Chapter 22 #2
James’s words were directed at Poppy, but Blaze’s eyelids started to quiver. I felt that strong grip in my stomach again. Maybe it was jealousy? Did Blaze and James like each other?
“But Poppy . . . cocktails?” asked Blaze, while she and James had already walked away.
“I’ll help you,” offered Jackson, getting off the couch and handing me the controller.
“Do you think”—Will caught my attention—“I should get a gym membership?”
“The full moon is causing you to spew bullshit, isn’t it?” I burst out laughing, and he laughed with me. Everything would be a lot easier if we were friends.
What was just a thought started to take shape.
If Will and I were really friends, I would’ve accepted him warts and all, no problem.
But the weird limbo we were in wasn’t good for either of us.
I decided to accept the FIFA challenge, and we spent a carefree half hour forgetting about all our problems. Suddenly I heard Ari’s silvery voice in the background, and I don’t know why, but our little bubble of tranquility burst.
I quickly glanced at her when I saw her walk through the door.
There wasn’t a single guy whose head didn’t turn to look at her.
She had long hazelnut hair in a tall, flowy ponytail, and was wearing high-heeled boots and an oversized sweater that went down to her knees.
And seeing Will look eagerly at her made me grumble.
It was the first time I’d been in a situation like this—maybe because at my old schools, I was in a corner eating my pizza slice all alone while the most popular girls shared low-fat nutrition bars and swapped football players.
“What’s going on?” asked Will, seeing my expression.
“Nothing. You beat me twice without even deserving to win!” I teased.
“You were with him, weren’t you?” Amelia’s cold voice cut through the atmosphere, pulling me and Will away from the game.
Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Poppy’s tall silhouette join her friends, while James walked down the stairs shirtless with his hair more tousled than usual. There was a little music in the background and more people than before, but despite that I could hear their conversation.
“Were you really with him?” demanded Amelia.
“So what? It’s my birthday, leave me alone. My mom made me promise that we wouldn’t break anything, but I already saw someone in the bathroom who—”
“Do you want to cry on your birthday too?” interrupted Amelia sharply. She was cold, thorny, and biting.
“James and I only went upstairs for a second. Quit making a tragedy out of it. Besides, does it look like I’m crying?”
“Well, you will,” declared Ari, coming to Amelia’s aid. She gazed at Poppy through narrowed eyes before walking away.
Ari swayed in front of me and William holding a glass of something.
“Hey, Will.”
For a moment, William was distracted by her sexy strut.
“Huh? Hey,” he mumbled, as I took advantage of his distraction to score another goal.
“Um, what did you want to talk to me about, June?” Will was serious, and I mentally prepared my speech, something I always did when I wanted to start an important discussion.
Let’s be friends.
I put the controller on the table and looked at Will in the eyes. I like you, but there’s a part of you that . . .
Maybe it would be better to postpone the conversation because of the full moon?
“No big deal.” I downplayed my earlier statement, shrugging.
It was actually that I didn’t know how he would’ve reacted, and I was too scared to ruin Poppy’s party.
“Wanna play another game?” he suggested, pointing at the TV.
“I better go to the girls,” I refused, standing up.
“Okay. I’m gonna find Jax.”
But before I could take a step, Will grabbed my arm.
“Wait.”
And he said that to give me a peck on the lips. Softly, like I liked. But I couldn’t make it feel right.
It was that off-rhythm melody that threw me. It seemed like he was searching for confirmation, not a gesture made from the heart.
“See you later?” he asked, struggling to pull away from my lips, while his thumbs made small circles around my cheekbones.
I felt like I was bursting into flames when I imagined the feeling of James’s fingers on my face.
That morning in the school bathrooms, he didn’t grab my cheeks violently or softly. Just intensely.
My eyes were fixed on Will, when James’s voice broke the spell. “Wanna shoot some hoops, Will?”
“Right now? No, I’m looking for Jax,” he answered. “I’ll ask him to make me something nonalcoholic,” he added before nodding at me. I felt James’s dark eyes on me.
“Can I talk to you for a moment, Hunter?” I asked, intentionally avoiding his gaze.
“Do I look like I wanna talk?” James said in a surly tone, and when I turned around I caught him with his arm around Sammy.
Okay, got it. You can’t talk because you’re busy burning your brain cells and banging half the world.
“I just wanted to talk to you about Will. It’s fine,” I murmured. It seemed like I’d just said the magic word.
“What do you want?”
“I was thinking—”
“That you want to dump him because I paid attention to you for two seconds?”
I was speechless. The dark-haired guy behind him burst out laughing, then he asked, “Blondie’s the one who hit you with chemistry book, isn’t she?”
James didn’t say anything, but he stared at me.
“Is she your girlfriend?” he demanded.
“No,” snarled James.
“Okay, forget I said anything.”
“I don’t give a flying fuck about you. I thought that was clear, White.” James’s words felt like he was twisting a knife in my back.
“The feeling is mutual, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that what you do is wrong, and now I feel guilty because of you, James.”
I saw him frown at my words.
“About what, White?”
“About what we did.” But I admitted that quietly, coming closer to his face so the others wouldn’t hear.
James bowed his head with a hint of a mischievous grin.
“What we did in your head, you mean.”
I stared stone-cold at him.
“Did I kiss you by any chance?”
Hearing him talk about that possibility with such arrogance and indifference made me lose it.
“Enough, you’re driving me nuts. You always want to be the center of attention. That’s not what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Answer me. Did I kiss you?”
His blunt question prevented me from taking a step.
“No.”
“Did I touch you?”
I gritted my teeth, and stopped answering, maybe because I already understood what he was getting at.
“So it’s all here.” James pointed at my temple with his index finger.
“And maybe . . .” His finger descended along my cheek then drifted to my chest and down to my slightly uncovered stomach. “. . . here too.” I grabbed his hand and pushed it away before he could go any farther. That abrupt gesture made the guy next to James chuckle.
“You have to quit acting like this with me,” I said.
“I’ll do that when you, Snow White, quit eye banging me.”
“You know what I say? If you’re so proud of being an asshole, there’s no hope for someone like you. You enjoy torturing people. That’s all you do. It might enchant others, but not me.”
“Oh no?”
“You think you’re the best, someone everyone wants to be around, but ultimately I bet you always end up alone. You’re alone. And that’s sad because your friends do everything for you, but you don’t have any scruples, and you don’t care if they end up in messes because of you.”
If the atmosphere had been light a moment ago when James was laughing at me, now he was glaring at me.
“Never seek me out again, do you understand me, princess?” he snarled.
“You’re the one who seeks me out,” I retorted.
“What a piece of work,” remarked the guy next to James, when I’d already turned around. “That’s the typical girl who’ll make you struggle before getting into bed with you.”
“I don’t want shit from her,” spat James in a rage.
“So if she’s not your girlfriend, and you don’t like her—”
“What?”
“Can I shoot my shot? She’s sexy. Maybe she’s that aggressive in bed too.”
“Go ahead. Go anywhere near her, and I’ll bite your balls off.”
I pretended not to hear any of this and walked to the kitchen. Will was leaning on the dining room table, drinking, while his charcoal-gray eyes were glued to Ari, who sat all alone on the other side of the living room looking like someone had just died.
“Is it normal that she’s alone like this?” I asked, seeing her worried.
“No. Not usually,” Will grumbled. “Maybe you should talk to her.”
I took Will’s suggestion and went up to her.
“Are you okay?”
Ari looked up from her empty cup to where Amelia was laughing and joking with Blaze and another guy nearby.
“You’re the first person to ask me that since Brian and I broke up,” she whispered, making space on the easy-chair arm for me.
“Did you clear things up with Amelia?”
I always saw them together at school, but Amelia had the typical passive-aggressive behavior; even though she couldn’t stand you, she came near you just to make hateful jabs.
“Yeah, but deep down she still hates me for making her brother suffer.”
“Understandable. But if you didn’t feel like being with him, it was for the best, wasn’t it?”
“I care about him, but we’re incompatible. I don’t understand why she can’t accept that.”
“Give her time.”
Ari had made mistakes, but Amelia didn’t have a say in Ari’s relationship with Brian. Especially when she didn’t love him anymore.
Ari’s gaze intensified when Poppy appeared in front of us.
Was Poppy mad? No way.
“Ari, you’re a damn manipulator.”
Oh no, the full moon had hit the party too.
Ari looked around like she couldn’t believe Poppy was talking to her that way.
“What’s going on?” I interrupted.
“You judged me, you made me think I was shameless when I was with James at Will’s party. And like an idiot, I listened to you and felt guilty. But you didn’t say that because you cared about me, you said it because you were jealous!”
Uh-oh.
“I was na?ve to trust you. You threw shit all over me and now I find out you were doing it behind Brian’s back? Without even telling me, your best friend?”