Chapter 6 #2
Blaze made me smile. I barely knew him, but he seemed trustworthy. I didn’t see any malice or cruelty in his face.
We danced, or, more specifically, we embarrassed ourselves without caring about anyone or anything.
I was getting hot, so I took off my sweatshirt, not caring about only wearing my skintight top.
“You want to know the truth? I hate being in the middle of all these people,” said Blaze, as I tied my sweatshirt around my waist.
“Your dancing skills say otherwise,” I teased.
“Do you want to know why? They’re all drunk. What better way to use my social skills and come out of my shell than when nobody will remember how much I made an ass out of myself?”
“Is that your MO, Blaze?”
“Well, introverts would never admit it, but they often get drunk just to get some self-confidence. I don’t like drinking; I prefer when others do it. It’s more fun to listen to the silly stuff they tell you when they’re completely gone.”
I was making an effort to do a particularly embarrassing dance move when I recognized Will’s face in the crowd. I rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. I wasn’t. He was watching me.
I lifted the corner of my mouth into a hint of a smile that William reciprocated right away.
“All right, I’m gonna get a Coke,” announced Blaze when he noticed us gazing at each other.
I felt bad as I watched him walk away, hoping that I hadn’t let him down. My thoughts were just starting to spiral when I realized that William was walking toward me.
Stay calm, stay calm, stay calm.
“Hey, June.”
Oh god. My common sense went out the window immediately.
“Hey, William.”
I put my hands behind my back to hide my nervousness.
“Are you here with Blaze?”
My eyes widened. I hadn’t been expecting such a direct question.
“What? No! I mean, we’re here as friends,” I stuttered.
William barely curved his lips, then touched a lock of his hair to diffuse the awkwardness.
Stay calm, June, I told myself as I gazed at him.
It was impossible. It was statistically impossible that a guy like William Cooper could like me.
He was just too hot to be real. He’d never want to waste his time with a girl like me.
I’d never thought I was pretty enough, but one day Fiona Burton, the most popular girl at the high school in Seattle, told me, You know, June, you would be pretty, but when guys look at you, they see you as a friend.
I’d asked her what had prompted her to tell me this, and she’d continued, They don’t care about your pretty baby face.
They only see your baggy clothes, your makeup-free face, and how unladylike you act.
They want a girlie girl, not one of the guys.
As superficial as Fiona was, I listened to her partly because I had a crush on her, and partly because she was right; no guy had ever paid attention to me.
But at this very moment in this unfamiliar beach house on the coast of Crescent Bay, William was paying attention. He looked at me, and I didn’t know what to say.
“Um, I . . .”
“I’ll give you a choice, June,” he said, still smiling. He moved closer to me, and I let myself be swept away by his fresh-laundry scent. “Do you prefer to talk or dance?”
“Talk,” I responded immediately.
“I’d prefer to talk too. Let’s go outside.”
Surprised, I followed him to the front door. William opened it and motioned for me to go through.
The beach was teeming with people, but a lot of them were leaving.
He leaned against the wall. “How on earth did you end up here?” he asked.
“My mom’s an artist. We moved here for her work. As luck would have it, she had business here in Los Angeles.”
I caught a spark of interest in his expression.
“Are you staying for long?”
“Who knows?”
I rubbed my arms to warm myself up. William straightened and inched close to my face.
“You know, I like it,” he said before fixing his blond hair.
“What do you like?”
The gray of his eyes was deep and unreadable, like a painting you can’t stop staring at even if you’re not sure what it means. I pushed my hair behind my ear nervously.
“I like that you’re here at the same school as me, June White. I’ll see you every day, but every day could also be the last.”
William was getting so close to me that it was hard to hold his gaze.
“Romantic, isn’t it? Carpe diem, right?” I added with a smile.
Tell me I didn’t say that out loud.
Instead of teasing me, William nodded. Our breath almost touched when I heard him whisper, “Where did you come from, June White?”
The same place you did, but luckily, we have different moms.
I didn’t say that part out loud. Fiona Burton’s words echoed in my head. Remember, June. Guys don’t want to hear everything that comes into your head. You’re too impulsive.
I parted my now-dry lips, and William stared at them for a few moments. My heart started racing. It looked like . . . he wanted to kiss me? With my heart going crazy, I moistened my lips, and he did the same. I closed my eyes.
“Will!”
Unfortunately, I recognized that call. James Hunter’s arrogant, meathead voice was unforgettable.
“What the hell are you doing?”
His aggression made my stomach turn.
“I told you to go get the vape, not to rail Snow White against a wall.”
He took two steps in our direction, looking at me disdainfully.
“Nobody’s railing anybody. Maybe you hit your head when you were little,” I retorted, struggling to maintain eye contact.
My response was enough to make James Hunter stop.
Everything about him irritated me, even the blinding-white T-shirt under his leather jacket.
“Come on, James, leave her alone,” William reproached him, not getting an answer back.
“Where the hell are my cartridges? I gave them to you.”
I saw William shake his head, and then he turned to me but spoke to Hunter. “I’ll go get them. I’ll be right back.”
“Huh, what?” I said, worried. “No, don’t leave me here with . . .”
William headed to the house, and I didn’t have enough time to move even an inch when James Hunter cornered me, trapping me between his arms.
“Look, princess, maybe this simple idea is too hard for you to understand.”
I couldn’t let him see me trembling.
“‘Stay away from me’ has a very clear meaning: Don’t get in the middle of shit. Not with me, not with any of my friends. William is one of them. Do you understand?”
I started hyperventilating. All James had to do was look down to see me panting.
His glance lasted half a second, but it was just enough time to make my top cling to my chest. An inexplicable warmth took hold of my stomach, and I prayed that he didn’t notice.
James pulled back and curled his fingers to turn the vape pen on.
“You’re nobody. You know that?” I said.
His usual arrogant expression faded as the corner of his mouth curled into a scornful smile. He inhaled the smoke without talking.
“You can’t tell anyone who they can and can’t go out with,” I insisted.
“Why do you think I care who you go out with? You could bang half the school, Snow White,” he whispered.
I felt a potent, electrical shiver. “So long as they’re not my friends,” he concluded, turning his head behind him as he exhaled a plume of smoke from his lips.
Then he brazenly leered at every inch of my body again.
The violent backflips in my stomach multiplied.
“Who the hell do you think you are to—”
A moment later, I felt the tip of his nose jab my cheek.
“What do you want from William?”
“Nothing. I didn’t want to . . . I wasn’t referring to—”
“Do you wanna fuck him?”
“I don’t wanna fuck—”
“Keep going. I want to hear you say it,” he whispered, his half-open mouth a quarter inch from mine.
I smelled the vape smoke on his breath. It wasn’t pungent, maybe because it was mixed with some sort of sweet flavoring.
His lips were cherry red, and his eyes were a dazzling blue. The colors that decorated his face played with my already intoxicated senses.
“I don’t want to fuck anyone.”
I swallowed. His full lips came so close to mine that the same thought crossed my mind again.
What was happening to me? Up until two days ago, nobody would look twice at me, and tonight, in the span of two minutes, two of the most popular guys in school seemed to want to kiss me?
I must be losing my mind. There was no other explanation.
Seeing him catch his lower lip on his front teeth made my stomach turn.
“What the hell are you doing?” I turned around suddenly. William.
His voice sounded muffled. Right at that moment, I realized that James’s eyes were wide open. His already dilated pupils expanded even more.
In that moment, I saw fear in James Hunter’s eyes. Was he scared of William? That was impossible; I must’ve been mistaken.
“Um, nothing. Snow White wanted to vape, and I obliged,” James remarked, shrugging.
I trembled as I felt the impact of his palm hit the wall behind me. I saw him rest his ring-clad hand to the right of my face, then, without even asking me, he shoved the vape between my lips.
“Breathe in,” he murmured mellifluously.
What the hell was going on? Why did James, who seemed to not be afraid of anything or anybody, feel this kind of overwhelming fear around William?
“Exhale now or you’ll suffocate.”
I expelled all the smoke, not caring if I blew it in his face. He didn’t seem bothered by it; instead, he languidly licked his lower lip and put the vape pen back in his mouth.
“Um.”
“Sorry, June.” William’s voice brought me back to reality.
I saw a look of fear flash in James’s eyes again as William came closer to us.
Something didn’t add up.
“Is he bothering you?” asked William, pushing his friend away.
“Yes, I mean, no.”
I was so shaken that I didn’t know how to respond.
“Here are those cartridges I owe you.”
William threw the cartridges at James’s leather jacket and motioned for him to leave. But James didn’t budge. Other guys came to keep him company.
William grinned at me innocently, showing his perfect teeth.
“You could say I have questionable taste in friends,” he said with a chuckle. He was probably joking, but I took it seriously.
James stayed there to vape with his friends, but every time I glanced in his direction, he was staring at me. I licked the corner of my mouth and tasted the strawberry flavor mingled with the bitterness of the smoke.
“You okay, June?”
William tilted his head, gazing at me attentively. He was probably trying to understand why I had such a dazed look on my face.
We had been just about to kiss before James interrupted. But I wouldn’t be kissing William now. The magic of that moment was already gone.
I still smelled James Hunter’s cologne on me, and his eyes pierced through me every time I caught him staring at me. All of a sudden, the situation started to get on my nerves, and I decided that it was time to head out.
“Will, I’m fine, but—”
He tried to pass me a cup of what appeared to be orange juice, but I turned it down.
“Maybe it’s better for me to go back to my friends.”
“I’m sorry. If that bothered you . . .”
“Not at all. See you at school,” I said before putting on my sweatshirt. I was about to go back into the house when I noticed James shoot me a shit-eating grin. He might have won that time, but I vowed that it would never happen again.