Chapter Two Taylor
Chapter Two
Taylor
I waited outside her math class to talk to her. I was still angry, but she’d gotten to school safely, so I had started to let it go. There was something else that mattered more, and that was making sure nothing happened to her in the future.
I didn’t care what she said or thought about Julian. I knew the truth: He was dangerous, and something inside me told me that his story was far from finished.
I leaned against the wall across from her classroom and saw the two of them come out together.
They looked tense. Ellie was starting to get on my nerves.
Why couldn’t she just mind her own business?
I got it—they were friends and she was just defending Kami.
But she didn’t have to be so hostile toward me.
Ellie’s smile turned to a defiant scowl as soon as she saw me.
I just looked at her blankly and turned to Kami.
One look at her and I felt like I could lose my mind in every sense imaginable.
Kami stopped and glanced back and forth between us.
Since she looked like she was struggling to decide, I stepped forward and said, “Can we talk?”
Kami hesitated, then nodded and told Ellie, “See you in history.”
Ellie nodded, giving me another nasty look, and walked toward her locker.
I wrapped an arm around Kami’s waist and pulled her toward me, resting my back against the wall as I buried my head in her neck and she did the same, melting into me as I inhaled her sweet fragrance.
I had been so scared when she’d told me not to pick her up this morning. My imagination had gotten the better of me. I’d pictured dozens of scary situations I still couldn’t manage to shake.
“Do me a favor, please,” I told her. “Don’t do that again.”
“I didn’t do anything, Taylor,” she said, and I could tell by how sharply she reacted that she was still angry at my brother and me for what we’d said.
“Is it really too much to ask that you not cross the entire town alone?” I asked.
What I wanted was to grab her by the shoulders and shake some sense into her.
“Julian is out there somewhere, and the police aren’t taking it seriously.
They think he’s just some emotional teenager, but I know he’s dangerous.
And he’s going to come back. This isn’t over, Kamila.
” I thought maybe calling her by her full name would help her see how serious I was.
I couldn’t understand why it was so hard for her to realize she was truly in danger.
The extent of that danger, I didn’t know, but I didn’t want to find out the hard way.
I couldn’t let anything bad happen to her.
Kami stepped away from me and crossed her arms. “I wasn’t alone, Ellie was with me.”
“Ellie doesn’t count, Kami. If Julian shows up, what could she do about it?”
“Ellie’s amazing, Taylor! How can you say that about her?
” Her sudden outburst caught me off guard, and I tried to explain myself, but she cut me off: “And by the way, I don’t like how you’re treating her.
It wouldn’t kill you to be nice once in a while.
She is my best friend, you know. That should be worth something. ”
“I care about you,” I said, trying to be as stern and serious as she was.
“I’m fine,” she said, stepping back. “You have nothing to worry about. What happened with Julian is over, and the only thing I want is to forget it, but it’s hard when you and your brother can’t stop reminding me of it every second of the day.”
I took a deep breath and tried to calm down.
If it was up to me, there would be a whole army following her around to make sure she was OK.
But that was impossible, and so it was up to my brother and me.
Obviously, I wasn’t thrilled about including Thiago because the farther he was from Kami, the better.
But I needed his help. In the end, there was no one I trusted more to keep her safe.
“We’re worried about you,” I said, hearing the urgency in my own voice.
Kami ran her hand down my cheek in a soft caress and delicately kissed me on the lips.
“I know,” she said, and her breath tickled my skin. “And I appreciate it. I really do, and I promise I’ll be careful, but please, relax a little.”
When she put it like that, I couldn’t say no, and I agreed, pulling her in for a real kiss.
Her body curved into mine, and I pressed my tongue into her mouth to taste her slowly.
I got hard almost instantly and remembered we’d still only done it once.
Every pore in my body was screaming to do it again, soon, and she knew it…
but she was avoiding it. My hands moved down to her ass, pressing my erection into her, but she wriggled away.
“Tay, no, not here,” she said, removing my hands and smiling at me, blushing.
God, she was gorgeous.
I stroked her blond hair, wishing we could be anywhere else, just the two of us alone, with no one bothering us, somewhere we could have sex and then curl up to sleep together. Somewhere I could wake up and make her breakfast the next morning.
Sometimes it sucks being seventeen.
“We’re going to be late,” she warned me, kissing me on the cheek. “And today we find out which day we have our human sexuality presentation.”
I couldn’t help but raise my eyebrows flirtatiously. “I’m sorry, are you telling me I need to put time aside to work on my sexuality with you?”
She laughed and rolled her eyes. “We’ve been working on this assignment for a month and you’re still coming up with new material. Incredible. You’re a child.”
“A horny child who can’t stop thinking about giving it to you again,” I said, unable to stop myself.
“Taylor!” Kami giggled adorably, looking back and forth to see if anyone in the hallway had heard us.
“What?” I asked. “Are you offended by my vulgar comments?”
“I’m just surprised by how horny you are.”
“Says the girl who was begging for it the other day…”
She put her hand over my mouth, telling me to shut up before I could say any more. I stuck my tongue out and licked her palm, and she pulled her hand back, wiping it on her shirt, and shouted, “Gross!”
“Come on,” I said, looking at my watch, “we’re late.”
Noting the time, Kami opened her eyes in horror, then took my hand as we ran to biology class.
The students were all already inside and seated, and when we opened the door, we were surprised to find not Ms. Davies’s gentle smile—but my older brother’s cold stare, waving us in. Kami froze as they stared at each other. It was impossible to say what the meaning of that look was.
“You’re ten minutes late,” Thiago said, shaking his head.
“Sorry,” Kami replied, pulling me over to our table. As soon as we’d sat down, I noticed Thiago was actually furious, and the rest of the class had picked up on that, too. They seemed to be waiting for a fight to break out.
“And just why are you late?” Thiago asked.
“I don’t think they were playing Parcheesi, Coach,” Victor Di Viani said, and everyone laughed.
Kami nudged me with her elbow and pointed at her lips. Shit! I wiped my mouth with the back of my sleeve, and a big streak of Kami’s lipstick rubbed off on it. I tried to avoid my brother’s stare as I shot a nasty glance at Victor. I might just kick his ass later.
“That’s detention for both of you,” Thiago said indifferently. “I’ll see you after class.”
“Come on!” I couldn’t believe it.
“That will give you time to make up what you missed during the first ten minutes of class.”
“Taylor’s already got his makeup on,” Di Viani said.
I clenched my fists. I was going to kill that jerk.
“Di Viani, that’s detention for you, too,” my brother said, taking some papers out of his bag. That, at least, took the edge off my anger. Victor sat there, dumbfounded. I wondered what was up with my brother. There were times when it seemed like he couldn’t care less about anyone around him.
That wasn’t the case with Kami, though. She hadn’t taken her eyes off him since he mentioned detention.
“I work this afternoon,” she said.
Thiago looked up at her. For a few seconds, he said nothing, then he responded, “Do I look like someone who wants to hear your life story?” A hush fell over the class, silent as a funeral.
“I can’t miss work,” Kami said, sitting up tense in her chair, her face filled with dread.
“Thiago, it won’t happen again,” I cut in. This whole thing was starting to piss me off. I mean, he was my fucking brother. Couldn’t he just chill out for once?
“Whether it happens again depends on whether you’re capable of learning that actions have consequences, and we’ll only find that out after you’ve served your detention.”
“You’re not even our teacher,” Kami objected. “If Ms. Davies were here, she wouldn’t even care.” She was starting to raise her voice.
“Yeah, well, here’s some news for you: Life is unfair, and I’m your teacher today,” Thiago retorted, clearly unfazed. “And I’d like to start class now. I hear Ms. Davies assigned you guys a project. Today I’ll tell you the order you’re to present in…”
“Look, Thiago, I’m not going to detention. Sorry, but there’s no way I’m going to lose my job just because I was ten minutes late to class,” Kami announced, interrupting him again.
She crossed her arms, and my brother looked up from the list in his hands. “Kamila, get out of my classroom,” he ordered her.
“It’s not your classroom,” she fired back.
I squeezed her thigh under the table, trying to calm her down. I knew Thiago, and talking to him like that in front of all the other students was a truly bad idea.
“Out,” he repeated, pointing at the door.
Kami stood up so fast her chair made a screeching sound.
She grabbed her books and her bag and walked out, slamming the door.
Thiago shut his eyes for a second and took a deep breath.
Then he looked straight at me. I was glaring at him, but he didn’t seem to care.
He stood up and started reading off the list of projects.
I was livid. I knew he wasn’t really punishing us for being tardy. He was still pissed about Kami walking to school while Julian was still out there. And Thiago knew that if Kami spent the afternoon with him, Julian couldn’t get to her.
He was punishing her, but he was also protecting her.
A part of me wished I had the power to do the same.