so quietly I could hardly hear it, but he did, for a smirk grew on his face. Funny how Calum could look good both frowning and smirking. It wasn’t fair of him to have power like that.
“What was that?” Calum leaned closer, cocking his head and turning his ear to me, even though I knew for a fact he’d heard me.
“Fine,” I said, this time louder.
He chuckled. “Next Friday, seven o’clock. Does that work for you?” Calum glanced around our yard. “I’ll pick you up right here.”
Another date. Me. It didn’t sound right, but it looked like Calum wasn’t going to take no for an answer. If I was honest, I wasn’t sure what I wanted. A part of me wanted to be normal, of course, to go on this date and have a good time, to laugh and smile and really feel alive—but then the other half didn’t want to bother, because I knew I’d be let down eventually.
I nodded. “Okay.” I knew I didn’t sound enthusiastic, and that was because I had no idea what was going on.
He smiled—this time a real smile. No smirk, no tight-lipped grimace. A real, true, warm smile that made a heat grow in my lower gut. God, he really was attractive, wasn’t he? Any straight girl would turn to goo when that smile was flashed at them. “Good,” he whispered, leaning in, “I’ll see you then.”
Just when I was wondering what the heck he thought he was doing, I felt his lips brush my cheek in a quick, gentle goodnight kiss.
What the…
My lips parted when he pulled back and gave me another smile. “Night,” he said, sticking his hands in his hoodie pocket and turning to head back to his car.
I watched him go, because there was hardly anything else I could do at that point besides wonder what kind of alternate reality I’d stepped into when I wasn’t looking. When he got into his car and drove off, my cheek grew tingly where his lips had been. I reached up, running my fingertips along the spot, suddenly feeling warm all over.
So what, a cute guy kissed my cheek. That didn’t matter. It didn’t mean anything at all.
And so what if that same cute guy was taking me out again to make up for how terrible tonight was?
I wouldn’t let myself get excited. I wouldn’t let myself think about him or how soft his lips had felt on my cheek. To do so would only be to get my hopes up, and I knew enough not to allow that to happen. I wasn’t born yesterday. I knew people like me never got their happy endings like in the books.
My hand dropped to my side as I let out a long sigh. After getting in the house, I headed straight up to the bathroom, looking at my dolled-up appearance in the mirror.
This was the girl Calum thought he’d see again, not the girl beneath the makeup, underneath the gentle waves of pink hair. Not me. Not the real me. The real me was something no one could handle.
When my eyes started to water, a hopeless desperation rising inside, I let my emotions wash over me in the silence of the house, grabbing one of Michelle’s makeup wipes to take it all off.
Chapter Six – Mason
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t waiting for my phone to go off, for me to glance at an unfamiliar number. I’d be a huge liar if I said I didn’t want to hear from Bree. When Friday passed and she still didn’t text, I grew a little worried. I really hoped she wasn’t put off by my pushiness, that I hadn’t stepped too far by basically making myself her partner whether she liked it or not.
I mean, the professor had told her it was a group project, that she needed at least one partner. Who else was she going to do it with? She didn’t talk to anyone else in class, didn’t have any friends there that I knew of.
Who better than me?
My overconfidence did waver as I waited for her to text. Thankfully I didn’t have to wait too long Saturday before my phone buzzed and I found an unrecognized number had texted me.
Bree. It had to be Bree.
Hey. It’s Bree. When do you want to figure out what we’ll do our project on?
Simple, straightforward. She used punctuation and everything, which made me feel like I had to, too. I lounged on the couch in