CHAPTER SIX: TWO BIANCAS

Adam's POV

I barely looked around at my classmates while I trudged over to my lab table in the Biology classroom. The stainless steel plate in the middle of my table told me that we'd be experimenting on some dead animal today.

Great.

I turned in my stool to look around at who was already here. Wesley and Connor were using words I'd never heard of from behind me, Alli and Clare were laughing and shooting me smiles, and KC and Jenna looked a little too flirty.

The rest of the class was mostly seniors thanks to this being an advanced class. Mr. Oldham entered the classroom just behind Bianca. She didn't look particularly happy about this class.

But as soon as her eyes met mine, it was like she'd seen the light. A flirty smile appeared on her face as she approached me.

I tried my best to ignore how close she'd moved her stool next to mine and listened to Mr. Oldham talk about the frogs we'd be experimenting on today.

"Not feeling it today?" she asked softly.

"The only people who are 'feeling it' during Biology are Wesley and Connor. And they don't even look very happy about cutting a dead amphibian open," I responded.

Bianca smiled at my response. "So are you excited for my party?"

I shrugged silently and fixated my eyes on the steel plate. She glared at me.

My blue eyes slowly looked over to where Alli and Clare were sitting next to my lab table. Clare had a mixture of disappointment and worry on her face.

I wanted to give her an unwilling smile to reassure her, but my lips weren't very strong in the smile department right now.

Alli was glaring at Bianca even though the older girl was ignoring her with her brown eyes focused on the wall behind Mr. Oldham. I was pretty sure that Alli was going to jump at Bianca and tear her throat out if Clare didn't pull her back.

And that's exactly how we sat through the rest of our Biology class together. We were all awkwardly silent, and I could tell that Bianca painfully wanted to say something flirty. But maybe she'd noticed how out of it I was today and had decided to lay off for at least one day.

As soon as the bell rang, I grabbed my bag and hurried as fast as I could to the classroom's exit. I was trying my best to stay out of Bianca's grip, but she stayed within grabbing distance.

"How's the princess?" she asked teasingly from behind me.

I ignored her question and walked a little faster. I was pretty sure that I'd escaped her when a hand spun me around.

"Did I do something?" she asked while still gripping my forearm.

I watched her with serious eyes before snatching her by her wrist and pulling her out of the busy hallway. Once we were around the corner in a more secluded area, I faced her while she leaned her back against the wall.

"Your mood swings are starting to irritate me," I said in a tone I'd never heard myself use before.

"Whoa, what mood swings?" Bianca countered. I glared at her façade. She was playing victim now.

"Why is it that when it's just me and you, you act different? But when we're at school or around other people, you act like you have something to prove."

Bianca swallowed hard and flashed me her devilish glare. Her eyebrows furrowed and anger and denial seared the edges of her words when she replied, "I don't know what you're talking about. Make some sense, Adam."

"I am making sense," I shot back instantly. "It's you who isn't making any sense."

Bianca's face didn't change or even falter a single bit as I stepped closer. I was about to say something when I felt her run her index finger up my torso.

It had just reached my neck when I lashed out and held it in a tight grip. It was tight enough to keep her hand immobile, but not tight enough to seriously bring her any pain.

Her eyebrows became straight, causing me to slowly release her hand. She swallowed hard as I stepped closer so that my breath was rebounding off of her face.

"When we're alone, you're like a different person. You're not this desperate girl constantly flirting with me. But when we're around anybody else, you're the complete opposite. So why the façade?"

Bianca suddenly looked me in the eye with this positive look. She looked like she was nowhere near backing down. This girl was going to stand her ground against her own belief no matter what.

"Well it must be your imagination because there is no façade," she whispered back quietly. If we had still been in the busy hallway, I probably wouldn't have been able to hear her speak.

I took a step back from her and asked, "Then why didn't you throw yourself at me the other night at my house? And why did you act so normal at the market that one time?"

Bianca took one step towards me, I took a step back.

"I guess you just caught me on a good day. Lucky you."

I laughed in disbelief. "You're saying that the reason you acted different was because you were having a good day?"

She nodded once while still standing in front of me. My face immediately became serious again while I watched her somberly.

I looked her face up and down and told her, "You're a good person, Bianca. Under all of those layers of flirting, drugs, and alcohol is a likable girl. I just don't understand why you never let her out."

"There is no girl under these layers," she said confidently. "That girl doesn't exist. Believe what you want."

Bianca had just turned to walk away from me in the hallway when my words made her stop for one very short moment.

"You can believe what you want too. But I'll always know that you're different, Bianca."

She turned her face the tiny distance it took to watch me with her left eye. She looked like she might say something or argue back, but no words left her glossy lips.

Bianca set her jaw before turning back in front of her and leaving me in the hallway by myself.

I set my own jaw once she'd disappeared from my sight as I turned around to walk in the opposite direction from where she'd walked.