Chapter 27
“I’m stuffed,” Hero mumbled as we walked down the Eiffel Tower, holding hands.
“Same here.”
The food was so delicious that—even though we were full—we couldn’t stop eating.
Hero suddenly pulled me as we had reached the bottom of the stairs. Not too far though; once we were in the center of the walkway, with the Eiffel Tower directly above us, he stopped pulling.
He glanced up, then looked back down at me. “Mistletoe.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” he whispered, staring at my lips.
In that moment, Benji was completely out of my mind. Everyone had left my mind. Only Hero stayed there. It was like he was the only person left in the world. The chattering and footsteps from people walking by were drowned out by the thoughts of Hero.
Only Hero.
I glanced down at his lips, before looking into those dreamy eyes. “I guess that means we have to kiss.”
He nodded eagerly, gently moving my hair behind my ears as the wind violently breezed through it. He leaned in, closing the space between us, and pressed his lips against mine.
CRASH.
No, that wasn’t the kiss. Somebody—or maybe two people—slammed into us, pushing us to the ground.
Due to the impact, they had also tumbled down beside us.
My palm scraped against the concrete, causing me to bleed.
Since I was wearing pants, I couldn’t see if my knees were scraped, but it sure felt like it.
Hero grunted annoyedly, trying to suppress his anger. Before I could turn my head to see who had slammed into us, Miss Kennedy had already shouted their names.
“REESE! COLIN!”
The brown-haired boys scrambled to their feet, brushing the autumn leaves off their wrinkled jeans. They gave each other a small fist bump before turning around to face our teacher. She signaled them over with her index finger and raised eyebrows.
Hero pushed himself up and pulled me up by my waist, noticing that my hands were bleeding. He lifted one of my hands and examined it, then did the same to the other.
“Those bastards,” he spat. “I will make sure they never dare to lay a finger on you ever again.”
“Don’t,” I said quickly. “Miss Kennedy’s handling it.”
“Since when has a teacher ever been able to stop bullies?”
“A rich one can,” I retorted.
He scoffed, looking over to them. I followed his eyes. He lowered his voice, “They’ll never learn unless someone teaches them a lesson.”
“Hero.” I forcefully turned his head to look at me. “Promise me you won’t.”
He stared into my pleading eyes. “Fine, I promise.” He looked down. “I just could never forgive anyone that has hurt you.”
Thinking back to the text Violet received from him, it pained me to know that he was including himself.
I nodded with a somber expression, whispering, “I know.”