Chapter 21 #2
“Not for everyone,” he said turning to James, who was facing the window and drinking coffee with a dark expression.
“Where’s Will?”
“In class.”
I took a deep breath and went in.
William immediately lowered his head as soon as he saw me at the threshold.
“From one to ten how bad was I yesterday?”
“You shouldn’t’ve been drinking,” I said, throwing the chemistry book on the bench.
“Did I upset you?”
I looked around. Nobody else was around, so I decided to answer.
“No. I mean, maybe indirectly.”
“Sorry. I just remember that James took me home.”
We should seriously hit the brakes, Will, you scare me. But how could I tell him that without hurting him?
“I’ll try to apologize with the cappuccino I got you from the vending machine. I know it won’t be enough,” he whispered, handing me a cup.
“Thank you, Will. Look, I think it’s time to . . .” James walked into class and my throat instantly dried up.
“To?” prodded William, oblivious to his friend’s presence. I definitely wasn’t going to talk about it in front of him.
“Maybe we’ll talk about it when we’re alone,” I whispered. William nodded absentmindedly.
I watched him tousle his hair before glancing lifelessly at me. He looked tired. But I couldn’t pretend nothing had happened yesterday. Things were clearly getting out of hand. Last night he behaved like that, and today he wanted to act like nothing happened?
And then, he threatened Brian yesterday morning.
He wasn’t drunk then. What’d they say to each other?
I couldn’t let something like that slide or forget what Blaze had admitted to me.
If it was a hypothesis before, now I was sure of it.
They really did attack the principal. I couldn’t turn a blind eye to that.
“Will?”
I watched him rub his eyes, his face more tired than usual.
“What were you and Brian talking about yesterday? Does it have something to do with me, or . . .”
“No, no. Don’t worry, it has nothing to do with you. Are you two gonna do the history homework together?” he asked.
“Brian asked me to do it with him. His grade is pitiful. I think he needs someone who’s good at history.”
“Okay.” William shrugged it off and looked at the desk as if it wasn’t his business.
I started to think that the scene that morning had had nothing to do with me, given that he didn’t care whether or not I studied with Brian. If he was good with it, then why was it a problem for James?
The teacher walked in and told us we’d watch a projection in lab today.
“We’ll see you there. I’m going to the vending machine first. I’ll save your seat, June.” Will pointed at my paper cup then got up.
I watched him saunter out of class with Marvin.
The classroom started to empty, and I hesitated. I answered the text from my mom telling her everything was fine. It was a marvel.
“Goddamn.”
The complaint came from James, who was at the door. He’d accidentally dropped a spoon, splattering the coffee on his dark pants.
“Talking with Will, it seems like he doesn’t have a problem with me studying with Brian,” I said, before gulping down a sip of the now lukewarm cappuccino.
James put his coffee on the windowsill then came dangerously close to me. I backed away so much that I bumped into the desk.
“Do you think you can provoke me?” he asked.
“I’m just saying that you’re the only one bothered by it. It’s not a problem for Will.”
“Then call him when you need him. Because you will,” he snarled.
“You’re freaking out, chill.”
But all of a sudden I was the agitated one, because James slid his thumb along the angle of my lower lip to wipe away a little foam. I froze, and even the blood in my veins seemed to run cold. My eyes drifted to his lips. James licked them, then grabbed my sides with both hands.
And after the cold came the warm.
“James, don’t—”
“What?” he whispered, squeezing harder.
“Maybe you were right when you said we should keep our distance.”
His lips curved into a smirk. “Pretend all you want, but you like dangerous roads too,” he whispered. Why? Why did he always have to be like this?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re the one who started it. Always. You’re always the one who provokes me.” I confronted him.
“Maybe it’s just because it’s fun for me.”
I felt my stomach burning. “But I don’t like being your source of fun. Why don’t you leave me alone?”
“You’re a child.”
“Hunter? White? What’s going on?”
The English teacher came through the doorway, giving us an angry look. He checked his watch then glared at us again.
“Get away from her and leave,” he ordered James, as he put his briefcase on the desk. Instead of obeying, James put his hand on my side to pull me closer to him.
“Any other requests, teach?” James egged him on with his nose in the air. Mr. Beckett shook his head.
“Hunter, you shouldn’t be here. Don’t you have lab?”
“Yeah, we’ll fuck off now. Are you worried we’ll ruin your break?”
“I have to grade homework, I don’t want distractions. Go to class.”
“Grade homework,” sneered James, while he took his hands off me to put them in his pocket.
Amelia and the teacher.
I wondered if what Amelia had told James was true. I furtively scrutinized the teacher’s face. Sharp eyes, full lips, and a straight nose. He really was hot, but an adult.
“White?”
James snapped his fingers in front of my nose, seeing that I was staring vacantly.
“What the fuck is your problem?” he reprimanded me while we walked out of the classroom.
“Language, Hunter,” Mr. Beckett admonished him.
“Go fuck yourself,” spat James when we were already in the hallway.
We headed to the lab without saying anything else. Most of our classmates were already there. Jackson’s eyes followed us like a hawk.
Before he could even say hi to his friends, a girl in the last row called James’s name.
I was right to pull back the night before. And from now on, I always will. Blaze was right. James enjoyed messing with me like he did with all the other girls. Or maybe I should say all the others period.
Jackson was still staring at me, and when I walked in front of him, he shook his head disapprovingly.
“I know you’re not crazy about me,” I said, sitting down at the bench next to him.
“I wonder why that is.”
“It’s not like—”
“It’s not what it looks like, you don’t like both and all of them, no, no.” Jackson put words in my mouth, getting on my nerves.
“Cut it out.”
“You cut it out, White. And get your head on straight.”
“It is. Of course I don’t want to hurt Will.”
He cracked up, then turned to look at me.
“Hurt Will? Who do you think you are? Do you really think Will’s in love with you?”
“No, but—”
“You don’t know him.” He cut me off. This again?
“Then explain.”
“June, that’s my spot, but my lap is free if you want it.” Marvin stopped in front of me with a smile, pointing at the seat I was sitting on.
“No, thank you.”
I got up in a huff and joined Will, who didn’t have a seat free next to him.
“Sorry, June, I saved your seat, but you know how it is.” William pointed at James, who was lounging next to him.
I quickly looked around for a seat and met two pairs of spiteful gazes.
Amelia and Ari.
“You can sit here if you want,” invited Will.
I sat on his lap and soon after, the lights dimmed. The projection started, and the classroom was dark, which might’ve been why Will pushed my hair away from my shoulders to expose my neck, ready to receive a kiss.
I traced the surface of the bench with my finger. Someone had engraved doodles in the wood.
“Did you do them?”
“I do them when I’m tense.”
Will took a knife out of his pants pocket. It was the same one I’d seen James with last night. My eyes widened.
He drove it into the bench an inch away from my arm and moved the blade next to my skin, tracing the outlines of it.
“It helps me release tension,” he whispered on my neck. I jumped. I hadn’t been expecting Will to do that, nor was I expecting to react like that.
I suppressed the instinct to throw my head back at the pleasant contact with his warm lips, but when I moved my eyes, I noticed James staring at me through narrowed ones. I felt like I was being put to the test.
I closed my eyes and bit my lip as William’s nose brushed against my ear. I was desperately struggling to not give in to those sensations. Okay, we still had to talk, and we had a lot of unfinished business, but . . .
His hand slid under the bench, and my throat closed up.
“Does it scare you, June?” he asked, tickling my bare thigh with the cool blade.
“Wi-Will?”
He pointed the knife at my inner thigh and slowly lifted the hem of my skirt.
But when Will started tasting and biting at the sensitive skin on my neck, I understood that it was time to stop.
We were at school. What if someone saw us? I didn’t move my head, but I looked around with my eyes. Nobody was looking at us. Except him.
Even though James’s neck was tense and he was looking straight at us, I felt his eyes brand my thighs. I turned my head and noticed his eyes following the blade’s movement. It was a magnetic force—maybe his energy, maybe his thoughts, or maybe just the hormones that were driving me crazy.
I saw the veins in his neck inflate while he finished the coffee.
“Fuck, Will, enough.” He sighed, out of breath when he noticed I’d just closed my legs to move William’s hand.
James held out his hand and Will gave him back the knife without saying anything. We stayed silent and still until the end of the projection.
“Shit, I forgot my book,” cursed Will when the lights came on. James was sucking on the coffee stirrer. He reached for my book to place it in front of them.
“Put it here.”
“You don’t have it either? What do you come to school for if you don’t even know what materials you need,” I spewed, irritated, taking it back.
“I said put it here,” James insisted, pulling it toward him.
“Take your greasy paws off it, Hunter!”
“It’s just a fucking book, and if you don’t let me look at it, I’ll rip it apart page by page,” he threatened seriously.