Kissing the Player - Maggie Dallen Page 0,46

of relief when I saw that Hannah had texted back. I didn’t waste time trying to text, I hit her number and let it ring, ignoring Jax’s voice behind me as I walked away.

“Hannah,” I said loudly enough for him to hear. “Thank goodness you’re around. Look, I’m kind of stuck in a nightmare over here. Think I could get a ride?” I shot one last look over my shoulder to see a stunned Jax watching me, but he made no move to stop me.

“Awesome,” I said, not really hearing Hannah’s response over my pounding heart but counting on my friend to save me when I needed her most. “Texting you the address right now.”

14

Jax

Come Monday I was still trying to figure out what had happened.

By Tuesday I was ready to believe the kiss had been a dream.

By the end of the day on Wednesday I knew for certain—the girl was not speaking to me.

Being ignored by Rose was an entirely new experience.

I didn’t like it.

Oh sure, we’d gone our separate ways these past two years, but she’d always been around. At school. In my life. On the periphery, perhaps, but that counted.

I knew that now.

Because now she was nowhere to be seen.

I didn’t hear her laughter in the hallways or from across the cafeteria. I didn’t catch her flirty smile or see her strutting down the hallway like it was her own personal catwalk.

I was sure she was still doing those things, just…nowhere near me. She seemed to be going out of her way to avoid me.

And that…killed me.

I’d thought watching her walk away sophomore year had stung. Okay, fine, it had hurt like heck. But this…this was worse.

I’d kissed her.

I’d kissed her and that kiss had meant something.

To me, at least.

Maybe it shouldn’t have. I hadn’t meant for it to. I hadn’t even meant to kiss her in the first place. I didn’t even like the girl, but then…

Ugh, I didn’t even know what happened. One minute I despised her. She was the embodiment of everything I couldn’t stand. Shallow, flakey, superficial and vain… And then she wasn’t.

Like the world had been flipped upside down, the girl I’d thought I’d known was replaced by someone else. Someone real and honest and…snarky.

A girl I remembered.

Someone I liked. A lot.

Too much.

She’d been genuine and relatable and for the first time in a very long time. Heck, the first time since Simone had invited me to her house and we’d forged our friendship—I’d felt a real connection.

But what I’d felt wasn’t friendship. Or…maybe it was? But that kiss…

That had not felt like the kiss of a friend. That kiss had been electric. I’d been on fire ever since. Between the bizarre connection in the car and then the intensity of that kiss, I’d been reeling for days.

I couldn’t make sense of the change in her. I couldn’t begin to explain what had happened between us. Whatever it was, it had been intense but fleeting, and I was honestly starting to wonder if it had all been in my head.

I scrubbed a hand over my face as the sounds of the guys eating lunch around me broke through my angst. That’s what this was. I was angsting. Over a girl.

Oh crap, maybe I was brooding like a Salvatore. I sighed into my soda. I was a freakin’ cliché.

And it was all her fault.

I sighed heavily as I glanced over to her table in the cafeteria, but her friend Hannah was sitting with some of the other girls from the soccer team and Rose was nowhere to be found.

“How’s it going with Rose?” Ryan smirked at me from his end of the table.

My hands clenched into fists.

I wanted to punch that smirk right off his smarmy face. I never had been a big fan of Ryan’s. We shared the same friends, we went to the same parties, but I’d never really liked him.

I definitely didn’t like that Rose had chosen to date this turd. And the fact that he was the one who’d gotten me into this current brooding disaster? That seemed like reason enough to beat the ever-loving crap out of him.

The goon had the nerve to laugh in the face of my silence. “That good, huh? Funny, after you were all over her the other night, I haven’t seen her anywhere near you.” He looked to his friends. “Looks like I’m gonna be the winner, huh? You know she asked me to help her with the fair—”

“She asked all of us,

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