The Rush (The Siren Series) - By Rachel Higginson Page 0,29
intuitively.
“No, I’m ready,” I whispered weakly and then realized how lame I sounded. “What I mean is that it isn’t that. I just…. um, this is nice.” I motioned back and forth between us with my pointer finger. He grabbed onto it yanked my arm forward playfully. His fingers grazed the inside of my palm slowly, barely touching but capturing all of my attention.
“This is nice,” he gave me his charming smile, the one that melted normal girls’ insides and then somehow, through tricky moves only boys can pull off, his hand was now holding mine. “So tomorrow is Friday….” he started suggestively.
“Finally,” I breathed out in relief because I was supposed to, because it was expected. Every sixteen year old looked forward to the weekend. It was the way of life. But truthfully, with Nix around I preferred to be in school over the freedom of the weekend, not to mention the cocktail party tomorrow night that was bound to leave bone marrow deep scars and painful emotional trauma on my psyche.
“And I was thinking maybe I could take you out….?” He spoke his words slowly, carefully, like he was nervous and unsure. He was adorable, I couldn’t deny that.
“Tomorrow night?” I gulped, wishing more than anything I could say yes. He nodded, while his deep blue eyes begged me to say yes, not to let him down. “I can’t,” I groaned and there was nothing but sincerity behind my tone. “I have this family thing and there’s no way I can miss it.” I pushed out a playful pout and moved my thumb back to graze across the inside of his wrist.
“Oh, bummer,” he replied, equally as sincere.
Chase was so sweet, so super sweet. If I had to suffer through all this dating I was lucky there were guys like Chase out there that made it easier. God knew I had dated some absolute tools in my short lifetime. Chase was an exception to the rule and one that I wouldn’t be able to hold on to for long. And I hated to disappoint him, but our reasons for wanting to go out tomorrow night were completely different. I wanted to escape the crazy, f-ed up world I lived in and he couldn’t help himself but be attracted to me. It wasn’t his fault, but it wasn’t totally sincere either.
“But I’m free Saturday night,” I offered with a small smile. My thoughts flickered to Sam and how sweet he had been at first. I couldn’t let that happen with Chase, I couldn’t ruin his life because I was selfish, because I was fundamentally and forever screwed up. My throat started to close at the memory, my heart pounded painfully against my aching chest, echoing loudly in my ears. Damn it. I shouldn’t have even thought his name.
“Saturday works,” he smiled but with less enthusiasm. “Do you care though if we go to a party? I promised Phoenix I would stop by at his thing Saturday night while his parents are at some bizarre-o nudist colony.”
“Nu-uh,” I laughed. Chase nodded, his eyes glittering with the gossip. I had to meet Phoenix’s parents sometime. They sounded kind of awesome. Just hopefully they weren’t nude all the time…. “No, that will be fun!” I threw as much enthusiasm into my voice as I could and leaned forward to brush Chase’s cheek with a kiss.
“Yeah, fun,” Chase agreed but I could see the hint of disappointment in his expression. “If you don’t want to go though, I can always make an excuse. I mean, if you want our first date to be special. I hate that it’s just going to be a house party.” And that’s why he was disappointed, he wanted to woo me and a high school kegger didn’t exactly scream romance.
I smiled again to hide my relief. If he put effort into this, I was in danger of another breakdown. I was in danger of ruining someone else’s life. A party would be perfect. Just enough distraction without any romance or intimacy.
“You’ll get your chance for special,” I murmured coyly. “You can save the fireworks and champagne for our second date.”
Chase’s face lit up with my suggestion, his blue eyes shining with future promise. “Deal.”
“Deal,” I repeated and then moved for the door. I was dreading going upstairs, completely opposed to the idea of putting myself in the lion’s den, but I had run out of excuses to sit in Chase’s car. “Thanks again for the ride.”