Chapter 5
June
“Agh!” I yelled as the boiling coffee hit my tongue. Stupid Starbucks.
“Don’t burn yourself,” my mom scolded, as we were on the way to my second day of school.
A second later, she slammed on the brakes in front of school.
“Jeez, Mom, was that on purpose?”
Focusing all my energy on keeping the paper cup perfectly balanced, I said bye to my mom, got out of the car, and fixed my skirt. Then I put a smile on and headed toward the entrance.
“So, we don’t have any classes together, huh?” Blaze’s soothing, musical voice asked.
“Hey, Blaze.”
“If I’d given you my sweater, I’d have a better excuse to talk to you right now,” he mumbled bashfully, walking next to me.
I absentmindedly glanced at him as we went through the door. Blaze didn’t have the toned physique that Brian or the other football players had, but he was cute.
“But you didn’t,” I replied playfully.
“It’s all Brian’s fault,” he blurted, patting his friend on the back as we turned the corner into the hallway.
Brian and Amelia always looked perfect, even first thing in the morning. No bags under their eyes, no flyaway hairs, no wrinkles in their clothes. It looked like Brian was prepared to act like nothing had happened.
We had different first-hour classes that day, so I headed to my locker as I cautiously held my coffee.
I tried to take a sip, but the coffee almost burned my lips.
It was still too hot. I got to my locker and gazed at the metal door next to mine.
I couldn’t help but think of William as I set the cup down to open my locker.
I grabbed my math book, shoved it under my arm, closed the locker, scooped up my cup, and turned around.
The cup went flying out of my hands, splattering boiling coffee everywhere.
“God damn it! What the fuck!”
Reluctantly, I lifted my gaze to meet a pair of eyes burning with rage. I began to tremble as I realized that I’d bumped into James Hunter and spilled hot coffee all over him.
“Sorry! Sorry!” I frantically apologized, hoping that my voice conveyed my good intentions loud and clear.
He looked down to inspect the disaster. The coffee was everywhere on his shirt, and even more of it had spilled on his pants. “Stupid fucking child, you did that on purpose, didn’t you?” he growled in a gravelly voice that sounded like he’d just woken up.
“What? No! I turned around, and you were behind me.”
“Me . . . behind you? Tell me, what the fuck would I be doing behind someone like you?”
His words had a vaguely threatening tone, and I sensed a strange heat flood my cheeks.
“No, I meant—”
“Are you saying it’s my fault that your tiny clumsy butterfingers don’t know how to hold on to a cup?”
“Please calm down,” I muttered as I backed away from him.
“Don’t tell me what to do.”
I saw him look over his soaking-wet shirt and pants. I couldn’t help but smirk. Served him right.
“Are you laughing at me, White?” he shouted, making me jump.
A thunderous thud rang through the hallway as James grabbed me and shoved me against the locker.
“I’ll give you something to laugh about, Snow White,” he growled as he squeezed me tightly. The soft, timid cry that escaped my lips seemed to be enough to get him to stop. I tried and failed to wriggle out of his grasp. His chest felt rock-hard under my hands.
“Since you want to touch me so much, come with me.”
My eyes widened. “Forget it, James.”
“James?” he demanded as he raised his eyebrow. “Who the fuck do you think you are? It’s Hunter to you.” He roughly grabbed my forearm. “Move your ass.”
“I don’t know what you’re used to, but I wouldn’t come with you if you paid me a million dollars,” I shot back, pushing a lock of hair behind my ear.
His features contorted, and he went from shooting me an icy glare to sneering smugly.
“A million dollars.” He burst out in childish laughter. I noticed two tiny dimples emerge at the sides of his mouth, making him look strangely boyish. “I don’t pay to sleep with anyone. Are you just getting into the world’s oldest profession, Snow White?”
“I told you it was an—”
James stopped listening to me and dragged me through the hall.
“Let me go!” I screamed as loudly as I could.
He ignored me, only stopping briefly at his locker to grab his workout clothes with his free hand.
“Cry all you want. You’re still coming with me.”
My whole short life flashed before my eyes. Was I really going to die before I could confess to my mom that I was the one who’d finished the whole bag of Doritos?
“Where . . . no, no!” To my horror, I realized where this meathead was taking me—the men’s bathroom.
“Oh yeah,” he sneered, slamming the door behind us.
“Hunter, what the hell are you . . .”
My voice got stuck in my throat as I watched him unbutton his shirt. He stared at me, stone-faced, and I started to feel weird. I’d never seen a naked man in my life, and I certainly wasn’t planning on having the school bully be the first one I saw. Suddenly, I turned around.
“What, is Snow White too much of a prude to check out a pair of abs, or is she afraid of falling in love at first sight?”
“Not even if you were the last guy on earth, Hunter.” He was even more of an asshole than Brian and Amelia had told me. It would’ve been a good idea to turn around and leave, but my instinct to clap back got the best of me.
“I saw you, and you make me sick,” I blurted in a surge of bravery. A cold grip tightened around my wrist before forcing me to turn around.
“You didn’t see anything, princess.”
Once again, I found myself at the mercy of his icy stare, but this time I couldn’t look away.
“You really haven’t seen anything.”
“Let me go,” I pleaded, paralyzed by the sensation of feeling like cornered prey. I already felt like that every time he was around me. I looked down and noticed his shirt rolled into a ball in a corner. I took a deep breath and was immediately overwhelmed by the scent of his cologne.
“I don’t bite, White,” he said laconically as he focused on unbuttoning his pants. I saw him bite his lower lip. A corner of his lips turned upward in a lopsided smirk.
This was too much. I’d kick him and run out.
I closed my eyes, and just as I lifted my leg, he jeered at me. “What the fuck is your problem? Take this, you dumbass.”
I opened my eyes. There was James Hunter towering over me in his boxers.
I looked to my right, then my left, trying to avoid catching a glimpse of his tanned physique, but he waved his dirty clothes in front of me. Now I understood. Nervously, I grabbed the crumpled pile of clothes.
“Wash it and bring it back to me, princess.”
“You could . . .”
James Hunter grabbed me by the sides again. He pushed me toward the shower so easily that for a second, it felt like an out-of-body experience, as if I was as light as a feather.
“No! No! No!” I shouted.
“Wanna take a cold shower, Snow White?”
This guy was completely crazy! How did I get myself into this mess?
“Okay, okay. I’ll wash them and give them back to you.”
Reluctantly, he grabbed the workout clothes that he’d taken from his locker and glared at me one last time.
“And don’t come anywhere near me again,” he threatened.
Never again would I get Starbucks. Never again.