Noxious (Anathema #1) - Yolanda Olson Page 0,33

sky. God, I wish it would rain. Drowning in the lake right now with my best friend would put Romeo and Juliet to shame.

“Well don’t,” she says as she moves closer to me and wraps an arm around my waist. Wills places her head against my chest, and I breathe her in, completely intoxicated by her scent and the freshwater all around us. “She always puts you in a bad mood, and I think we’ve both had enough attitudes on this trip to last the rest of the way.”

Normally, when I make a move on Willa, it’s calculated and there’s been plenty of thought put behind it. The bitch packs a mean swing and I know that I always have to be in a position to dodge it, but…

“Hey,” I say softly.

Willa looks up at me with a curious look in her eyes, and a smile on her lips. I get it; she thinks that she’s already calmed me down, but just once I’d like to know what she tastes like without having to fight for it.

Taking a deep breath, I lower my lips against hers and hold her against me.

The sliver of time between us brings forth a maelstrom of emotions in me that I didn’t even know I had for her.

“Fuck off, Aftyn!” she barks, shoving me away roughly and destroying the moment before I’ve even had a chance to fully embrace it—and her.

I throw my hands up in the air before I turn away from her and swim a few yards away. Turning on my back, I decide to float for a little bit, glancing up at the sky when I know that the only way to get Willa to understand that it’s always ever been us—and should be—is to tell her a story.

A smirk creases my lips as I begin.

“You know, sometimes I wonder why you’re such a bitch but then I remember that precious princesses that have had life handed to them on silver platters, with those silver spoons crammed down their throats like an old rich man’s cock, is usually what does it.”

“I’m not going to argue with you,” she snaps, cutting me off, but I laugh and continue.

“I know you like to think that you know everything, Wills, but there’s something you don’t know. Curious? Or are you going to bitchfloat back to shore and wonder what I could have possibly told you right now?”

I lower my legs beneath the surface and run my hands back through my hair. I want to look her in the fucking eye when I tell her what really happened to her charity case, because she needs to remember who the fuck is in charge here, and it’s definitely not her.

“I’m already bored,” she remarks, rolling her eyes and turning her face away.

Not for long.

“Dexter didn’t really catch a ride home,” I begin conversationally. When Willa slowly starts to turn her eyes toward me again, it’s my turn to look away and relish in knowing that I have her undivided fucking attention.

“What are you talking about?” she asks, a tremor of uncertainty to her tone.

“It’s your fault, really,” I continue as I wade a little further away from her. When I confess my sin to her, she’s going to fucking explode. And while I don’t mind having a go with her, I think it’s a little more fun to have her chase me for it.

“What did you do, Aftyn?” she presses, her eyes starting to water.

“So, you’ll cry for him but not for me? When was the last time you shed a tear for me, Wills? Was it when I would come over after school because Mom had taken a belt to me just for walking in five minutes late? Was it when she would ruin each and every birthday by telling me that she should have gotten rid of me when she had the chance? No; you always just told me that it would be okay and then we’d sit around and talk. Not once have you shed a fucking tear for me. I thought we were supposed to be besties. What’s up with that?”

I know that I’m rambling now, but I’m so fucking fed up with always being someone’s second thought and never their first, that if Willa does try to come after me right now, then we’re going to have one hell of tango.

“Every fucking night when you would have to go back to that hellhole!” she screams at me. “I never let you see