Chapter 24 #2
“But get out,” I spat, looking Will right in the eye.
He seemed so innocent at that moment but I couldn’t let myself be moved by his angelic face anymore.
“June, where are you going?” Will seemed to worry when I started walking down the street toward my house.
“James, go with her,” I heard him beg.
“This sucks. How come I always have to end up in the middle of the shit show? You’re driving me up the wall!”
I turned around to glare at them and noticed that Will was already back in the house.
“White!”
“Leave me alone, Hunter, go to wherever the hell you’re going!”
“Okay you’re angry, but this seems like it’s going a little too far. Are you listening to me? Where the fuck are you going?”
“I gotta go home!”
“All right, I’ll go with you. Just give me—”
James looked around. He was still shirtless and holding the vape pen between his lips. He rummaged through his tracksuit pant pockets for his car keys.
“Gimme a minute,” he repeated, exasperated.
“No, I wanna go home now.”
“What the fuck is your problem! Let me finish vaping.”
As soon as I started walking in the dark again, I heard him rush after me.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going home, I told you!”
“You can’t give me five fucking minutes to get dressed?” I heard him scream, but I didn’t stop. “You’re being a child. Go on, get a move on.” He jerked his head toward the car parked on the other side of the street.
I kept quiet as we got to the car. He didn’t talk until we got inside and he turned the car on.
“What the fuck is your deal? Are you like this because of Will?”
“No!”
“Then what is it, White?”
It’s that I feel the earth crumble under me when I lose control, so much so that I feel like I’m falling into a void.
How could I explain that? That I hadn’t cried in years.
That I held everything in and needed order in my life, because the chaos was melting my brain.
James stared at me frowning, instead of looking at the road.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I just have to go home,” I snarled furiously.
“All right, but fucking calm down.”
The fresh air came in through the window as the smoke exploded out of his lungs.
“You could’ve gotten dressed,” I emphasized when I saw him shaking and shirtless.
“You didn’t even give me time to pee!”
“Are you cold?”
“Move, pass me the hoodie.” James jerked his head toward the back seat of the car.
I reached back to get it, but when I reached my hand out to grab it, I pulled it away from him.
“You’re not putting it on while you drive. That’s dangerous.”
The smile creeping up at the corners of his mouth reminded me of his brother’s.
“If only you knew the things I do while driving, Snow White.” I ignored the innuendo and concentrated on the window.
“Why are you driving me home, James?”
“You know why,” he immediately shot back.
“Because Will asked you to, blah, blah, blah. You guys are so boring.”
“More hateful than usual tonight. Yesterday it would’ve done you good to listen to me.”
“What?”
I watched him bite his lower lip as my eyes studied his perfect profile.
And while I analyzed his square jaw, what Amelia had just screamed a little while ago, what Will had said to them, and the mean things that I’d said throughout the party all came to mind again.
“You’re used to it.”
I saw him raise both eyebrows.
“To what?”
“Taking hits. Not just physical hits.”
“What about you?”
His question floored me.
“No. I don’t know.”
“You don’t know, or you don’t want other people to know?”
I shook my head. “There’s no point in always pretending to be someone you’re not, James.”
“What do you mean, Snow White?”
His blue eyes twinkled in the dark.
“One moment it seems like you care about the people around you, the next minute you say you couldn’t care less about them.”
“Oh, so you’re not talking about other people, you’re talking about you.”
“No, I—”
I turned to the window to not give him the satisfaction of seeing my face turn red.
“You think I’m the big bad wolf, the one who can go wild, but you need to understand that the people around you aren’t perfect little angels.”
He was right; I’d gone from Snow White to Little Red Riding Hood in a minute.
“If you’re talking about William, I get it. Is Ari the one he’s always been in love with?”
“I don’t know.”
“James.”
He looked sideways.
“Why do you always defend each other?”
“Why do you think?” he shot back.
“Did you really save Will’s life?”
“So what?”
The way he said that so casually made me speechless.
“James, what happened to Will?”
There hadn’t been a single answer in our exchange, just questions that kept piling up on top of each other.
“It happened two years ago. Ari had just dumped him. I found him—” He gulped loudly, like the conversation was too painful to face. “I found him lying unconscious on his bathroom floor. If I hadn’t gotten there, it definitely . . .”
“What about the guy you beat up? What happened to him?” I changed course because James seemed too upset from telling me what had happened to William.
“He had a concussion. He recovered in the hospital.”
“And then?”
“I don’t know.” He pushed his lips out nonchalantly.
“Did he press charges?”
I watched him run a finger through his tousled hair while the look on his face hardened.
“No.”
“And why not? Did they kick him out of school?” James nodded slightly, nervously biting his lip.
“Did you ever see him again?”
“Not at school,” he said curtly. “All right, enough, Sherlock. It’s my turn to ask questions. Why did you wanna get out of the house in such a rush?”
“What do you mean?”
“What do you mean?” He parroted me in a whiny voice.
“Look, what I do is none of your business. Take me home, and that’s it,” I insisted obstinately, crossing my arms across my chest.
“Fuck, it would do you good.”
“What?”
He hit the brakes so abruptly that I grabbed my seat belt so I wouldn’t fly out the window.
“James!” I shouted, flying into a rage. “God da—”
I swallowed a curse word as he stopped the car suddenly and got out. Perplexed, I watched his tall, imposing figure circle the car body.
I stuck my head out the window and saw that he was putting on the hoodie.
“What are you doing?”
“Get in the car,” he ordered.
“I’m in the car, idiot!”
“In my seat! Moron.”
I burst out laughing at the umpteenth imitation of my voice.
“Since when do you do impressions? You’re terrible,” I taunted.
“Since a stubborn chick throws fits and doesn’t do what I say.”
I rolled my eyes, but he stood, still staring at me. Was he serious? Should I sit in his seat?
“Go on, White.”
“What?”
“I’m warning you, I’m losing my patience.”
I opened the car door to shoot him a sharp look.
“Do you want me to drive?”
He nodded smugly.
“Are you crazy all of a sudden or were you already crazy?” I exclaimed, making him laugh.
“I might be. Move before I change my mind!” I got out of the passenger’s seat. James sat in my seat as I got into his. I was overtaken by a chill I hadn’t seen coming when I closed the car door. His hand was firmly grasping my thigh.
“Everything is fine.”
His gruff voice vibrated in the darkness.
“No, no.”
“That wasn’t a question. Everything is fine,” he demanded, his sparkling eyes gazing at me.
I felt strange butterflies around my chest.
“But now grab the steering wheel and get a move on.”
I started the car and drove to my house.
“Go straight, I told you!”
“I am!”
“No, you’re driving into a ditch!”
“But it’s dark!” I exclaimed, amused.
A strong sensation of intoxication took me by surprise, so I pressed the gas pedal.
“Can you go slow? What the fuck!”
“Wow.” I exploded, pleased by the wonderful sensation of rediscovered control.
“Don’t press too much, you drank, remember that,” he said seriously.
“Yeah.”
“And don’t take your hands off the steering wheel! What the fuck! You started off well, you were driving.” I heard him groan. “Driving like a crazy old lady, but still better than a crazy daredevil.” We were on the street leading to my block, so I asked him.
“How did I do?”
“Um, you’re a terrible driver, but you have room for improvement.”
“So you could . . .”
I turned around. His blue eyes lit up.
“Your words, White: Keep your eyes on the road.”
“I don’t know, maybe . . .”
“Oh no, no.”
Out of the corner of my eye I saw him gesticulate.
“I still haven’t said anything!”
“You want driving lessons? From me?” He raised his voice with a hint of incredulity.
William would die, but maybe now wasn’t the time to think about revenge.
Then after a string of curse words and comparing me to Jackson’s grandma around eight times, we got to the front of my house.
I hit the brakes hard, causing him to groan in disappointment.
At the end of the day James wasn’t so bad when he was alone with me. I didn’t understand why he insisted on treating me like crap in front of the others.
“I set goals for myself, and I didn’t even achieve half of them,” I admitted, my eyes glued to the steering wheel.
He put the vape pen away. “Like?”
“I wanted to talk with Will, and I didn’t. I wanted to avoid drinking alcohol, and I didn’t, then—” I craned my neck enough to get a look at him. “I wanted to stay away from you.”
“So?” he asked gruffly.
“Like it’s impossible. Don’t flatter yourself, James.”
I saw him narrow his eyes as his full lips parted to blow out the smoke.
“I let you drive my car, White.”
“Uh, thank you.” For a moment, James seemed almost surprised by my answer.
“You shouldn’t hold it against Will,” he then said, aggravating me instantly.
“Don’t start again with your life lessons about how we have to put up with everything he does!”
“I’m not saying that. He cares about you.”
His assertion floored me. How could he say something like that?
“Clearly he cares about me! As soon as he got locked in a closet with a girl he couldn’t not jump all over her.”
“What the fuck does that have to do with it. He really does care about you.”