I Love You More Than I'm Afraid (Our Forevers #2), Rebel Hart [best adventure books to read .txt] 📗

is good, Hannah,” Tristan said. “It seems really professional, you know? Not like a high school student did it, but like something you’d see at a board meeting or something. In a good way though, not like it’s boring. I like it.”

“Nothing else stands out apart from this stuff you already mentioned?” I asked.

He shook his head on top of mine, forcing mine to turn along with it and I chuckled. “Nuh uh. I think it’s great! That’s a perfect score for sure!”

“I certainly hope so. This is the only class I’m halfway concerned I won’t get an A in, but if I nail this final, I should be good.”

Tristan wrapped his arms around me and gave me a squeeze. “You killed it. Don’t worry.”

I grabbed onto his arms and held on, giving him a return hug. “Thanks, Tris.”

“Hey guys!”

The voice made me jump sky high. In trying to unwrap myself from Tristan, I slammed myself upward, bashing my head into his chin and sending a wave of pain coursing down my skull. I yelped at the same time that Tristan let out a yowl. I put my head down on the table and tried to breathe through the pain, feeling like I got my bell rung.

“Tristan!” Aria screeched. “Are you okay?!”

“I’m fine,” Tristan responded. “I think I just bit my tongue.”

“You’re bleeding,” I heard Arden reply.

“I’ll go get you some tissue,” Aria said.

“It’s okay,” Tristan replied. “I needed to pee anyway. I’ll be right back.”

A hand settled on my back a second later. “Hannah, are you okay? That looked like it hurt.”

I looked up and Aria was looking down at me. Just seeing that dumb look of concern on her face made me want to scream, but standing just behind her, looking over her shoulder at me, was Arden. It sent me over the edge and I knew that I had to get away from that table as soon as possible. Even if, for the first time ever, Arden wasn’t looking at me like she hated my guts, I wasn’t about to stick around to hear that Aria convinced her to go easy on me or something.

I wanted out.

“I’m fine,” I barked, making no attempt to hide my disdain as I stood up from the table.

“I’m sorry,” Aria yelped out. “I really didn’t mean to interrupt.”

I just ignored her. Anywhere was better than standing there with her when every single day I felt more and more like I wanted to punch her in the face. It was visceral. I just flat out didn’t like her. She made me want to scream.

“Hannah, watch out!” I crashed into someone, before I could stop myself, just barely managing to get a hand out and grab them before they fell backwards. Ceradi looked up at me with a scowl at first, but then she laughed. “Hey, quick reflexes there, Spiderman.”

“Haha,” I quipped.

“Oof, you look like you’re ready to murder someone. What happened?” Subconsciously, I turned and looked over to where Aria was now standing, effectively holding all of my stuff hostage. “Ohh. The cow, huh? Don’t you wish that you could just get rid of her?”

“I really do! It would have been better for me if she had never transferred here to begin with!” I screeched.

“Sure, that too,” Ceradi said.

That was weird phrasing, but I didn’t ask, I was way too infuriated. I just stood there glaring across the lunchroom, watching as Aria slunk down onto one of the chairs and Arden started to console her, patting her back, petting her head.

And something snapped in me.

“I’m going to give her a piece of my mind,” I muttered.

Ceradi patted me on the back. “Do it girl! Go show that fatass who’s boss!”

Ignoring Ceradi entirely, I stormed back across the lunchroom with Aria and Arden dead center in my sights. There were a handful of other students already set up in the lunchroom, and every single one of them picked up on my aggression as I charged up to the other side of the table and slammed my hands on it.

“Hey!” Both Aria and Arden jumped as I did it, but my eyes were focused on Arden. “I’m so fucking sick of you!”

“What did I do?” Arden asked.

“You have been awful to me just because I was afraid to give up everyone and everything for you!” There were tears in my eyes from rage and frustration. “Do you have any idea how much I lo—”

Arden leapt clear across the table and tackled me to the ground. My head narrowly missed hitting the next table over, I realized because Arden cupped my head and pulled it back to protect it. It almost made me more angry. Don’t constantly stomp all over my heart and tackle me to the ground, but then act like she cared about whether or not I hit my head.

“Get off of me,” I grunted.

“Can we not do this here. Do you have any idea what you were about to say in front of all these people?” Arden spat back.

It petrified me. I was so furious at that moment, that I very nearly screamed that I loved Arden in front of all these people. She didn’t care about people knowing that she was gay, she jumped across the table and tackled me to the ground to prevent me from outing myself. Didn’t she realize how difficult it was for me to align myself when she acted so hot and cold? It was such a self-sacrificial thing to do considering how she’d been treating me lately.

She rolled off to the side of me and I stood up, looking down at her and quietly hissing. “I need to talk to you.” I locked eyes with her and made sure she knew it wasn’t a suggestion. “Now.”

She didn’t argue with me, but got to her feet and nodded. “Okay.”

“Are you guys okay?” Aria asked.

Neither Arden nor I responded to her. I looked over at Ceradi as I passed, and she was looking at me like she