Chapter 14
June
A blond girl answered the door. Did I ring the wrong doorbell? I stared at her confused while she squealed a warm greeting with a smile.
“Hey, June!”
I stuck my head inside to make sure that I was at William’s house. I even checked the street number.
“Um.”
“I’m Sammy! We’re in class together!”
She burst out laughing and invited me in. Yeah, of course.
“Hey, Sammy.”
I took off my shoes, then put my backpack on the dining room table. I started cautiously examining the environment around me. I felt like prey surveying the land right before setting foot into the dark jungle.
I was about to ask Sammy if she knew where Will was, but when both of us passed in front of a full-length mirror hanging in the living room, I stopped myself.
Sammy was wearing a dark, clingy dress that highlighted her slim figure.
I was wearing an oversized T-shirt and track shorts.
My legs had never looked bigger and bulkier.
“June. Finally! I was starting to worry.”
Will came up to me with a contagious grin and made me instantly forget the image of the impulsive, unreasonable, and angry guy I’d seen earlier that day.
I closed my eyes when his lips collided with mine. He smelled like pine trees. He must’ve just taken a shower. In fact, his hair was still a little damp.
“Want something to eat?” he asked.
Will clearly knew how to win me over. I’d barely gotten into the house and he was already offering me food. What more could I want?
Why did something tell me that we weren’t alone? Why was Sammy here, too, and a few yards away from us? Let’s not go too far . . .
“I already had dinner, but if you’re offering a snack?”
“I’m gonna see what’s left over from James. I had to go grocery shopping for the umpteenth time yesterday because he invites people over and my refrigerator gets emptier and emptier from day to day.”
William disappeared into the kitchen, so I got comfortable on the couch and watched Netflix.
Sammy gave me a small smile before sitting on the couch not too far from me. But I didn’t let my guard down. Because if Little Red Riding Hood was here with me, the wolf couldn’t be too far—
“June, do you prefer ice cream or, what is this, chocolate bars?” I heard Will mutter indistinctly in the kitchen, so I decided to join him. But before I could get up, James appeared in the living room without even saying hi to me.
I shot him a quick furtive but intent glance.
He was wearing a red hoodie and gray tracksuit pants, his face was still black and blue, his lip was swollen, and his right hand was bandaged.
He went up to Sammy, towering over her, and as he ran his fingers through his hair, he motioned for her to move over so she’d sit by me.
“Get out. That’s my seat.”
He was being rude to her, but clearly he was just doing it so he wouldn’t have to sit next to me.
I decided to solve the issue by leaving.
“Look what I found, it’s vanilla chocolate chip ice cream.” William held up a tub of ice cream he’d pulled out of the freezer, then handed it to me with a spoon.
I perched on the table next to him as he put the tub between us. I dug in, but the tip of the spoon got stuck in the frozen ice cream.
“Can’t you wait a second? How long has it been since you’ve eaten?” teased William.
“Since my mom left, I’ve only been eating nuggets and frozen fries. Now’s not the time to be difficult.” We smiled for a second until Will asked, “How are you?”
“Fine. I’d missed a million calls from my mom when I got back. I spent the afternoon studying and getting the third degree.” He curved his lip up, listening to my griping.
“Well, at least she’s worried about you.”
“Are you okay, Will? I mean, after the day we had today,” I asked seriously.
He nodded but looked worried.
“Well, to be honest, I can’t stand fighting with James. I feel better right away, but I know he gets upset for a long time. Really upset.”
I saw him take a deep sigh, so I craned my neck to the living room to take a look.
James and Sammy seemed to be in the throes of sucking face. Sammy’s tiny figure made James look even more massive. They were seriously making out.
“He doesn’t look that upset.”
“June, you don’t know him.” He shook his head, laughing.
“Why’s Sammy here? I mean, why not Taylor or Tiffany, why her today?” My question probably deserved a good Mind your own business, meddler, but Will wasn’t of that mindset.
“Taylor?” He snorted smiling. “She wouldn’t even lower herself to mix with us mere mortals. But she’ll be a casualty. If one’s busy, another one is waiting in the wings.”
Okay, maybe I shouldn’t’ve asked. Like magic, I lost interest in the subject.
“But if you wanna know, I’m the one who told him to call her. Otherwise it would’ve been just you, me, and him.”
I looked away from the ice cream to gaze into William’s gray eyes.
They glowed with an unusual curiosity. And I couldn’t forget how jealous he’d looked that morning.
Before the fight with James, then the rough way he ripped the cotton ball from me.
The worst thing was that he was right. James and I went from hating each other to crossing lines that I hadn’t even flirted with when it came to Will.
“I didn’t want him to be a third wheel,” he said. “Right, June?”
I stayed still, staring into his attentive gaze. The hum of the refrigerator filled the silence.
“Oh, yeah, you did the right thing,” I confirmed haphazardly.
But I had trouble chasing away the thought that had just started worming its way into my head. Was Will starting to see me differently?
“James has a ton of qualities, but he’s not always trustworthy,” added William, grabbing the tub from my hands.
“You mean . . .”
“Yeah, with girls,” he continued, putting the dirty dishes in the dishwasher.
“But he’s loyal to his friends,” I ventured.
Will turned around, running his fingers through his hair.
“Yeah. He is.”
I felt a weird sensation. What did I feel guilty about? William and I weren’t together because he didn’t intend to be serious with me. What did he expect?
“Wanna watch a movie?” Sammy yelled from the living room.
“Do you want anything else, June?”
“I’m okay, thank you,” I answered, licking my still sweet-tasting lip. While we sat back on the couch, Sammy stood up to grab some blankets off an easy chair.
“June, do you want one too? I’m a little cold,” she offered with a smile.
“No, thank you.”
Sammy wasn’t that bad. She didn’t seem brazen like Tiffany or full of herself like Taylor.
At least she was nice, unlike the short-fused guy next to her.
She sat back down, filling the space between me and James, then said something that made everyone’s noses wrinkle.
“Uh, I know what we could watch! After?”
“I’d rather cut my balls off,” spat James, rolling his eyes.
“Come on, Jamie! We still haven’t seen it! June, you’re on my side, right?”
“Uh, whatever you guys want,” I answered, shrugging.
Honestly, picking what movie to watch was the least of my worries.
I was still thinking about Austin, the gun pointed at James’s temple, and the swim coach.
Maybe I should’ve talked with Blaze and asked him more about the attack on the principal, because none of this was making sense to me.
Sammy and James started arguing about what to watch, so William put an end to the discussion.
“Let’s watch the first half hour of After, and we’ll change it if it sucks,” he recommended, before turning out the light.
He sat next to me and pushed my hair back from my face, then gave me a kiss on my neck that made me blush.
“Besides, I don’t know how much we’ll watch the movie,” he mumbled in my ear. Suddenly, I tensed.
I liked making out with William, but we weren’t alone. Maybe he’d forgotten about that.
“William?” James called.
He rolled his eyes, annoyed.
“Eh.”
“Beer?”
“Get off your ass and get it yourself, James.”
“But it’s your house,” he complained.
“When it’s convenient for you, huh.”
Given that Will didn’t listen to him, James reluctantly got up.
He was still limping, but the hoodie that was a little too big on him made his chest look even stronger.
I wondered if he was capable of staying still for five minutes to watch a damn movie, given that it had just started and he’d already gotten up twice.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him come back holding a beer and a lollipop that smelled strongly of strawberries and cream.
“My favorite,” I heard him giggle, before sucking on the red lollipop. I already knew it was going to be a rough night, but I decided to concentrate on Will.
“Is that for me?” the girl asked quietly. James smiled at her through his hair. “No.” Then he whispered something in her ear, and she let out an embarrassed chuckle.
“You only got the beer for you? Couldn’t you have gotten something for us too?” reproached Will, before getting up to grab extra glasses.
“Still or sparkling water, June?”
“Still, thank you.”
I tried to keep my eyes glued to the TV, but I felt eyes scrutinizing me. Sammy had gone back to staring at me smugly.
“What is it?” I asked, confused.
“You remind me of Tessa,” she said, pointing at the blond girl on the screen.
“Just as much of a pain in the ass?”
“No, her face! And her body.”
“Oh, yeah, maybe if you put a blindfold on and cover your ears,” James said sarcastically, irritating me.
I flipped him the bird, and he pretended to ignore me.
“Asshole,” I mumbled.
Not even a second later, I saw him stretch his arm on the couch and put it over Sammy. But his long fingers caressed the locks of hair on my shoulders.
“I’ll beat the shit out of you if you don’t cut it out, Hunter.”
“We’re so aggressive.”
Hadn’t it been a rough enough day already? He still wanted to joke around? I turned my head involuntarily because he’d started to graze my neck with his fingertips. His thumb took a long journey, sliding from my earlobe down to my throat.
I started feeling hot, really hot.