Chapter 8
Jackson
“Is this what you’re forced to do now? What is it, boredom?”
James was drinking the bottom of his cocktail with the straw as he stared at his new prey: June White.
“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, Jax.”
She stood next to the pool chatting with Will, and they seemed pretty close.
“You’ve literally banged half the school, and now you can’t resist the only one who doesn’t wanna put out?”
“You’re so childish, Jackson. I just wanna understand what the fuck she thinks she can do with Will.”
“You shouldn’t interfere.”
“Jax, we’re talking about Will. And we don’t want to see him fuck up. Again.”
“You can’t protect him forever, let him fuck up.”
But James didn’t seem interested in anyone else’s opinion. He always had to do things his own way.
“Look at them. She dragged him out here to the pool. How the fuck did she do that?” He smoked through a clenched jaw and half-open eyes, as if he wanted to burrow into their minds.
“Aren’t you getting a little carried away with her?”
“I don’t give a flying fuck about that princess. Besides, think about yourself.”
“Myself?” I asked, frowning.
“Where’s your girlfriend?” he retorted, before I could add anything else. I looked at him confused.
“What girlfriend?”
“Ex-fucking-actly. Look around. Why are you just sitting here?” he mocked me. My eyes were glued to his hand on my bicep. The contact between my boiling skin and the metal of his rings made me shiver.
“What the fuck did you say?” I got aggravated, raising my voice. He definitely suspected something. I hadn’t allowed myself a kiss in public in months, maybe a year. And he’d noticed it. He pointed at two girls staring at me across the pool.
“That anyone here would want to fuck you, Jax. Look around.”
I wondered how James was able to be so comfortable regarding his sexuality.
People misjudged his renowned promiscuity and the fact that he knew no limits.
I admired how naturally he wove human relationships and the fluidity with which he navigated them.
But there were boundaries between us. We were best friends, and it wasn’t right to cross those lines with our hands or our lips.
“If that’s your choice, I’ll respect it. If you don’t feel the impulse to have to put it somewhere, fine. But fucking tell me.”
Sometimes James pushed, got too close to people, as if he didn’t care about decency. He did it with girls, guys, anyone. Then again, other times you couldn’t even look at him or he’d start scratching like a wounded cat.
“What are you blathering on about, James?”
“I’m not judging, I just don’t understand your sudden change.”
“What do you mean?”
“Sammy didn’t seem to have any big issues when we banged.” He giggled.
I turned red.
“You banged Sammy?” I asked.
“Oh, yeah, sorry about that. But you only made her go down on you in the meantime.” He laughed, amused while he moistened his lower lip with his tongue, forcing me to stare at him.
I balled my fist at my side.
“Look, what did you mean anyone? Did you mean, anyone, anyone?” I asked almost angrily.
He scowled.
“Duh, what are you so surprised at?”
Then he laid his eyes on my lips, and the memory of his rough tongue sent a tremor to my lower stomach.
“Why are you getting mad now, Jax?” He moved so close to me that I had to move backward. I thought about that kiss again.
“You’re a dick.” I pushed him.
James burst out laughing, but he immediately stopped when his eyes widened in a very specific direction.
“What is it?” It dawned on me as soon as I saw Ethan Austin heading toward the main gate of Will’s house.
“Where the fuck did Will go?” shouted James nervously.
I looked around for William in the crowd, but I couldn’t find him. Meanwhile James had already pounced on June.
“Snow White, you’re coming with me.”
“What do you want?”
He grabbed her arm, forcing her to stand up.
“Hunter, let me go! Don’t put your greasy paws on me.”
“Austin’s here. You’re not safe.”
Only a blind person would miss that James was an inch away from her lips.
Usually I didn’t get annoyed by how he acted. He treated everyone the same way. But this time, the way that those two looked at each other. . . fuck, it hurt.
Suddenly, I turned around and went inside to get a beer.
I saw Blaze in one corner with a leg folded and his foot planted against the wall.
He was wearing a gray sweater and a pair of ripped jeans.
He stood quietly, pretending to participate in a conversation.
Between the screams and giggles, there wasn’t any room for his docile, mild-mannered, pensive self.
I didn’t suffer from flying into rages, but that asshole had turned my brain to mush. Blaze constantly made me feel conflicting emotions, and that spark of affection that he stirred in me also set off a whirlwind of infinite hatred. I clenched my jaw before approaching him.
“Where the fuck did you end up yesterday?” I demanded.
“Like you care,” he said, looking up.
He had a heart-shaped face with high white cheekbones and a tapered chin.
“I asked you a question. Where were you?”
“Certainly not slithering all over on Sammy like the bitch ass you are.”
I grabbed him by the collar, startling him. “Say that again, and I’ll smash your face in.”
I pushed him into the hall, where he took advantage of the dark to pluck up the courage he often lacked.
“It’s the truth. What, are you scared that your little friends will worry about you if you guys don’t score more? Are you a disgrace to them, Jax?”
I had two options. I could punch him, or tell him how things actually were. “I didn’t score with anyone,” I muttered, whispering. It was hard to even hear myself.
Blaze leaned on an old cabinet then flashed me a bold smile. “I bet you haven’t even gotten it up with a girl.” I was trying to stay calm, but he kept egging me on. I grabbed him fiercely by his sides to turn him around. It didn’t take much to bend him over the top of the cabinet.
“Shut your damn mouth, or I swear I’ll hurt you.”
I pressed my body against Blaze’s. He didn’t resist. I wondered how he didn’t moan with all my weight on top of him.
I was literally crushing him. But it had a collateral effect on my body.
I got up abruptly, pulling myself away from the forbidden touch to prevent him from noticing my weakness. I had just gotten turned on.
“What are you waiting for? Get up, loser,” I commanded quickly, adjusting the crotch of my jeans.
But Blaze didn’t move, making my blood boil. He just lifted his head up. Before he started talking again, I quickly pushed him against the wood surface pressing on his warm cheek. I ran my fingers through his tousled hair and drew nearer to his ear.
“Do you really think I wanna get in bed with you?” I whispered, enraged by the way that my body reacted to touching his.
“No, I think you’re terrified of what those assholes you call friends and your teammates would think. You only give a damn about that. Does your happiness not matter to you?” He struggled to speak as I held him still.
“None of your fucking business, Blaze. Besides, do you think—” A familiar chatter startled me.
I let him go. Blaze stood up quickly.
We pushed our backs against the wall next to the staircase leading upstairs.
“Why’s James with June?” he asked, his almond-shaped eyes wide.
“What do I know about them?”
We were side by side with our breaths so close that I could hear his racing heartbeat. I leaned my head to the side and closed my eyes, losing myself in the forthcoming kiss.
“Jax, what the hell is going on? Why are they going into that room together? Do you know something?”
He whispered it with his lips pressed against mine, but he wasn’t kissing me. Damn, Blaze, he managed to piss me off even in situations like this. Shut the hell up and kiss me.
“What do you mean, they’re not even—”
I continued to peer out, and noticed that the two had just started tiptoeing upstairs quietly.
“Look, there’s nothing going on between them,” I snapped. But Blaze didn’t seem to believe me.
“James is just like that, isn’t he? He always wants a new toy. Even when he was a kid he threw a tantrum to get other peoples’ toys, but after playing with one for five minutes he’d end up throwing it to the side.”
Blaze’s words about my best friend were brutal.
“James isn’t like that.” I tensed up.
“Yeah, he is. But it would be better if he didn’t do that with June. My god, you guys are all the same.”
What did he know?
“Blaze? Where—”
“Leave me alone,” he shouted, walking away.
“Come back here,” I hissed, quietly running my fingers through my hair. Fuck.