Stone floors it out of the garage, kicking up little stones in his wake. His engine thrums like a tiger, and I hiss “Asshole” under my breath.
“You bring out the worst in him,” Lucas says, shaking his head to himself.
“By breathing?”
He backs the truck out of the garage carefully and hits a button on the ceiling that lowers the garage door. “Nothing gets under his skin more than you.”
I’m reminded of what his father said on Saturday. Stone’s “infatuation” with me. Surely, he’s not using infatuation for the usual meaning. He must mean his infatuation with being a prick toward me. Or his goal of trying to ruin my life. Either could work.
“I understand what you see when you look at him. I used to see it too. The rich, pompous kid. He’s not like that though. Yeah, he has more money than he knows what to do with, but despite all that, you guys are more alike than you think.”
“I highly fucking doubt that.” I glare at Lucas like he doesn’t even know me at all, which he doesn’t. Of course. Sure, he saw me when I was a kid. We go to school together now. We’ve had glimpses of each other over the years, but that doesn’t mean that any of these fuckers actually know me.
Sometimes, I’m not even sure I know myself, to be honest. What I do know is, I am the furthest thing from being Stone Jacobs, pretentious asshat extraordinaire.
Fuck that notion.
17
Stone is in most of my morning classes, and we manage to ignore each other. His fan club hovers around him. Most of them ask about teaming up with my family... Well, just me, I guess. More than a few girls giggle snort like teaming up with my family is the worst thing his could’ve ever done. Stone, though, unlike the other days, doesn’t seem to be in the mood. It’s not just me he’s ignoring. It’s everyone.
During lunch, I stand in line to get food when a body hovers behind me. I know who it is, but I don’t acknowledge him until that rich voice of his sends a blast of heat through me. “Hey,” Lucas says.
I turn my head, and he offers me a tray. I take it with a small smile. “Hey.”
“I thought maybe we could take our food outside.”
“You want to eat with me?”
The smile on his face grows. “Don’t sound so surprised. I would’ve bothered you more over the weekend if I hadn’t thought you needed time to process things yourself after the press conference.”
I groan and turn back to the cafeteria line, telling the food servers what I want. At the end of the line, I hold my student ID up, so they can take the meal off my plan. Lucas is right behind me as I turn to find a seat.
“Come on,” he says when I go to sit at a vacant table. He motions toward the doors at the far end of the cafeteria that lead to a sitting area. “Let’s sit outside.”
Lucas is an enigma to me. I’ve read so many books in my short years of life. Books that have every type of person you can imagine, yet I can’t quite make him out. He’s the quiet one, but not really. He can be an asshole. He’s pulled the “You’re mine” bullshit just like Stone did, but from him, it didn’t sound as bad as when Stone said it. It seemed like something else entirely.
“Well, I—”
A girl bumps into my shoulder and the pizza on my plate slides. I try to save it, but she hits me again, “Oh, sorry.” The plate and the tray hit the floor, clattering over the tile, silencing the room for a second before the closest table bursts out laughing. Lo and behold, Meghan is front and center, giggling into her friend’s shoulder.
“I didn’t see you there,” the girl says. She bats her eyes at the seething hunk next to me. “I couldn’t keep my eyes off Lucas here.”
Lucas rolls his eyes, and the girl smirks like this is all a part of a mating ritual. She trails her fingers up and over his shoulder while Meghan watches, sticking her chin in the air and glaring at me. The girl, who is one of Meghan’s cheerleader friends from high school, flicks her gaze over to the table, and it erupts again. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out this was all pre-planned.