Crave (Harlequin Teen)

alphabetical seating that had first forced Tristan and me to sit beside each other in the fourth grade. And placed him right behind me here in algebra this year.
    I was tempted to slump down in my seat and rest my head on the back of my chair. But then my ponytail would land on Tristan’s desk. And then he might start messing with the ends of my hair again, like Anne had caught him doing a few weeks ago. He’d probably been trying to stick gum in it. His best friend from the Clann, Dylan Williams, loved to do that to girls with long hair.
    Forcing myself to stay upright, I bit back a groan, propped my spinning head between my hands and checked the clock on the wall again. If I could just make it through this last class of the day…
    “Are you okay?” Anne whispered, leaning forward past Tristan. “I’m serious, Sav. You really look—”
    “Anne, focus on your work,” Mr. Chandler said from his desk. “Savannah, come see me please.”
    I almost whimpered. He wanted me to move?
    Gritting my teeth, I pulled myself to my feet, circled around the front of my desk to avoid Tristan’s legs and trudged across the room to the teacher’s desk, praying I wouldn’t barf all over the round little man.
    “Anne’s right, you do look sick,” Mr. Chandler murmured. “Would you like to go visit the nurse?”
    Great. So everyone thought I looked like crap today. “Um, no, thank you.” I tried not to breathe on him. Wasn’t the flu supposed to be highly contagious? “It’s the last class of the day. I can make it a little longer. Do you mind if I lay my head down on my desk, though?”
    “Sure, go ahead. Just be sure to take care of the assignment as soon as you’re feeling better.”
    On the way back to my desk, I wrapped my arms around myself as a sudden chill swept over my skin, making me shiver. Then I made the mistake of looking up at the clock again. And missed seeing Tristan’s outstretched leg.
    I tripped hard over his foot. My arms wouldn’t budge. No way could I catch myself in time. All I could do was close my eyes and brace for a face-plant on my desk. He’d have a real good time laughing about this later with his precious Clann friends.
    Instead, strong hands stopped my fall.
    I pried my eyelids open, knowing even before I did who had caught me.
    Tristan had half risen from his desk and grabbed my shoulders. Too tired and sick to stop myself, I got lost in emerald-green eyes that used to be as familiar as my own. Heat from his hands seeped through my shirt, melting my bones.
    “Sav, are you all right?” he whispered, his eyebrows drawn together.
    The nickname distracted me. He used his old nickname for me so easily, as if we were still in the fourth grade and best friends. As if he hadn’t just spent the past five years pretending he didn’t know me.
    His normally full lips were thin, grim lines today. He looked…furious. For having to catch me? Or because I’d had the nerve to trip over his foot?
    “Sor-ry,” I muttered, a hint of anger giving me the strength to regain my balance.
    Once safely in my seat again, I laid down my head on the desk’s cold wood surface, shivering and wishing I could just die already. As if having a monster case of the flu for the first time wasn’t bad enough, now Tristan had decided to be mad at me because I’d tripped over him. Like I could help it that he was a total Sasquatch.
    But I was too tired to get properly mad about it at the moment. All I wanted was to go home.
    Tristan
    Savannah Colbert had to be the most stubborn girl I’d ever known. I’d watched her shiver, her breathing getting faster and more out of rhythm, for over an hour now. Anyone else would’ve gone home early. But not Savannah.
    I checked out her red cheeks, the way she never stopped frowning, how her body tried to curl into a ball.
    If she were still my friend, I would’ve hauled her stubborn butt off to my sister’s car and driven her home myself. Never mind that I wouldn’t have a driver’s license until next year. Or that she was off-limits to everyone in the Clann, and Jacksonville was filled with gossips who watched my every freaking move and reported back to the elders within minutes of anything happening.
    I silently cursed the Clann with every swearword I knew. Bunch of controlling witches. Just because my family had led those power addicts for the past four generations didn’t mean I wanted anything to do with their magic or their stupid rules. Every waking minute