might need to keep an eye on this guy,” Poe says.
“Yeah. And on Callie too,” I say and make to follow my friend.
But Poe stops me. “I don’t think you should go after her.”
“What?”
“Yup. You’ve got other things to worry about,” Poe says, raising her eyebrows.
Wyn looks over my shoulder. “Yeah. Something like him.”
Him.
They don’t have to tell me anything more than that. I immediately know who him is.
In fact, I feel him.
I feel the skin on the back of my neck prickle and heat up. My entire spine prickles and heats up.
“You should go talk to him,” Wyn continues. “We can take care of Callie.”
“Yeah, give him hell,” Poe says fiercely.
Again, I didn’t tell them what happened. But they guessed that something awful had occurred back at the library, when I came out all red and shaky. And then he came out, a few minutes behind me with his jaw gritted, looking all arrogant and aloof as he left the building without sparing anyone a glance.
My friends asked me if they needed to do something about it. If they needed to prank him or if it was serious enough to go report it to someone. I told them I could handle it. That it was between me and him.
And I was right.
I am going to handle it because it is between me and him.
Still feeling him at my back, I exhale a breath. “Okay.”
They both give me smiles before squeezing my shoulder and taking off after Callie.
At last, I turn around.
My palm stings as soon as I catch sight of him.
He’s in the same corner as before. The one he was bursting out of. The same vintage jacket too that makes him look like a daredevil. A bad, rebellious boy. And the same cap, hiding the top of his face and his dirty blond hair.
Like the last time, he also has a girl by his side. This one is a brunette. She seems pretty interested in him, and why wouldn’t she be? I bet she’s counting her lucky stars that she gets to talk to a superstar athlete, The Blond Arrow.
Besides girls find him irresistible, don’t they?
That’s what he told me last night. And he’s not even wrong about it because they do.
I do.
And I am crazy for him. Crazy and stupid and sad. All for him.
But I’m also going to give him a piece of my mind, and he probably knows that. Because it’s all reflected on my face, my tipped-up chin and heaving chest. And unlike the last time when I found him engrossed in the girl, he is engrossed in me.
Yeah, he’s watching me with his shining, flaming eyes.
The eyes that I stupidly waxed poetic about.
I fist my hands at my sides and strangely, those eyes shine even more. Like two beacons on his shadowed features.
A hot shiver runs down the length of my body and I move toward him.
He watches me make my way through the drunken throng with an inscrutable look while leaning casually against the brick wall.
I’m about to reach him when he bends down and whispers something in the girl’s ear. He does it without taking his eyes off me and she leaves him with a nod.
I feel her pass me by but I don’t pay her any mind. My eyes are still glued to him and his to me.
When I reach him, he drawls, “I thought we were staying away from each other.”
Ignoring him, I ask, “Did you humiliate her too, like you did the last girl? To make her leave so quickly.”
He flicks his bright eyes over my face. “No. After you showed me the error of my ways, I was nice.”
“Oh, you were.”
He nods slowly. “I just told her the truth.”
“The truth. Really?”
“Yes.”
“I can’t wait to hear your truth.”
He studies me a beat, something rippling through his sharp features. “I just told her that a crazy groupie is headed my way. And she’s got a bad habit of getting jealous when I talk to other girls.”
I clench my teeth and a few lines of amusement deepen around his mouth. “You wish, you asshole.”
“You sure? Because you look a little…” He searches for the word. “Flustered.”
“Oh, I’m sure. I’m very, very sure.”
His eyelids flicker and go down to my darkly painted lips. “That’s too bad then, because I was kind of looking forward to reminding you that you’re just the little sister.”
It takes me a few moments to gather my thoughts.
Mostly because I’m remembering the touch of his thumb