Lars cocked an eyebrow at Kennedy as his two sidekicks scurried behind their ringleader. He held me in front of him and gave her a cocky smirk. “You can’t shoot with Jax in front of me, Kennedy. So you might as well—”
She shot her next arrow straight past me, and it grazed Lars’s ear.
Holy crap! She’d almost given him an ear piercing! I’d have bet if she’d really wanted to, she could’ve put a hole straight through said ear.
“I can do anything,” Kennedy barked, and funnily enough, I was starting to believe her. “Now, let him go because next time, I won’t miss.”
I knew Lars wasn’t showing it, but I felt his trembles as he released his hold on me.
Kennedy reached back in her bag for another arrow but froze when she realized that there were none left.
Lars smirked. “Looks like the freak is out of weapons. Now I’m going to kick both of your butts.”
I began shaking as I ran beside Kennedy. She turned my way. “It’s okay, Jax, just bark.”
“What?” I asked, nervous.
“Bark at them! People get freaked out if you start barking at them and then they’ll leave you alone. Watch.” She turned back toward Lars and his friends and began barking like a dog. “Woof! Woof! Woof!” she howled, leaving me stunned and a little scared.
What a weird, weird girl.
But it seemed to be working. The guys began backing up, so I started doing it, too. “Woof! Woof!” I said, probably sounding more like a poodle compared to Kennedy’s rottweiler, but I kept going until the guys backed off. “Woooooof!”
Lars shook his head while stepping away from us. “Whatever, losers. Come on, guys. Let’s go back to the bunk. If you’re smart, Jax, you won’t come back tonight unless you want to get your butt kicked.”
The three dashed off, and I stood there a bit stunned as Kennedy placed her bow into her backpack and then began dancing in the rain. “See? Whenever someone is bothering you, bark at them. It always works.”
“Always?”
“Yeah, like fifty percent of the time.”
“That’s not always.”
“Oh, then not always, I guess.”
“What were you even doing out here?” I asked, soaking wet, dazed, and confused.
Kennedy looked back at me, and her lips curved up into a crooked smile.
Who knew crooked smiles could look…cute?
Whatever. It wasn’t that I was noticing that Kennedy’s smile was cute. Because it wasn’t. I mean, it was, but I wasn’t noticing it because I didn’t notice those kinds of things about Kennedy Lost.
She raised her eyebrow. “Oh, I was shooting archery.”
“In the pouring rain?”
She nodded. “Yes. It makes you a better shooter if you work against the elements of nature. The rain adds an obstacle that forces me to think outside the box and do something different.” She pulled out her bow and held it out toward me. “Do you want to try?”
I shook my head. “No. I want to go get dry.”
“Okay. I can walk you to your bunk and you can grab some of your clothes. Then you can sleep in my bed with me so the guys don’t bother you.”
“I don’t need some girl watching after me,” I spat out, feeling embarrassed.
“Yes, you do,” she replied, not in a mean way, just as a fact. “Now come on, I’ll keep my arrows pointed at them as you get your stuff.”
Even though I wanted to argue with her, I knew better than to fight with an unstable girl holding a bow and arrow.
We went to my cabin, and I gathered some clothes for the night as Kennedy protected me from the guys.
They didn’t say a word.
When I got to her cabin, her roommates were already sleeping. Thank God. The last thing I needed was for people to think I was in love with a girl like Kennedy Lost.
I changed in the bathroom, and Kennedy changed after me—putting on yet another brightly colored pajama set. Only Kennedy would have neon green pajamas.
She crawled into her bed, and I reluctantly crawled in beside her. The last time I’d been in bed with a girl was—oh, that’s right.
Never.
I’d never been in bed with a girl.
She turned to face me and gave me that stupid cute crooked smile that made my stomach sick. “Why didn’t you dance in the rain out there, Jax?”