Chapter 41 #2
“We gotta go before my mom drags us with her to her blindfolded painting class.”
Tiffany headed out of my room, but stopped at doorway like she’d just remembered something.
“June, wait, something’s missing.” Oh no.
“Did you bring your swimsuit?”
“No,” I retorted tersely.
“No, in the sense that you don’t use it?”
I felt my cheeks burn with embarrassment.
“No, what are you talking about! I don’t feel like swimming.”
She looked bewildered.
“At night,” I added, hoping that would justify my attitude.
“Okay, suit yourself.”
>> <<
Connell’s house was already full of people.
Maybe it was just me, maybe I was paranoid, but when Tiffany and I walked through the doorway, I felt all eyes on us.
It was definitely normal for a girl as popular and beautiful as her, who was used to getting all the attention, but not me.
Everyone thought of me as a tomboy who wore extra-large T-shirts and Daisy Duke shorts.
And obviously, if Tiffany knew everyone there, I felt awkward in the middle of all these people I’d never seen.
Tiffany started talking with a group of people while I looked around, until my gaze fell on William through the glass windows leading to the backyard.
He was sitting alone in a corner with his head bowed.
I couldn’t decipher his expression, but his posture was more than enough to pique my curiosity.
“I’m going out for a second,” I whispered to Tiffany.
“Will.”
“Hey,” I heard him mumble without looking up.
I saw his wheat-colored hair sparkle while his white T-shirt shone in the darkness, giving him the look of an angel trapped in a dark corner of heaven. He was holding a beer bottle between his hands.
“Why are you all alone?” I pointed at a group of noisy guys, among whom I recognized Jackson’s blond head immediately.
“The usual. Pool parties. I should’ve stayed home,” he complained.
“Are you okay?”
He nodded without looking at me.
“Will, did something happen?”
My tone of voice suddenly got gloomy, and he only seemed to notice me in that moment. He looked up focusing his empty eyes on mine.
“No. What happened is that I’m a piece of shit.”
I felt my forehead wrinkle. “What do you mean?”
And suddenly, I freaked out. The thought of that something happening between him and James made my stomach turn.
“Forget it.”
I saw him vaping nervously, taking too little of a break between one hit and the next.
“No, come on, I wanna know now,” I tried to convince him, sitting down next to him on the wall.
“I’m sorry for being an asshole to the wrong girl.”
I let out a small sigh of relief. Was it just that?
“I shouldn’t have treated you like that, June,” he explained, his fingers stroking his lower lip.
Maybe he’d talked with James?
“I started by chasing you out of my house in front of everyone without giving you any explanation.”
“That’s water under the bridge.” I rushed to downplay what had happened.
“Then I left you during the races, putting you in danger. I used you as bait with the Austins . . .”
“Yeah, but I wanted help you. I’m responsible for my own actions, Will.”
“I shouldn’t have made out with Ari and other stuff you don’t know about.”
Will had certainly been busy ruining what could’ve been between us, but then I wasn’t sure it would’ve gone full steam ahead even if Will behaved perfectly toward me. After all, I hadn’t been completely honest with him. I hid the phone call from him and the photos I exchanged with James.
I decided not to beat around the bush anymore.
“It’s a kind of bet, isn’t it? Between you and James.”
William turned his head to me, astounded by the fact that I’d figured it out.
“More or less.”
His confession prevented me from swallowing.
“Sorry,” he added next, confirming my worst fears. I knew it. I knew I couldn’t trust James.
“But there’s one thing I never lied about, June.”
He put the vape pen away and then turned around to look at me.
“What did you not lie about, Will? About the fact that you liked me but that I’m playing second fiddle because I’m not Ari?”
My bluntness fully hit him, but his sad expression didn’t seem to change.
His reactions didn’t seem to depend on where our conversation was going or what was going on around him.
It was like a comforting word or a negative comment couldn’t change his mood.
It was like nothing outside of him could change his mind, maybe because of the illness he hid inside of him.
“You don’t have to apologize anymore, Will. It’s okay this way. It seems like we’re better off friends, but if you have to bring me into your little games, I can’t do that. I won’t put up with it.”
“Nobody would’ve forced you to do anything.”
I stayed quiet. Meanwhile William smirked at me.
“Besides, you kissed me back,” he remarked, reminding me of that unforgivable mistake. I felt a familiar tingling in my inner thigh.
“Yeah, and I was wrong,” I admitted without batting an eye. “But now it doesn’t make sense to have second thoughts. Just quit drinking,” I implored him.
I held out my hand waiting for him to give me the bottle, but he didn’t. His pearl-like eyes made me inexplicably upset. I didn’t want Will to not be okay. And no matter how much he insisted on saying everything was fine, I saw that something wasn’t right.
“Will, I’m here,” I hinted faintly.
He seemed to be focused on some undetermined thing in front of him, because he kept staring at it. And instead of answering me, he let out a huff.
“I saw the teddy bear, the one James won at the amusement park, on your bed.”
And right as I was focused on racking my brains for a valid reason for what James had done for me, I heard footsteps draw nearer in the dark. It was Tiffany.
“Hey.”
I saw her say hi to Will, with her hands hidden in her leather jacket.
“Hey, Tiff.”
“What are you doing?”
“I’m talking, and June’s feigning interest.”
William’s answer pierced my heart. I stood up and looked apprehensively at the bottle that he kept drinking from. I didn’t know what kind of liquor it was, but Will seemed trashed enough.
“How are you?” asked Tiffany.
“Good.”
In the dark, I trembled at hearing the unnerving tone that William had answered that question with. There was nothing good about that good.
Tiffany took my hand and put it in her jacket pocket, squeezing it. I couldn’t help but notice a bit of possessiveness in that gesture.
“So it’s true,” whispered William, taking another sip.
“What?” frowned Tiff.
“That you’re together.”
“No . . . no,” I rushed to say. My mouth spoke before I could think about the implications of that answer.
“All right, I’m getting something to drink,” he slurred, shaking the now-empty bottle.
“Will, you’ve had a lot to drink.” I tried to stop him, but he didn’t seem to want to listen to me.
“Thank you. For us, too, huh,” yelled Tiffany, before he walked away. Tiffany wasn’t the queen of tact and diplomacy, but I wouldn’t have expected such coldness toward William.
“What is it, June?”
I shrugged it off. “I don’t like seeing him like this.”
“Do you know what got into him?” she asked.
I shook my head.
“You know, June, I stopped for a while before coming here. I watched you two from a distance.”
“What do you mean?”
“From the outside, you look great together. I thought so even when I saw you at school. But then when I look at you in the eye, it isn’t what you want.”
My attention drifted to Tiffany’s lips, then to William going back into the house.
I didn’t even know what I want. That was the problem.
“I’d just like him to not feel like this because of me.” I was confused. A lethal mess lodged itself in my head, and it manifested all around us when James walked into the backyard with other guys.
And if it wasn’t for their noise, I wouldn’t’ve even noticed them. Gray spots, dull colors. James was the only color that stood out. Maybe it was his tousled hair, his permanently red lips, or his six-two height.
He was only wearing a pair of tracksuit pants.
He was shirtless, chewing gum, and holding a baseball bat on his shoulder.
He looked at Tiffany, then his magnetic mouth curved into a cocky smirk even before he looked at me.
I couldn’t stand the way he looked at me.
Maybe that was why I always attacked him before he attacked me; it was a form of self-defense.
“Are you guys gonna break windows to steal clothes since you always need them?”
“Break windows? You’re always violent, White. Listen, I have the balls and the bat.”
Judging by how quickly he responded to my joke, I got the vibe that he’d expected my jab at him.
“Gross, Hunter.”
“In the sense that we hit twice. I’m talking about baseball. Naughty girls—” he hinted, pointing at the small white ball the guy next to him was holding.
“Yeah, sure, we—” Tiffany answered, giving him a look. She was ordering him to piss off, but he didn’t look like he was going to move.
He lifted a corner of his mouth and sized me up from head to toe. His jaw clenched every time that he pressed the gum between his teeth while his midnight-blue eyes were glued to me.
“Jamie! We’re right here!”
That was enough to distract him.
I recognized Sammy’s voice. She was at the edge of the pool surrounded by an indefinite number of girls who looked like they’d just walked out of a modeling agency.
I didn’t envy their perfect physiques, but when James walked over to them and my gaze reveled in his toned and muscular back, I realized how useless everything was. That was his place. What had gotten into my head?
“It’s not what they look like. It’s just their attitude.”
Tiffany, with her velvety voice, pulled me out of my agony and brought me back down to earth.
“What do you mean?”