blond, built like a Mack truck?"

Yeah, I knew him. His face resembled something hit by a Mack truck, too.

"What about him?" I already knew where she was going with this, but I would not make it easy.

"He likes you and has been asking me for months to set the two of you up. He's a sweetie."

"I'm not interested," I said curtly.

"Give him a chance. He's hilarious and likes Final Fantasy almost as much as you do."

"I'm sure he's splendid. I'm still not interested."

She frowned. "When did you become so judgmental?"

There was nothing wrong with Garrett. As captain of the school's hockey team, he was one of the cool kids. He might not have had the looks that dropped panties, but he had the personality. Not the typical jock type, either. He liked Pokémon as much as he loved sports.

And he could tell a story that would have your sides aching from laughing so hard.

I wouldn't lie. I'd noticed the not-so-subtle glances he threw my way in class. It was flattering he even noticed me when no one else did, which was why I would stay the hell away from his human ass.

"I don't date. Anyone."

"Then don't think of it as a date. It's just four friends hanging out, seeing a movie, stuffing our faces with cheap Italian food."

Italian food? Elena hated all things noodle. She must have been desperate.

"I agree to this horrible idea, and you drive me to the school?"

She hugged me, squealing in delight. "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It'll be fun, I promise."

Yeah, like getting a root canal fun. At least they gave you drugs for that.