Chapter 27 #2
“So what?”
Tiffany wanted to seem detached, but despite Taylor’s rudeness, she always ended up seeking her approval.
“And stop using those drugs. They fuck your brain up.” Taylor glared at us before sauntering away.
“What’s her problem with you? Why do you let her treat you like that? That girl is toxic.”
The words rushed out of my mouth. I went back to looking at the glass I was holding. I felt impaired, but I’d literally only had one sip of that cocktail.
Tiffany craned her neck and looked at me closely, pleasantly surprised by my concern for her.
“I don’t know, June. Tay might be toxic, but I feel guilty.”
“I know there’s something going on between you and James, and Taylor doesn’t know anything about it, but they’re not exclusive. You can’t be feeling guilty because he really could care less.”
And when I turned around toward James, he was clearly twirling his tongue in the mouth of the girl he was dancing with.
“As a matter of fact, I don’t feel guilty about the relationship that she has with James, it’s about the relationship between me and her.”
“Okay, I’ll admit that I never thought of that perspective.”
But now Tiffany didn’t want to stay and listen to me. She was completely enraptured by her friend, who was talking with a tall, well-built guy, probably one of the football players at our school. They exchanged a few words then headed to the exit.
“June, sorry, but I’m gonna go for a minute.” I nodded, while Tiffany followed Taylor. You really don’t pick who you fall in love with.
“Are you with them?”
“What?”
A guy came closer to me. His shoulder bumped my chest, but he didn’t even notice.
“Are you June?”
“Yeah.” I looked at him quizzically.
“We go to school together.”
“Oh, okay. Gym class?” I asked, hoping to guess the class I thought I’d already seen him in.
“No, lit.”
“Sorry, I’m terrible when it comes to remembering faces,” I admitted.
“Well, I’m great at it, but you’re unrecognizable tonight.”
“What?”
But my words stopped flowing when the guy turned to the dance floor. “Uh. I better—”
“What?”
“I better leave you alone.”
“Sorry, what do you mean? Hold on.” I grabbed his arm, not because I was interested but because I was curious about why he so quickly changed his mind.
“You’re with them, aren’t you?”
“With whom?”
“They’re really protective of their property.”
And when I looked up and saw Will’s and James’s eyes fixed on me, a chill went down my spine.
“You should update your thinking. It’s not 1950.”
The guy stared at me, bewildered.
“Look at me. I’m not an object. I’m a human being. And I’m definitely not their property.”
But my words didn’t convince him.
William came closer to us and jerked his head. The guy turned around and left. I didn’t like that at all. I should’ve been the one to get rid of him. I opened my mouth, but instead of saying what I was thinking, I said something completely different.
“You don’t seem like you’re scary,” I taunted. I felt like laughing. I felt weird. I didn’t feel like myself.
“Maybe they know I’m completely crazy.”
The dumb sentence made my lips curl.
“Then again, how could I blame them?” William’s eyes traveled from my hips to my cleavage and finally reached my eyes. “You look gorgeous.”
Damn it, Will, why do you have to be like this?
James was still nearby with that girl, but I felt the warmth of his eyes on me.
Why do both of you have to be like this?
“June, I’m sorry about yesterday. I didn’t mean to humiliate you in front of everyone, nor did I mean to hide Ari from you, but I’ve already told you too much about myself.”
“Will.” I stopped every attempt at an excuse, maybe because the noise started to blend together, and I couldn’t hear a word.
“June, listen—”
“No, you listen. It’s over between us, but I can’t hate you. I tried, but I can’t. And I can’t understand why.”
William stared at me with his forehead creased before lowering his gaze. “Maybe you’re not in love with me.”
“Yeah, but the truth is that I wasn’t completely honest with you, Will.”
“What do you mean?”
I took a gulp of my drink, as if it could give me the courage to keep talking.
“I wanted to tell you at the party that it’d be better to end it. So, as much as I couldn’t bear that kiss, I can’t hate you. I was always planning on ending it. And besides, I made out with Tiff.”
“Why, June? Any girl would’ve taken advantage of my mistake to make me pay or hate me. Why do you always have to be so nice?” His words rolled over me, just like I could feel his breath on my neck. We were so close that I could smell the cherry on his breath.
“Is that a bad thing?” I asked, almost stunned.
“No, but your behavior makes it even harder to stay away from you.”
“Will, you and me, it doesn’t make sense. You’re still hung up on her, and I—”
“You wanted to break up with me, fine. But I was the asshole, June. You made out with Tiff as part of a game, but I never told you about Ari, and I also made out with her. You’d never do that.”
You think so?
In theory, no; June White wouldn’t have done that. She would’ve locked herself in her house for the rest of her life after a similar disappointment. And instead, in reality, I didn’t know what I would be capable of doing right then.
“I don’t want to end up not talking anymore. Let’s just do this if we both want it, let’s just be friends.”
I nodded at Will’s sensible proposal. I didn’t want more drama, and if William needed a friend, I wanted to be there for him.
“And let’s have fun tonight, okay?” he added, pointing to the bar. “I’m gonna get two mojitos, then we’ll dance.”
I saw him flash a sincere smile, and I almost regretted my next words. “Nonalcoholic for both of us, Will.”
“You too?” He scowled.
“Yeah, I don’t know what was in that.” I pointed at the drink I was holding. “But it was strong.”
I stayed still in my little corner and was overcome by a sense of relief.
I had been terrified that things with Will would end tragically, maybe with a fight or a broken heart.
It hadn’t been like that, and I couldn’t help but be grateful.
I smiled, until a bigger guy got closer to me than he should have.
The second one in one night?
He said something I didn’t understand, one of the usual great lines like Too beautiful to be alone . . .
“If you stop mumbling maybe I’ll understand you,” I answered in my usual sharp way.
But he didn’t seem to want to hear what I had to say. His eyes were glued to my cleavage without a shred of restraint.
“Look, blondie—”
“I don’t think she wants to talk to you.” William had just come back holding two glasses.
“Says who? A child like you?” spat the guy.
“Calm down, I can defend myself,” I retorted, annoyed by Will’s excessively protective behavior.
But then the guy put his hand on my shoulder and pulled me to him. I felt a strong sense of nausea and powerlessness.
“Leave her alone, come on,” Will said, both hands full.
“Do you think you can tell me what to do?” said the guy, laughing.
I wriggled out of the stranger’s grip as he stared at William, glowering.
I had nothing more to do with their argument. Supposed alpha males only wanted to find an excuse to fight.
“I’m saying that you don’t scare me, little boy,” the guy continued.
“I’m saying that it’s best for you to get the fuck away and leave her alone.” James’s voice startled me.
And his intimidating figure forced even this guy to hightail it.
“Why do you always have to be like this? It doesn’t make sense,” I whispered.
James bit his lip and didn’t hint at an answer. I felt my cheeks itch, even my eyelids, as my eyes met his full, shiny lips. The burning image of the kiss with the stranger came back to mind.
“Are you okay?” asked Will, noticing my confused state. Then he handed me a glass that James quickly took out of my hands.
“Can you give it back to me, please?” I spat, annoyed.
“You seem drunk enough to me.”
“But it’s nonalcoholic,” clarified Will in response to his friend’s skeptical expression.
“I just want to try it.” James wrapped his lips around the straw and stayed still, his midnight-blue eyes glued to mine.
The echo of their words started to get more distant, and after determining that the drink didn’t have alcohol, James gave me back the glass. William caressed my face as I struggled to take my eyes off James. I didn’t know what kind of game this was, but I decided to let it be.
I closed my eyes. The warm sensation rushing through my veins gave me the shivers. Maybe it was the gentle way that William was moving the hair away from my forehead or the brazen way James caressed my body with a feverish gaze full of desire.
“Um.” I needed air. “I’m going outside for a bit,” I muttered, trying to free myself from the vise of their nearby, feverish bodies.
“I’ll go with you if you need me to,” I heard William say.
“No.”
I wondered why it was that putting two coherent thoughts together had started to be so complex.
I would’ve wanted to tell them their behavior was wrong, that after what had happened the day before, Will didn’t have the right to interfere if someone came up to talk to me.
I knew how to defend myself. And the same went for James. I had to get away from those two.
“You better not go out alone. You drank too much,” James whispered gruffly in my ear, making me wince.
“I didn’t drink anything.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I only took a sip of that drink from before.”
“Oh, okay.”
“James.”
I couldn’t take my eyes off his lips even for a moment. I smelled William’s scent behind me. It was delicate and smelled like fabric softener and maybe honey-scented body wash.
And when I turned to him, I was enraptured by James’s more intense, more masculine scent.
Will came closer to my cheek. I lowered my gaze, but I felt his mint-and-beer-scented breath on my neck. I closed my eyes, telling myself it was just my imagination.
“Will.”
“Yeah?”
“What are you doing?”
“Does it bother you?” he whispered, grazing my nose with the tip of his. Did it bother me? No, but maybe I didn’t feel like it.
“We’re not together anymore,” I remarked, coming closer to his face while the music seemed to be vibrating even more in my ears.
He nodded. The music was deafening, but I could hear him.
“I know, June.”
“I just want us to stay friends,” I repeated slowly.
“Me too.”
He does too? Will wants us to just be friends? So then why does he keep staring at me like that?
“Is this what friends do?” I provoked him with a playful smile that disappeared when Will shot James a serious look behind me.
“Well . . .”
A warm little puff on my jaw forced me to crane my neck.
“It’s just that I don’t know if I can—”
And then James’s warm breath near my face. My stomach tensed up. I felt him lick his lips, grazing against my sensitive earlobe with the tip of his tongue.
My head was spinning.
“Right now, you can do whatever you want, Snow White.”
James’s whisper was so intense that I started to think I was dreaming.
In one of those dreams where all of my senses were overtaken by extremely pleasurable sensations, where there was only the good part of him, no teasing me around his friends, no venomous shots at me.
He moved my hair to find the most sensitive part of my neck with his lips.
He wasn’t kissing me, he was just teasing me, maybe promising something, softly rubbing the tip of his soft lips on my throbbing skin.
I gave in to the heavenly feeling for a moment, but when I opened my eyes again, I was brought back to reality.
Will was still in front of me and kept staring at me. I couldn’t let loose.
The low lights violently shattered in my eyes. No. They’re two tempting devils. I wouldn’t give in to temptation.
I had to remove myself from the situation as soon as possible.
I told James I wasn’t drunk, that I’d only had a couple of sips, and that was the truth. So why was I feeling so confused?
I blinked a few times, but the gesture didn’t help me find clarity.
When I opened my eyes again, everything was still there. My body squeezed against theirs, the thundering music. My inability to think.
I felt the warmth of the blood boiling in my veins, and without even realizing it, I was moving between their bodies.
It was a weird sensation that took me by surprise when I brought a hand behind me to freshen up my hair, but I ended up finding James’s cheek, then his hair.
I sank my fingers into his soft locks, barely yanking them, and he moaned in pleasure from the bottom of his throat.
No, June.
I looked in front of me again, where Will got closer and closer. I’ve got to get out of here. I’ll count to three and then leave. Now.
One.
James rubbed the tip of his perfect nose against my throat then rounded his mouth into a satisfied smile, sending a wave of chills down to my lower stomach.
Two.
Will brought his lips next to mine; I could taste the sweet flavor through his warm breath.
Three.
I felt James’s hands grab my hips and bring them to him, making my butt slam against his pants.
William ran his fingers through my hair and barely parted his lips. He was about to kiss me. This couldn’t be happening.
I was the good girl who didn’t party, who stayed away from trouble and stayed out of the way in class and didn’t make herself noticeable. They were James Hunter and William Cooper.
The most two most popular guys in school shouldn’t want me. But they were both here.
And I had to get out. Now.