Don't Kiss Your Enemy (Rockford High #4)

by Victorine E. Lieske

  “Do you get that way around a lot of people?” He didn’t know that about Amanda.

  Her face turned red. Was she embarrassed? “Yeah, kind of. I mean, it’s not bad or anything, but sometimes I just have to get away. Is that weird?”

  Cole had never seen Amanda act self-conscious before, but as they walked, she twisted her fingers together. He liked to see this side of her. It was vulnerable. He touched her shoulder. “It’s not weird.”

  She turned the corner and walked along the sidewalk that ran adjacent to the street. It was a quiet, residential neighborhood. “Do you have anything like that? A secret fear, or odd thing about you?”

  “Sure.” He shrugged. “I guess. I mean, I hate flying. I’ve only been on an airplane once, but it freaked me out. Is that what you mean?”

  “Yeah.” She looked up at him. “I can handle flying, but if I see a spider, I’m done.”

  He chuckled. “A spider? I thought you loved all animals.”

  “I don’t kill them. Ever. I just have to get someone to take them outside. That’s all. They give me the creeps.” She shivered to show her point.

  “Snakes and spiders don’t bother me, but when I was a kid, I was scared of dogs.”

  Amanda wrinkled her nose. “Why? Did one attack you?”

  “No, they were just so full of energy. And they were loud. I didn’t like the barking. I still don’t love them.”

  “Interesting.” They were silent for a moment while they walked. A few cars passed them by, and a group of kids in costume ran to houses on the other side of the street, collecting candy.

  “Are you ever worried about the future?” She was back to twisting her fingers together.

  “No.” He knew exactly what his future was going to look like. He would attend college, get a degree in business, then come back here to work for his father until he took over the company. It was all planned out for him. He didn’t have much say in it. “Why, are you?”

  She worried her lower lip. “I sometimes wonder if I’ll totally screw up my future.”

  “How so?”

  “I don’t know. Like, I want to make a difference in the world. Do something really important, you know? But what if I waste my life? What if I do all these things, but never make a difference?” She kicked at a rock on the sidewalk. “I just don’t want to fail.”

  Cole had never seen Amanda like this. She was always headstrong. Moving forward with a purpose. He had never seen her hesitant before. He stopped and turned toward her. “You won’t fail.”

  “How do you know? What makes you so sure?”

  He took her hands in his. Her skin was warm. Soft. He swallowed. “You have a purpose. I know you do.”

  “What if what I do never matters?” She stared up at him, her brown eyes reflecting the light from the streetlamp.

  “It will matter. To me.” Cole cringed at the cheesy line, sure that Amanda would call him out on it, but she didn’t. She just smiled.

  “That’s sweet. But I want to make more of a difference. Like the opera house. I want to save it so future generations can enjoy the history within its walls.”

  Cole frowned. Why was she bringing up the opera house? Disappointment sank in his heart. He let go of her hands and shoved his fists in his pockets.

  If he agreed with her that the opera house should be saved, she would be livid when she found out the truth, that he was helping his father with the demolition. He couldn’t take her side, no matter what. But maybe he could get her to see his side of things. “That building is falling down.”

  She stared at him. “You’ve never understood, have you?” Her voice was barely above a whisper.

  “No, I don’t.” He turned from her, his skin turning cold. “The building has been vacant for more than two decades. It’s overrun with mice and the wiring is faulty. It would take a lot of money to restore it. And it’s sitting on a prime piece of real estate that could be used for something else.”

  Amanda bristled. “Do you know what they are going to put there, Cole?”

  Of course, he knew. He saw the plans. His father had been talking about it for the last six months. “Yeah,” he said, his voice low.

  “A parking garage.” Amanda froze. “Wait, what? You knew that? How?”

  Their evening was ruined already. No sense in delaying the inevitable. “I work for Asher Industries. My father is Leonardo Asher.”

  Amanda sucked in a breath. “Your father is the one behind this? He’s the one destroying history?”

  “It’s just a building.”

  “Did you know Lily Foster sang in that opera house?”

  No, he did not. He didn’t even know who Lily Foster was. He sighed. “No, but that building is falling apart, Mandy. The roof leaks. There’s mold in the walls. It’s a health hazard.”

  She shoved his chest. “It could be restored.”

  “And who is going to restore it?”

  She blinked and he suddenly realized she was crying. Guilt swept through him. Dear heavens. Had he made her cry? Why was she so upset over an old building that was falling apart?

  She wiped at her cheeks. “Definitely not Asher Industries,” she spat out.

  Cole felt like a jerk. He reached out to her, but she backed away from him. “Amanda…”

  “I think it’s best if you take me home.”

  He swallowed down the disappointment for a wasted evening. What had he been thinking, anyway? He knew she’d hate him once she found out who his father was. Who he was. “All right.”

  He followed Amanda as she strode down the sidewalk to the parking lot, her arms wrapped around her. When they neared his car, three figures stepped out of the shadows. Nikki and her gang. They were dressed as sexy cats, with short skirts and drawn-on whiskers.

  Cole had heard they were now banned from the mall. Served them right for what they did. At least Destiny had recovered from what they’d tried to do to her. He and Amanda walked to the side, to let them pass, but Nikki approached Amanda. “What a loser costume.” Nikki looked her up and down. “Fitting.”

  Cole grit his teeth and stepped between Amanda and the catty girls. If they were going to start something, he was going to be the one who ended it. “Leave her alone,” he said, his words coming out more like a growl.

  Nikki sneered. “Hang out with trash and you’ll eventually start smelling like it.”

  “Better than what you smell like,” he said. “Desperation.”

  Nikki and her clan scoffed and walked off toward the school. Whatever they were up to was not any good. He watched until they disappeared into the building. When he turned back to open the car door for Amanda, he realized she was already in the car.

  He climbed in the driver’s seat. Amanda wiped at her cheeks. She was crying again. He felt terrible. “Amanda—”

  She blew out a breath. “Thank you. For what you did back there.”

  He swallowed. “You’re welcome.” He didn’t know what else to say to her. He felt like a hole had been drilled through his chest. He sighed and cranked the ignition.

  They were both silent as he drove to her house, a small two-story with a detached garage. He pulled into her driveway. He wanted to make it all better. Wanted to tell her he understood why she wanted to save the opera house. But he didn’t. And if he said anything else, it would just sound like platitudes. All he could think of was to apologize. “I’m sorry.”

  “Yeah. Me, too,” she said. She got out of the car and walked into her house. He watched her retreating back.

  He’d totally messed up everything. And the worst part was he had to go back to the dance and sit there until it ended. He was on the cleanup committee.

  The committee he’d joined so he could spend more time with Amanda.

  Chapter 3

  Amanda wiped at her eyes as she tossed her Halloween costume into the corner of her room. The glass bottles clinked against each other. She plopped down on her bed and let out a groan.

  Cole’s father was the
one knocking down the opera house. How could that be? And how could Cole not see the value in preserving history?

  She hated that she broke down and started crying in front of Cole. How stupid. Humiliating. He probably thought she was a complete fool.

  Her phone vibrated and she looked at the screen. It was Destiny.

  What happened? Where are you? Cole’s sitting alone and he looks like his dog just died.

  The mental image of Cole sitting at the dance, depressed, made her feel guilty. But she couldn’t stay at the dance with him. Not when she was so emotional. She texted back.

  I had Cole take me home.

  Why??

  Because he is destroying the one thing I have to hold on to, and he doesn’t understand. She sighed. She couldn’t say that. She went with a simple answer.

  Because we had a fight.

  OMG girl, what about?

  Amanda didn’t want to get into it.

  Ask Cole. I’m going to bed.

  That bad, huh?

  Yeah. I’m sorry. I’m probably depressing you.

  It’s okay, girl. You know I love you. I’ll talk with you tomorrow at school.

  Love you, too.

  Amanda plugged her phone in and climbed into her pajamas. The music from her sister’s party still thrummed through the walls. It was only nine o’clock. She probably had to listen to it for another couple of hours before her sister would kick her friends out.

  She laid back on her pillow and tried not to think about the dance. About Cole. The night had started out so well.

  And she had totally screwed everything up.

  Cole unhooked the fishing line from the ceiling and dropped the spider into the plastic tub sitting on the floor by his ladder. He’d tried to stay at the dance but wasn’t in the mood, so he’d ended up wandering around Rockford until midnight when the dance got over.

  Destiny and Eli came into the gym, holding hands. “Cole,” she said. “There you are. We’ve been looking all over for you.”

  “Don’t worry. I wouldn’t ditch you guys. I said I’d help clean up, so here I am.”

  “We weren’t worried about the cleanup,” Eli said, pulling down a streamer. “We were worried about you.”

  “What happened? I texted Amanda, but she won’t tell me anything except that you guys had a fight.” Destiny pulled another ladder over to the middle of the room.

  Cole didn’t want to talk about it. “She’s right. We had a fight. I took her home. End of story.”

  “What was the fight about?” Destiny asked.

  “Stupid stuff.” Cole grabbed another spider. His grip crushed the Styrofoam and made a crunching noise.

  Destiny’s eyebrows rose. “Geesh, you don’t have to destroy spiders over it.”

  “Sorry.” He ducked his head sheepishly and tossed the mess into the bin.

  “Did you kiss her?” Eli wiggled his eyebrows.

  Cole scoffed. “No. She was too busy being upset at me because I don’t see why we can’t tear down that old building.”

  Destiny shot him a look. “Why don’t you just support her in trying to save the building? Is that too much to ask?”

  Yeah. That would make his father livid, if he stood up to him and told him he was against the parking structure. He might as well disown himself and start collecting coins on the street corner. “I can’t. My father is the one knocking down the opera house.”

  Destiny sucked in a breath, and Eli whistled. “Man, that sucks,” Eli said.

  “Yeah.” That was an understatement.

  Eli gave him a thoughtful look. “You like her, don’t you? I mean, like, like her.”

  Cole had never admitted it to anyone before, so the question felt a bit invasive, but he nodded, anyway. “Yeah.”

  “She likes you, too,” Destiny said as she climbed down her ladder to move it to a different spot.

  “Not right now, she doesn’t.” Cole stretched to reach a streamer.

  “She just gets all into her causes. It’s not you she dislikes,” Destiny said.

  Cole shrugged, not wanting to get into an argument, but not really believing her.

  Eli picked up a pile of streamers, the load in his arms looking like he’d just mugged a mummy. “You just need to make more of an effort. You know, spend more time with her. She’d get over her hang-ups if she admitted to herself that she liked you as a person.”

  Destiny nodded. “Yeah, that’s a good idea. You should sign up for the Fun Feline Run on Saturday. Amanda’s gathered up a ton of pledges, and all the money goes to help the local animal shelter. She’d think you were great if you join in the run.”

  He hated running. But if it got him on Amanda’s good side, he’d do it. “Good idea.”

  Eli stuffed the wad of streamers into the trash can. “Don’t give up, man. From what I’ve seen, you two are perfect for each other.”

  Cole made a face. “Are you serious?”

  “Yeah. You guys totally need a make-out session.” Eli laughed.

  Cole didn’t respond. He had to admit he’d been thinking about kissing Amanda quite a lot lately.

  Chapter 4

  Amanda sat down in her second period algebra class, the only class she had with Cole. She was dreading seeing him after last night’s horrible mess of a dance. She didn’t want to call it a date. It wasn’t a date at all. Just two people who needed to be there, going together. At least, that’s what she’d decided it was. She had totally made a fool of herself. He couldn’t help who his father was. She had been so stupid, and now she dreaded seeing him.

  Cole entered the room. He wore a polo shirt and jeans, his usual attire. He had a way of pulling off that look like no one else could. His gaze connected with hers. She looked down to her desk, embarrassed she’d been ogling him.

  He walked to his normal seat behind her. Usually he greeted her. Today he didn’t say anything, which was fine with her. She didn’t want to talk to him. Didn’t want to acknowledge the embarrassing display from last night.

  She waited for the teacher to come into the room and get the class started, but the seconds ticked by and the teacher didn’t come in. Where was he? He was never late to class. She grew uncomfortable ignoring Cole. She always turned around and talked to him. It was obvious she was ignoring him. The awkwardness grew until she couldn’t stand it anymore, and she finally turned around. “Hey.”

  He raised his eyebrows at her. “Hey.”

  “Listen, about last night…”

  He raised a hand. “It’s okay. I understand.”

  “You understand?” What did he mean? There was no way he could understand. He didn’t even let her apologize.

  “Yes. You are passionate about all kinds of things. And I…” He swallowed. “I can’t share in those passions.”

  “Can’t, or won’t?” Amanda didn’t mean to say it. It just came out.

  “Can’t.”

  She held in a scoff. He was blaming his unwillingness to even look at her side of things on something out of his control? What sense did that even make? “I don’t believe you.”

  Heat crept up her neck and she swiveled around. Why did she say that? She was such an idiot. Was she trying to pick another fight?

  After a minute, she heard him shift in his seat. He tugged on her ponytail. It was a juvenile thing to do, but that was Cole. She turned and glared at him. “What?”

  “I’m sorry I upset you. Seems like I’m doing that a lot lately.” He hesitated, like he was going to say something else, but then changed his mind.

  He had upset her. But she didn’t want to be a jerk about it. “I’m sorry, too.”

  “Can we call a truce?”

  “What kind of truce?”

  He shrugged. “You ignore that my father is the one knocking down that little opera house, and I’ll try not to be like, ‘Oh, hey, cool new parking garage.’ Then we can maybe get along for a change.”

  She swallowed down the urge to sock him in the throat. It wasn’t a ‘little opera
house.’ It was so much more than that to her. It was one of the only places in the town which made her feel closer to her father. But she couldn’t tell him that. He wouldn’t understand. “How about you tell your father where to stuff it,” she hissed, and turned back around.

  Geesh, she did it again. Why did she allow her anger to surge like that?

  Mr. Harrison, the algebra teacher, entered and held up his hand. “Pass your homework up to the front of the class, please,” he said.

  Destiny tried to calm herself down. She didn’t want to start crying in math class. How lame was that? She tried to think of something else. Anything else.

  Her phone vibrated and she welcomed the distraction. She pulled it out and kept it hidden in her lap, so the teacher wouldn’t see. It was a text from an unknown number. How odd. She opened it.

  Hey.

  That was it. Just a hey, from someone she didn’t know. She texted back.

  Who is this?

  It took a second for the person to respond. They typed for a minute, then their answer appeared.

  I go to your school.

  Amanda stared at the words. She probably should feel creeped out, but kids at school played funny pranks on their phones all the time. It was probably just some kid messing with her. The teacher wasn’t paying attention, so she texted back.

  Who are you?

  The answer took a minute before it came in.

  A friend of Destiny’s.

  She swiveled in her chair to look at Cole, immediately convinced it was him, but he sat there staring at his algebra book, both hands visible on the desk. Huh. Maybe it wasn’t him.

  “Amanda? Care to answer the question?” Mr. Harrison asked, his hand on his hip.

  Crap. Called out by the teacher. She swallowed and quickly scanned the board for a clue. Nope. She had no idea. “Three?”

  “No. Please pay attention.”

  “Sorry.” She inwardly groaned. There was nothing worse than having the teacher point out to everyone in the class that you were messing around and not listening.