little comment, so I was glad she just gurgled and choked while I waited for Lakyn to look at me again.
A cloud of smoke left his lips and then his blue eyes met mine, and he nodded. It was a moment of perfect acceptance. Approval. Acknowledgement of the real me… and there was only one response to that.
I love Lakyn.
As I slit her throat, his slow grin became the center of my universe for a moment, and I ignored all the shouting and the chaos whirling around us because none of it mattered. I just dropped Willa to the floor and waited to see if I'd done what he'd hoped for. Seventeen years old and I already knew my future belonged to him. The only other person I'd ever met that was like me, that understood me, that liked me.
He'd cracked jokes about my name, nothing I haven't heard before. Scooby Doo has been around since before I was born and will probably still be around after I'm dead. That mutt is one of those timeless things in culture, but I'd learned to brush off the comments when I was still a kid, and it paid off because now I'm in the front seat with him, watching him drive while Aftyn mourns his dead friend in the backseat. I don't know why Aftyn doesn't see what's right in front of him. Being related to Lakyn is a gift in his otherwise mediocre life. How many people get to have a connection to someone so vibrant? So unapologetically themselves?
If he'd stop pouting long enough to pay attention, he might actually learn something.
"Want one?" Lakyn asks, his eyes on the road, but he's offering me the last cigarette in his previous pack and I take it. He crushes the pack in his fist and tosses it over his shoulder, chuckling under his breath when Aftyn curses.
"Nice one, Pops." Aftyn huffs, and I glance back to see him pulling his cigarettes out as well. He never offered me one, even though the only reason I was ever in this car was because he picked me up off the curb and dragged me with him into the boring dynamic of his relationship with Willa. That's just one more way Lakyn is better than him though.
The lighter is in the cup holder, and though I haven't smoked much, I know how to do it. I crack my window and light it, taking a short puff the first time just to avoid coughing and embarrassing myself. A few drags in and I get that tingly rush from the nicotine. It makes my head swim a little and I lean against the window, adjusting my backpack on my lap so I'm more comfortable as I watch Lakyn drive. "Thank you."
He just nods, letting a billow of smoke out of the corner of his mouth, and I let the road noise fill the silence for a few minutes.
The urge to speak to him again bubbles up inside my chest, and it's such a foreign sensation that I don't know how to stop it as words shove their way past my lips. "I'll be eighteen in two months."
Lakyn lifts an eyebrow, glancing over at me before he grins again and chuckles. "What makes you think I care how old you are?"
"Yeah, Daphne. You trying to climb on his dick since I wouldn't fuck you?" Aftyn chimes in from the backseat and I clench my jaw.
I can feel the blush in my cheeks, a burning heat that comes too easily with the curse of red hair and pale skin, and my tongue goes stiff and awkward again. I don't even know why I said it. I wasn't even thinking about it, or at least I don't think I was thinking about it. Still, the fact that he doesn't care that I'm not eighteen sends a thrill through my blood no matter what Aftyn says.
"You too busy fucking the blonde one?" Lakyn asks, glancing up at the rearview mirror and I bite back my smile.
"Willa was my best friend."
Taking a long drag on his cigarette, Lakyn blows the smoke out the window before running his tongue across his teeth, sucking on them. "And that means…?"
"No, we never fucked," Aftyn snaps and Lakyn lets out a laugh, tapping the heel of his hand on the steering wheel.
"Wait, so you're telling me you drove all the way out here with two chicks in the car, and you didn't get your dick wet even