Chapter Three
Gage
"Oh, hell no," I growl, watching from outside the cafeteria as Corey Gaines flirts with my girl.
I'm so pissed, I'm ready to storm over there and rip his throat out for smiling at her.
And yet…I stand right where I am, watching in horror as they flirt and exchange numbers.
My stomach actually fucking hurts as he pulls her into a big hug and whispers something that makes her laugh.
That laugh is mine. That hug was supposed to be mine, too.
No one gives better hugs than Troian, and they've always been mine.
I never had to share them with anyone else because she never hugs anyone who isn't me.
She barely even talks to anyone who isn't me.
She's so damn shy and sweet. People here don't appreciate her nearly enough for the treasure she is.
It's their loss.
Apparently, it's now mine too.
She's hugging Corey Gaines.
What the hell?
I didn't even know they were friends. Now, they're hugging.
Corey's not a bad guy. He's one of the few people in this school who hasn't ever said anything bad about my girl. When our teammates start in, he's usually right there with me, telling them to knock it off. But, for fuck's sake, I figured that was just because he's a preacher's kid.
Clearly, I was wrong, and he's secretly had a thing for her all along.
I can't really blame him. She grows more beautiful every day. I know this because it's an endless source of worry for me. She's already been accepted to Stanford for next year. I applied, but I was waitlisted. I won't have a definitive answer for at least six weeks.
If I don't get in, I won't be able to keep men away from her.
She'll be a timid little butterfly in a garden full of snakes, and she won't have me there to turn the horny bastards away.
They'll get close enough to realize that she's not only beautiful but sweet and kind and hilariously funny and endearingly quirky.
They'll fall in love with her the same way I did.
Like Troian, Corey is headed for Stanford. They'll be at the same school next year. He'll be there to take care of her…to make her laugh and keep her happy.
No. Hell no.
There's no way I'm letting her go without a fight.
She and Corey break apart, heading in opposite directions.
As soon as he disappears around the corner, I take off after her.
"Troian!" I shout.
Everyone in the courtyard turns to look at me. Except Troian, naturally. I know she hears me, though. She starts walking faster, as if those little legs of hers can outrun me. She's a full foot shorter than I am, and I run every day.
She tried to run once. In tenth grade, she decided she was going to try out for track.
She made it half a mile and then called me, convinced she was dying.
I broke every speed limit trying to get to her, terrified she was having a heart attack.
She was fine by the time I got there, so I took her for ice cream.
She crossed her name off the tryout list first thing the next morning, much to my relief.
I manage to catch up to her on the far side of the courtyard.
"Hey. Why'd you run off?"
"I didn't. I'm going to class," she mutters, not looking at me.
I jump in front of her so she can't go around me. "Why were you talking to Corey?"
"Why do you care?" she asks, scowling at me.
I don't understand women. Really, I don't. They get moody and cranky and ask the strangest questions. Like that one. Why do you care? When haven't I cared about any and everything Troian related?
I spend the majority of every day thinking about her, worrying about her.
At night, I dream about her. About what it would be like to fuck her, to hold her while she sleeps.
To wake up next to her every morning. I bet she's cute as hell when she first wakes up.
It makes me crazy that I don't already know exactly what she looks like when those beautiful eyes first open in the morning.
"Why were you talking to Corey, Troian?" I ask instead of telling her any of that. I'm not trying to get my ass kicked here.
"Because I can."
"Troian."
"We're going to Prom together."
I rear back on my heels, shocked.
It feels like she just slapped me. Or punched me in the gut. Maybe both. For a minute, I forget how to breathe. The whole world falls out of focus. And then it lurches back into focus with a jarring thud. Possessive jealousy sends my temper soaring.
"He asked you to Prom?" I growl.
"No. I asked him."
I stare at her for a minute, trying to decide if I want to kill him first or spank her.
Kill him first. Definitely kill him since spanking her is liable to get me in a whole shit ton of trouble.
I'll have to do that later, once I get her in private.
Preferably near a bed so I can make love to her afterward.
"Go straight to class," I mutter, stepping to the side.
She frowns at me. "Where are you going?"
"I have something to take care of."
"Okay," she says, shaking her head like I'm not making any sense.
And then I notice that her eyes are red. So is her nose.
Shit. I didn't imagine the tears earlier. She was crying.
My soul quivers in protest.
"You've been crying."
"What? No, I haven't. Go away and stop bugging me," she says, her face falling into a severe scowl.
I consider arguing the point, but quickly decide it won't get me anywhere.
Troian is a beautiful little butterfly. She's also the most stubborn woman I've ever met.
I've told her a thousand times to tell me if someone is mean to her, but she never does.
I always find out about it after the fact. She tries to handle everything herself.
So, I'll just go straight to the source of this problem.
"Fine," I say. "Straight to class, butterfly."
"You're not the boss of me, Gage Bronx."
"Troian, go to class."
She sticks her tongue out at me, but finally moves toward the door.
I wait until I'm sure she's actually going to class, and then I take off in search of Corey.
Our classmates crowd the courtyard, trying to catch a few moments of sunlight before the next bell rings.
Luckily for me, Corey isn't hard to find.
He stands a good foot taller than damn near everyone else.
"Gaines!" I shout when I spot him sitting on the low wall outside the gym with a couple of his friends from the soccer team.
He looks up and then sighs.
I crook a finger, ordering him to come to me. If I have to take him and his buddies on, I will, but I'd prefer for this to be a fair fight if it comes to that. Five to one isn't good odds for anyone.
He rises to his feet and crosses toward me.
"Bronx." He stops a few feet from me, crossing his arms. His closed-off expression oozes suspicion. As if I'm the problem here. He's the fucker after my girl.
"She's not going to Prom with you."
"That's her decision, not yours."
"I'm making it mine," I growl.
He eyes me for a moment, not saying anything. And then he shakes his head, a sharp bark of laughter ripping from his lips. "You're unbelievable, you know that?"
"What does that mean?"
"It means that girl would have exploded with happiness if you had asked her to the dance," he says, "But you didn't. You decided to break her heart and take someone else. Now you're pissed that she's going with me? If that's how you treat people who love you, Troian is better off without you."
"I…" I snap my mouth closed, unease ghosting through me.
He's the second person today to tell me that I hurt her.
It was easy to doubt coming from Victoria.
She would have said or done anything to take the attention away from me shooting her down.
The comment isn't so easily ignored coming from Corey, however.
Is that really why Troian ran off? She wanted me to ask her?
You know it is, a little voice says.
"Fuck," I whisper, my heart sinking. I'm an idiot. No, I'm worse than that. I'm an asshole. I've been dragging my damn feet for months—years— afraid to make a move, and this whole damn time, she's been waiting for me to man up and finally claim her.
She's been in love with me for years.
"Exactly," Corey says, pointing at me. "If you have a problem with me taking her, that's too bad. You should have thought of that before you humiliated her in front of the whole cafeteria."
"I didn't…"
"Yeah, you did," Corey says. "You said that shit and made her cry in front of Victoria."
"Fuck," I whisper again, my heart aching with regret. With shame. Troian doesn't cry in front of anyone. No matter how vicious Victoria gets, she never cries in front of her. But she ran out of the cafeteria in tears because of me.
I'm an asshole. No, I'm the asshole.
All this time, I've been the thing making my girl sad.
"If you don't feel the same way about her, you need to back off."
"Why? So you can step in?" I growl. There's no way I'm letting that happen. I don't care if they are going to the same university next year. Troian is mine.
"No, you idiot," Corey snaps, his patience with me running out. "Because Victoria and her little posse have been making her life miserable over you for a long time, and you haven't put a stop to it. She deserves at least one good memory in this hellhole before she graduates."
"They haven't…"
He cocks a brow, daring me to finish that statement.
Except, I can't. Because he's right; they have been making her life miserable over me.
I thought it was just because they're jealous bitches, but it isn't. I mean, it is because they're jealous bitches.
But they knew all along how Troian felt about me.
And I've been the oblivious idiot who didn't see what was right in front of my face.
As far as they're concerned, she's in love with someone who doesn't feel the same way.
They don't know she's my first thought in the morning and my last thought at night.
They don't know that she's the only girl I've ever thought about kissing or fucking.
Or how I always make her wear my jacket when it gets cold, just so I can smell her on it when she gives it back.
They don't know that I'm wild about her.
I should have stood in front of the entire damn school a long time ago and told her how I feel. That would have shut them up, made them leave her alone. But I didn't do that. I just fumbled along like a blind idiot and let them go on assuming I didn't feel the same way about her.
"I'm an asshole," I whisper, feeling sick.
"Yeah, you are," Corey agrees. "But are you the asshole who's going to fix it, or are you the asshole that I have to hit? Because I've already got a full ride, so getting suspended for punching you in the face will be a vacation for me."
"I'm going to fix it."
"Smart man."
"You're not taking her to Prom."
"So you said." He rolls his eyes.
I narrow mine on him. "If you have feelings for her, you might be taking that suspension."
"Yeah? You think you can take me?" He grins at me, his expression lighting up with amusement.
"I know I can," I say, completely confident. I may not be taking a football scholarship like he is, but I've played on the same field with him since we were kids. I can take him.
"She never told you about me, did she?"
"She's never mentioned you to me." I scowl at the reminder.
"I didn't think so," he says. He seems pleased.
"Why don't you tell me yourself?"
"Nah. Watching you squirm is way more fun for me." He cocks his head to the side, eyeing me. "You better have a plan. And it better include groveling."
"I was thinking more along the lines of a public declaration."
"Hmm. Big?"
"Big," I confirm. Hopefully, big enough to prove to everyone that the only person in this whole damn school who matters is the shy little butterfly they've never seen clearly.