Chapter 30 #2
My attention lingered behind me, where James was putting the joint out in a half-empty beer bottle on the windowsill.
I wondered how he could be so absentmindedly perfect first thing in the morning.
How was it possible to look that good without any effort?
Why did he also have tousled hair, red eyes, and even a slight hint of bags and yet still end up so . . .
“Do you want a drawing, a photo, a blowup picture?”
“Enough,” I retorted, pretending to not have been just caught staring at him.
The morning had started off badly, and if that wasn’t enough, now I’d have to encounter his dad wearing a man’s T-shirt.
Way too embarrassing.
“I’m not coming,” I insisted obstinately.
“Suit yourself, if you wanna starve to death.”
Starve to death? You really got the story wrong.
“Do you have anything I could wear? Or put under my shirt?” I asked. James shot a look in the mirror and flexed his abs. I looked away when I saw him put on a tight-fitting tank top that hugged every single muscle of his abs.
“I only have workout shorts. They’ll be big on you,” he groaned, inspecting his own reflection impatiently.
Then, to my surprise, he took off the tank top he’d just put on and wore another. “It’s always better than going downstairs in your underwear,” I murmured when I saw him opt for a large tank top that didn’t suit him at all from the basket.
“Try these.”
He threw me some shorts that I quickly grabbed before locking myself in the bathroom.
I washed my face then lingered to stare at the girl in the mirror.
Just resist a little longer, June.
“Thank you for yesterday,” I said, after washing up and getting changed.
James stuck his lower lip out. “For what?”
“I don’t know—I wasn’t sober and you didn’t take advantage of me.”
“What does it say about the fucking society we live in if you have to thank me for something like that?”
He looked at me, and I was at a loss for words.
“Well, it wasn’t assumed.”
“Um, I don’t know . . .”
I saw him giggle; he was about to say one of his things.
“And besides if I was in my space, you definitely weren’t in yours. You took up half the bed with your ass, White.”
“Yeah, unfortunately you know my ass by memory because you keep x-raying it, idiot.”
“Walk, you moron,” he grumbled, pushing me out of his room. I motioned for him to go downstairs first.
“Please, go.”
“Like you wouldn’t stare at my ass,” he taunted me with a smirk.
“Unlike you, I know how to be discreet.”
“Shut up.”
Our banter was interrupted as soon as we set foot downstairs. Now the nightmare started.
“June, June, June!” It sounded like a chant.
“Is that your girlfriend?”
James burst out laughing. “Who? Her?”
I rolled my eyes.
“Does someone like that look like my girlfriend to you?” he demanded, pointing at me.
“She has a stupid name and look at how her hair is,” said one of the girls.
“And she’s dressed in boy’s clothes,” added the other.
I would’ve wanted to flip them the bird so much, but that wouldn’t’ve been a good idea given how their parents would certainly be around.
“James, you’re too good looking for someone who has a bunch of cemetery flowers for hair.”
Listen to the mouths on these two evil little brats.
“I see we understand each other,” chuckled James, the only one amused at all.
I saw him give the girls high fives as I adjusted my bun.
Suddenly, one of them motioned for James to crouch down to their height to whisper as secret in his ear.
The whisper accompanied by childish giggles bothered me, but whatever the girl said to him made James shoot a brazen look along my whole body.
He lingered on my breasts without shame.
“Yeah, you’re right. They really are big,” I heard him whisper convincingly.
“Cut it out!” I screamed, crossing my arms to cover my chest. I wasn’t going to be bullied by two little kids and a total moron.
I decided to go up to Jasper, who was sitting alone at the dining room table. He smiled at me and passed me the orange juice.
“Hello, June.”
I jumped on my seat when I heard Jordan’s voice slice the air.
I adjusted myself, pretending not to be there at nine o’clock in the morning on a Sunday wearing his son’s clothes. I needed to take a damn shower. That was the first thing that crossed my mind.
“I thought I’d see you this afternoon.” He thought he’d see me this afternoon?
I turned quizzically toward the man and looked at his tall, solid figure.
He was always elegant. Jordan sat at the set table and continued to smile politely.
His square jaw was so perfect that it seemed like it was a drawing under a light veil of blond beard.
Suddenly, I realized that I was being weird staring at James Hunter’s dad.
June, cut it out.
“Where?” I asked hiding behind a glass of juice.
“Your mom and I organized an exhibit at your house.”
“Ah.”
“You didn’t know?”
“I haven’t talked with my mom in a bit.”
And even though you look like a Greek god, it’s your fault. “What exhibition?” I feigned interest.
“It’s for charity, there will be a few people there.”
I heard giggles—James and the girls were making faces at Jordan, who glared at them.
“And guess what? My son is coming too.” The exuberant giggles stopped immediately.
“No, your son is going out and won’t be there,” retorted James, sitting down at the table. Jordan seemed confused, while Jasper stifled a snicker.
“You’re always the same.”
“Do I seem like someone always saying bullshit, Jordan?”
James’s tone was provocative, so much so that his dad was aggravated. I sensed it from how he furrowed his brow.
“James, please, not in front of the girls. And try to show up wearing something decent at the event.”
“Are boxers and knee-highs okay? Or are you saying your MILF friends will start stuffing my underwear with dollar bills?”
The girls burst out laughing, James smirked goofily.
“Don’t be like this in front of your brother!” thundered an irritated Jordan.
“I didn’t swear.”
“Ah, no?”
“Well, to be honest, MILF is an acronym, not a curse word,” I clarified. My observation got a disapproving look from Jordan.
“What’s a mill?” intervened one of the girls, running toward us.
“June’s mill!” burst out the other.
I swore now I was going to get up and hang them on the wall by their pigtails.
“Your mom,” retorted James laughing, while Jordan snorted, at the limit of his patience.
“Girls, go play in the living room. Your mom’s gonna pick you up soon.” The blond heads trotted toward the couch and stuck their tongues out at me on the way.
“It’s all really great,” I said, trying to show a semblance of manners when I was actually stuffing my face with waffles and muffins like there was no tomorrow. Meanwhile, James was scrolling on his phone, sprawled out on a chair.
What else could he be doing other than texting one of his friends? The guy woke up every morning spoiled for choice given the hundreds of girls who trailed behind him.
Not to mention how the competition doubled if the guys counted too.
I didn’t know why, but that stupid thought made me really sad. I ended up eating without talking until James broke the silence.
“Now that I think about it, it’ll be fun.”
“You like spewing so much bullshit, James,” I spat bluntly.
Jordan glared at me immediately. He didn’t seem to appreciate vulgar language.
“I heard William Cooper’s parents are back in town.” He changed the subject, piquing my curiosity.
“Will he be there too?” I asked, coughing because the juice just went down the wrong way.
“I don’t know, I think so.” Great, it’ll be embarrassing.
I was capable of diffusing any situation with James, maybe thanks to his sarcastic ways. In some ways we always managed to banter. But it wouldn’t be that easy with Will.
“Where are you going?” Jordan called to James when he stood up after chugging a glass of milk.
“Here you were so hungry and now you aren’t eating anything,” I muttered.
“Why don’t you eat this, White?”
James flipped me the bird, causing Jordan to fly into a rage for the umpteenth time.
“Where are you going? Remember practice,” he reprimanded his son.
I saw James run his fingers through his uncombed hair before it fell on his forehead again.
“It’s Sunday,” he muttered. “I don’t have practice.”
“Yeah, you do, the coach upped the sessions to prep for the game next week.”
James stared at his dad absentmindedly.
“Ah, and I saw Taylor’s mom this morning at the car wash. She asked what color your suit would be for the winter formal. She still hasn’t bought the fabric for her daughter’s dress. I don’t know, she said that you’d be color coordinated or something like that.”
Jordan’s words hit me like a slap in the face.
A cold shower that woke me up from the lethargy that I’d been lulled into for a little too long.
I jumped for a moment, and then remembered who James was.
I remembered that he had a life that was completely different from mine.
Sure, there was the James I knew, but there was also the James I saw every day at school.
Unattainable.
Girls, sports, prohibited entertainment. I’d forgotten the distance separating us. Was I really that na?ve? Was the fact that he hugged me in his sleep all it took?
James clicked his tongue before letting out an irritated sigh.
“I don’t even know if I’m even gonna be here in two months, and that pain in the ass wants to know what I’ll be wearing in a few months?”
A dark shadow crossed over James’s face the second before we turned around to leave.
Something must’ve made his mood change. But then again, what could I know about that?
I didn’t know anything about James, I only knew that there was the good part in him that attracted me.
His loyalty, almost brutal honesty, and the protectiveness with which he treated his friends, brother, and sometimes even me.
James was smart and knew how to make me laugh when he wanted to.
But he also had a dark side that pushed him away—from me and all the others.
“I’ll give you a ride home. I’m about to run errands.” Jordan chased away my thoughts with that offer.
“Thank you so much. I’ll get ready.”
“Take your time. I’ll finish my coffee and then we’ll go.”
I thanked Jordan and went upstairs. James’s bedroom door was open, so I went in and immediately regretted it.
“Take your stupid clothes,” he spat, throwing the backpack at me.
“Where were they?”
But James wasn’t listening. If he’d seemed cheerful before, he seemed in the worst mood now. I saw him lock himself in his bathroom without saying a word; I just heard the roar of the water coming from the shower.
His change reminded me of William.
It was shaping up to be an intense afternoon, but my mom’s threatening phone calls and texts suggested that going home would spell certain disaster.