Misunderstood (A Neighbor from Hell YA #1) - R.L. Mathewson Page 0,87

hand, she tossed it in the fire and forced herself to keep going. She was probably doing this all wrong, but at the moment, Mikey really didn’t care as long as she got them off.

It took her several minutes to get them all off, but once the last leech was gone, she–

Realized that Sebastian was definitely going to kill her this time, Mikey thought when he turned around and she found him glaring down at her.

Clearing her throat, Mikey said, “I missed you?” hoping that it would be enough.

It wasn’t.

Deciding that a hopeful smile couldn’t hurt, Mikey glanced over to find Aunt Zoe helping Braxton with the leeches on his back before returning her attention to Sebastian just as he reached for her.

Thankfully, Uncle Trevor grabbed him by his arm and pulled him back so that he could whisper something in his ear. Before Mikey could wonder about that, Sebastian took off running toward the bathrooms. Braxton was right behind him a moment later. With a heavy sigh, Uncle Trevor grabbed their bags from their tent and followed them, leaving Mikey standing there only to decide that she should probably go wash her hands when she remembered the leeches.

Wondering what happened at the pond, she made her way to the bathrooms only to frown when she heard one of the boys scream, “Oh, my god!”

That was followed by another, “Oh, my god!” This one louder as she finished washing her hands and headed back to their campsite, deciding that she should probably make this up to Sebastian.

Mikey headed to the tables covered in food and grabbed a plate. She loaded it with all of Sebastian’s favorites, covered it in foil, and grabbed a Coke from one of the coolers. Once she was done, she headed back to the campfire by their tent only to think better of it because of all the leeches currently writhing in the dirt and headed back to their tent instead.

After a slight hesitation, Mikey went inside and quickly made her way to her sleeping bag, praying that there weren’t any snakes hiding in the tent, ready to attack her as she went. Once she was settled, Mikey placed Sebastian’s plate on his sleeping bag and–

Decided that it might be in her best interest to pretend to be asleep by the time that he got back. Not that she had anything to be afraid of, but she felt that it would be better if she didn’t draw his attention when he was this pissed, especially since she may have inadvertently ditched him this afternoon and laughed with glee when she did it.

Definitely time to go to bed, Mikey thought as she crawled inside her sleeping bag and curled up on her side, and not a moment too soon. He definitely sounded pissed, Mikey decided as she listened to him drop his bag by the door before making his way to his sleeping bag and once he was there…

Mikey was forced to bite back a wince when she felt him glaring at her.

For several minutes, she was forced to lay there, struggling against the urge to make a run for it. When she finally heard the foil on his plate being removed, she felt herself relax. He ate quietly while she lay there, struggling against the urge to open her eyes and see if he was glaring at her.

When he finally finished, she heard him crawl out of the tent to get rid of his trash and was back a moment later. She heard him turn off the lantern and settle into the sleeping bag next to her.

Realizing that she’d somehow managed to survive, she felt her body relax as she slowly exhaled and–

“I didn’t see where Jonathan released that snake, did you?”

–found herself shoving her sleeping bag open and crawling for the tent opening only she never made it.

Before she could reach the tent flaps, Sebastian had his hands wrapped around her ankles and was dragging her back as he drawled, “Let’s talk about your betrayal this afternoon, shall we?”

Chapter 36

“Are you ever going to tell me what happened when you went fishing?” came the absently murmured question as they cut through the park.

“You mean the time when I spent eight hours in a boat with that little prick because you ditched me?” Sebastian asked as he glanced at Mikey to find her absently rolling a ball between her hands as she worried her bottom lip between her teeth.

Instead of answering her, Sebastian said, “You don’t