Chapter 13
June
“Fuck!”
His rabid bitching and moaning didn’t faze me in the least. James held his nose with the palm of his hand. I don’t know what happened next because I turned around and walked the other way.
“June, what are you doing? Are you crazy?” William exclaimed incredulously. “And you, James, you’re unbelievable!”
“She just punched me! Are you fucking blind, Will? In fact, you’re probably pissed since you’re running after a lunatic!”
They exchanged a few more words, but the only thing I could hear was James’s voice, albeit distant.
I didn’t know where I was going, but I wanted to get as far away from that creature as possible.
“Let me take you home, June.” William jogged behind me as James limped behind him. “June, I’m serious. You might not know this, but there are a lot of sketchy people here.” We locked eyes, and that was enough to slowly cool the rage inside me.
I loosened my fists at my sides and, looking around, caught a glimpse of faces that were anything but friendly.
“Okay,” I conceded.
I was crestfallen. What a terrible way to end our date. I kept my mouth shut as I hid in the back seat of the Mustang.
“I’m driving,” that criminal declared, without even bothering to thank his friend.
“Are you sure?”
“It’s my fucking car, isn’t it?”
“Your dad’s not gonna kill you if you get home in this state?”
“I don’t give a shit about what my dad says to me.” His tone was so cutting that it gave me goose bumps.
“Wow, you’re such a rebellious bad boy.”
I bit my tongue as Hunter turned to glower at me from the driver’s seat.
I looked at his split-open lip and eyebrow that was still bleeding. I should’ve told him he didn’t scare anyone.
I looked away.
“Shut your mouth, White, or I’ll drop you off in the middle of nowhere. Not even the wild animals will be able to put up with you,” he said as he turned on the ignition.
“Yeah, right.”
“Do you want to find out?” he threatened.
“James is joking. June, where do you live?” William said in an attempt to diffuse the tension. I heard James groan in frustration after I gave them my address.
“Great. Right near me. Your house is on the way, Will. What should I do? Go back and forth?”
“No, drop me off first.”
We stopped in front of a town house not too far from school. William hesitated before getting out. “Wait here for a minute. You owe me, James.”
James turned on the vape pen before shooting us a series of dirty looks. “Get a move on.”
“June, can I please talk to you for second?”
I sensed some discomfort in Will’s voice, but his politeness was a stark contrast to the intense chain of events that had just taken place.
I got out of the car and followed him to the front door. His embarrassment was palpable.
“I know, it’s been a disaster,” he apologized, tensing his shoulders.
“The first part wasn’t,” I answered.
“Did you have fun too?” I saw a faint glimmer in his eyes.
“Yeah.”
“I swear there’ll still be a way to . . . I still want to see you, June.”
His fingers brushed my cheek.
“Are you done saying goodbye or are you gonna spend all night whispering sweet nothings into each other’s ears?” James’s sullen voice fractured the moment.
“I better go before my parents wake up. See you tomorrow, June,” Will whispered under his breath, then tilted his head, craning his neck toward me. I remained frozen, paralyzed by my anxiety. Should I have kissed him?
William decided for both of us and kissed me on the cheek. Then he walked up the stairs to the porch.
“Are you gonna start moving your ass, or do you want to walk home?”
I braced myself for a nasty joke about the chaste kiss that Will and I had shared, but James didn’t say anything. It looked like William wasn’t the object of his contempt. That was reserved just for me.
“It wouldn’t be a bad idea,” I snapped angrily, sitting in the passenger seat.
James stared at me, and I felt a chill that was anything but reassuring. Why the hell had getting in the car with him alone at night even crossed my mind? I had punched him. And now, here I was.
“Look, White, it’s been a long night. I have a lot to think about, and you’re the last thing on my mind,” he said as he turned on the ignition.
“The feeling’s mutual.”
“But you’re gonna pay for it,” he finished.
His words distracted me from his reckless driving. “What?”
“When you least expect it. It’s more fun that way, isn’t it?” he sneered.
“Let me make this clear, Hunter: You’re unbearable.”
“Do you want to know why you have the guts to say something like that to my face?” he asked, putting a vape pen between his front teeth.
“Maybe because I’m not afraid of you?”
“Wrong, princess. It’s because I’m drunk.”
“Oh my god! How . . . why are you driving?” He couldn’t put us in danger like that.
“If I was sober you wouldn’t be talking this much.”
“Right. If you were sober, who knows what kind of shit you’d be giving me,” I snapped, irritated.
“You punched me, but I’m taking you home, and you have the nerve to talk to me like that?”
I furtively glanced at his perfect profile.
James’s nose was long and straight. It didn’t seem to get punched often. The tip curved slightly upward, giving him an enviable profile.
He blew a raspberry. “I can see you.” His lips wrapped around the mouthpiece of the vape pen. I decided to not take the bait and turned to the window.
“You should at least go to the ER.”
“Do you think this is the first time I’ve gotten in a fight? And no, I’m not talking about how you tapped me.” He chuckled.
Who could talk about violence so casually?
“And do you think you’re talking to a moron who’s impressed by your bad-boy act?”
“No, I just think I’m talking to a moron. That’s all.”
James slowed down by my house and got out to throw the empty vape cartridge in a trash can.
“Do you really care about the environment, or do you just want to go to bed with a clear conscience?” I asked, eyeing him from the open car door.
The white T-shirt covering his abdomen was stained with blood and torn in some places.
James smiled, then licked his lower lip with the tip of his tongue. He did that a lot. And it bugged me a lot. Maybe it was because I felt something crawl under my skin every time I looked at his mouth.
He got into the car again and pulled a new vape pen out of his tracksuit pocket.
“I don’t like you. You talk too much,” he said unperturbed, before putting the vape back in his mouth.
“So do you. And the feeling’s mutual.”
“Just ask your friends, I’m usually a man of few words.”
James was provoking me. I was sure that neither Ari nor Poppy would ever have the nerve to be with someone like him. And Amelia? I got lost in my thoughts and didn’t notice that he was glowering at me.
“Do you wanna get out or are we gonna keep making googly eyes at each other, White?”
I asked myself how he wasn’t in excruciating pain after getting beaten up like that.
“Do you usually go to bed like this?” I asked.
I saw him play with the power button on the vape pen. He turned it on and off, then shot me a threatening look.
“Get the hell out, princess. I’m saying this for your own good.”