“I kinda noticed that,” I told him.
“Don’t go out on the street with your mind on the mall.”
“My mind isn’t on the mall. I’ve already done the mall and my party outfit is brilliant.”
He just stared at me looking like he might laugh and I noticed his dark eyes weren’t brown or black like I thought. They were a deep, dark blue.
Wow.
“You wanna get up?” I asked, pushing thoughts about his eyes to the very back recesses of my mind so as never to pull them up again and placing my hands on his biceps to push him.
“Not particularly,” he said casually like he could lie on top of me all night which he probably could.
Hmm.
Not good.
“Well, I want you to get up,” I said.
“It’s good to want things.”
“Luke, get off me.”
“How solid are you and Vance?” he asked.
It was my turn to stare. “Why?”
“Just answer the question.”
“Why?”
“‘Cause I’m thinkin’ not many men want their woman roaming the streets at night lookin’ for trouble, no matter if she can handle a gun and herself. I don’t see a good future for you two unless you get your ass back to that Shelter and your mind on what you really can do to help those kids.”
One thing you could say for that, it sure was honest.
“Well, then you’ll be pleased to know we broke up today. We’re only going to the party together because we made a deal.”
I passed the torch and it was his turn to stare then for some strange reason he started to look a little angry.
“That didn’t take long,” he murmured as if to himself.
“Shit happens. Now, get off.”
The door opened and both of our heads twisted to it. Vance was standing there. He stood frozen for a beat, hand on the door knob.
Then his arms crossed on his chest, his eyes went hard and his face got scary. “What… the… fuck?” His voice was low and as scary as his face.
Luke looked at Vance then he looked at me. Luke’s face was blank but his eyes were active and I could tell he was thinking about something.
I looked back at Vance. “He’s showing me some moves,” I told Vance.
“Yeah, I can see,” Vance replied.
Um.
Yikes.
Luke knifed off me and then grabbed my forearm and pulled me up to stand close to him. I didn’t move away because there were crackling-not-happy vibes floating around the room and I didn’t want to do anything to set them off. And anyway, I was feeling very weird around Vance. I’d broken up with him, he’d kind of accepted it yet we weren’t through. I’d become used to him being around, getting in my space, descending into what had become a familiar banter. This was just weird. It felt foreign, uncomfortable, wrong.