Through the chain link fence, I tracked the girl who had given War a blow job. She climbed into the back seat of an old car with a bunch of guys. In the front passenger seat, another girl, a redhead, openly returned my stare.
“You okay?” Bryan asked.
“Yeah.” I looked back at him, but I wasn’t okay. Bryan wasn’t my Bryan anymore, but he certainly seemed to be for most of the girls at Southside High.
“All right.” He placed his hand on my lower back again.
We walked through the gate together, but soon I heard a car pulling up alongside us, and I knew even before I looked that it was the car Missy had gotten into.
“You coming to Kyle’s later?” The redhead asked her question with more than half of her body hanging out the passenger window. To my dismay, she was prettier up close.
“Maybe,” Bryan said. “I’ll talk to War.”
“I’ll save you both something special.” Laughing, she ducked back inside the car.
Bryan lifted a finger in the air in response to her wave. The bald tires on the car squealed, burning rubber as it peeled away from the curb, leaving a trail of acrid smoke behind.
Maybe this walk wasn’t such a good idea. Not for me, at least. Not with so many of the girls in love with Bryan, and me so susceptible to him. I could far too easily become just another one.
“You have a lot of friends,” I said carefully as we walked along the perimeter of the school property that took up a city block.
“Some.” He gave me a sidelong look. “I’ve been at Southside High longer than you.”
“A lot of friends that are girls.”
“I guess I do,” he said, holding my gaze. “But none that mean anything.”
“I’ve heard that one before,” I muttered. “From War.”
“Ah, right.” Releasing me, Bryan withdrew a package of cigarettes from his front jeans pocket. “He’s seriously into you,” he mumbled with the unlit cigarette bobbing between his firm lips.
“War, you mean?”
“Yeah.” His mouth tipped up at the edges. “Though I could see why you’d need me to be more specific.” Finding a lighter in his pocket, he flicked the flame on and lit his cigarette. “You’ve made an impression on a lot of guys around here in a very short amount of time.”
“You too. With all those girls.”
His eyes narrowed above the twin trails of smoke he exhaled through his nostrils.
“What happened after you moved away?” I asked, tilting my head.
“How do you mean?” Beneath his tousled brown hair, his brow creased.
“You’re different. Harder,” I said, giving it to him real. “I used to know you so well. Now you’re difficult for me to read.”
“I’m still the same.”
He shrugged, and I got lost in the play of his muscles moving beneath the black T-shirt that clung to his chiseled chest.
“I don’t think that’s true,” I said.
Sure, some of the same basic ingredients remained. Bryan was gentle with me. He loved music, and was protective and loyal. But he was loyal to War, not to Dizzy and me.
“Why are you friends with War, Bryan? You don’t seem at all alike.”
“He’s a good guy, Lace.”
I snorted. “Good wouldn’t be a word I’d choose to describe War.”
“He’s confrontational. Has a temper. Doesn’t let people push him around, but that doesn’t make him a bad person.” Bryan glanced at me. “He’s never let me down. He’s a good friend.”
“Okay, if you say so.” I frowned. Not at him or his explanation, really, but at myself. Was I jealous of his friendship with War?
“You just don’t know him the way I do.” Bryan stopped suddenly, and not expecting it, I tripped on a heave in the concrete sidewalk. “Whoa there.” He flicked his cigarette aside and caught me.
“Thank you.” My hands landed on his chest, and my heart raced.
Bryan held me steady. His strong fingers circled my upper arms, his sure grip branding my skin. He was so close, his body hot, his chest hard. My breaths short, I tasted the smoke from his cigarette. And him.
Time seemed to slow. The air charged with our aligned expectations, a supercell thundercloud about to unleash a storm.
“Lace,” he said softly. Framing my face in his hands, he gazed at me as if he’d never seen anything as wondrous, or at least that was how I felt looking at him. He was so much more handsome, so much more of everything than I could ever have imagined.