Flirting with the Bad Boy

by Michelle Pennington

  “Sorry. I know I’m gross right now.”

  “No.” I cleared my throat, which felt way too dry. “I mean, it wasn’t that kind of yikes.”

  His eyes lit with humor and something a lot more intense that sent tingles down my spine. “Oh yeah? Hey, I just wanted you to know that I’m going to talk to Brielle when I get home. Can I come by and talk to you tonight?”

  Words. I needed words. This was happening.

  A wolf whistle pierced the air nearby, assaulting my eardrums. Annoyed, I turned to glare at the guy responsible. It was Jason’s friend from the beach.

  “Dude’s got game,” Adam said. “Sure you can handle two women?”

  Jason frowned. “Shut it.”

  Then Troy was there, glaring at him. “You’d think one slut would be enough for you. I guess not.”

  The silence that fell over the hallway felt like the air before lightning strikes. The atmosphere crackled with tension.

  Jason squared his shoulders, drawing himself up to his full height. “Back off before I destroy the rest of your face.”

  “Jason, don’t.” My voice was small, scared. But in the quiet, it was too loud.

  “Yeah, don’t, Jason.” Troy mocked him.

  Jason didn’t look at me. His eyes stayed locked on Troy. But he stepped back and picked up his shoulder pads. “Amber, you should go.”

  “You too.” I was determined to stop this if I could.

  “I am.” He tried to walk away, but Troy stepped to the side and pushed him. Jason only stepped back, absorbing the force of it, but didn’t even stagger. “Not here, man. Not now.”

  Jason brushed past him and made it five feet down the hallway. For a few seconds, I thought it was going to be done. But then Troy growled and charged at him. I screamed, watching in horror as he tackled Jason from behind.

  I’d seen fights in movies, and I’d seen the one on the beach. But never before had I had to watch someone I cared about be attacked. It all happened too fast for me to make sense of what was going on, but the sound of Troy’s fist connecting with the side of Jason’s face was sickening. I could see every bunched muscle and straining tendon in Jason’s neck and arms as he somehow pushed up from under Troy’s weight and bucked him off. Before Troy recovered his balance, Jason grabbed him from behind, getting him in a headlock and wrapping up his legs with his own.

  Even though I was massively relieved that Jason had gotten control of the fight, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the gash over Jason’s cheek—or the amount of blood running from it, splashing down on Troy’s face.

  Then the football coaches were there, yelling and shoving through the crowd. Jason let go of Troy as soon as they appeared. But even as one of the coaches dragged Troy back, he pulled free and dove for Jason again. Fortunately, he was no match for two massive coaches. As they hauled Troy away, a couple of the other players gave Jason a hand up. For just a moment, he seemed unsteady, then his face hardened with determined effort. He leaned back against the wall and bent forward, his cut dripping on the white tiles. I swallowed hard, trying to control my stomach’s reaction to seeing him hurt.

  As soon as I had a clear path, I hurried to his side. “How’s your head? Should you sit down?”

  “I’m okay. I told you not to stay.”

  “Like I was going to leave you.”

  “I hate that you saw that.”

  Someone held a white towel out near his face. As he took it and held it to his cheek, I looked up to see my coach standing there. She didn’t look friendly, despite giving him the towel. “You need to go to the coaches’ office, Hunt.”

  “Why?” I asked. “He needs to get to the doctor.”

  “We’re calling his parents.”

  “Grandparents,” I corrected. Worry shot through me. “You know this wasn’t his fault, right? Troy attacked him. Everyone saw it.”

  Coach frowned. “And I’m sure it was completely unprovoked, right?”

  “It was.”

  “Amber, I thought you had better sense than to get tangled up with a troublemaker like him. You should be careful or he’ll drag you down with him.”

  I had never before been angry at my coach, but now I was so mad I was shaking with the force of it. Who knows what would have come out of my mouth if Jason hadn’t dropped his hand on my shoulder.

  “It’s okay, Amber.” When I didn’t answer, he rubbed his hand up and down my arm. “Hey.”

  I turned and looked at him. “This wasn’t your fault.”

  He smiled, that crooked, halfway attempt that absolutely killed me now. “Sure it was, when it comes down to it. She’s right. I’m trouble. I always will be. But not for you. Not anymore.”

  Then he turned and walked away, down the hallway toward the coaches’ office.

  I wanted to scream and argue and grab him in an embrace he wouldn’t be able to walk away from. But I knew I had to let him go for now. Later, when things had calmed down, I’d talk him out of all the nonsense I knew was going through his head right now. He was still a riddle, just as much as that first day I met him. But now the question wasn’t what he was thinking, but how I could change his mind.

  “Are you going to be okay, Amber?” Coach Snyder asked.

  I blinked at her, coming to grips with the fact that an adult I respected and admired could still be totally wrong. “You know, if people like you would figure out how to help him instead of just judging him, he’d have an easier time being the guy he really is.”

  Not bothering to wait around for her to argue with me, because I knew she wouldn’t care about my opinion, I picked up my bag and left.

  14

  I hated that Jason didn’t have a phone. Hated it with every fiber of my being.

  Not knowing what had happened after I left, what he was thinking or feeling killed me. What was even worse was going to school on Wednesday and finding out that so many people knew what I didn’t: that Troy and Jason had both been suspended for three days. Which also meant they wouldn’t be playing in the game on Friday. I was gutted for him.

  The only thing I wanted to do was go to him, but I was stuck at school until practice was over at five o’clock.

  And if anything else was needed to make it all one of the worst days of my life, the whole school was talking about it. Rumors were flying, and everyone knew I was involved.

  Maddie and Charlotte had already been filled in on exactly what happened, since we’d been texting since last night, so their concerned looks when I went to first hour was nice. At least there were two people in this school who understood that Jason wasn’t the punk everyone was saying he was.

  “How are you doing?” Charlotte asked, leaning over from her desk.

  “Terrible. I don’t want to be here.”

  “Yeah,” Maddie said, nodding. “I heard Brielle didn’t come to school either today.”

  I pressed my lips together. Great. The one hope I’d had was to find her and make her tell me if she’d seen Jason last night. I doubted he’d had the conversation with her that he’d hinted he was going to have, but maybe she could at least tell me how he was doing.

  “I’m going to his house after school.”

  Charlotte shifted in her seat, her brows pinched together. “Amber, I know you’re worried that he’s going to take this as a sign you guys shouldn’t be together, but maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing.”

  I stared at her. “What?”

  “I just want you to be happy. Nothing against Jason—I don’t even know him. But I thought you hated drama.”

  “I do! But that doesn’t mean I don’t want him.”

  “Okay. Then go get him.”

  Her words were still ringing in my ears when I left school after practice. I didn’t even bother going home to change, that’s how anxious I was to get to him.

  When I pulled up in front of his house, I looked around for his truck, even though I knew he probably parked it in the back. But it still made my stomach knot when I didn’t see it.
I knocked on the door and waited, twisting my fingers together and tightening my ponytail.

  An older lady with short, curled hair and a lined, worried face opened the door. “Yes?”

  Swallowing to control my nerves, I asked, “Can I talk to Jason?”

  She frowned. “I’m sorry. He’s not here.”

  “Oh.” I bit my lip. “Do you know when he will be? I really need to talk to him.”

  To my horror, her eyes filled with tears. “I don’t know, honey. I just don’t know. He was so upset yesterday after getting in that fight that he just took off. We haven’t heard from him since.”

  “I’m so sorry. You must be worried sick. I am too. Do you have any idea where he might have gone?”

  “Sometimes he goes to visit his mom, but we called her. She hasn’t seen him.” I stayed silent, thinking hard about what to do next. She kept talking, almost as if she needed to get her worries out. “If he doesn’t come back soon, he might not come back at all. He’s eighteen, you know. We just wanted him to finish school. He’s being scouted by colleges, you know. He could make a good life for himself.”

  “Don’t worry. He’ll come back. And he’ll finish school. You’ll see.”

  I didn’t even know this poor lady, but we had a bond she didn’t yet realize. We both loved Jason and wanted him to succeed. I had a feeling there weren’t too many people in the world on his side, but his grandma and I were going to be a team. So I reached out and hugged her.

  It surprised her, but after a second, she hugged me back. For a long time, we stood like that on her porch with the cold breeze covering my legs with goosebumps and rushing into her living room, swirling papers and lacy curtains.

  When I stepped back, I said, “If he comes back or you hear from him, tell him Amber wants to talk to him and that he’d better not ignore me.”

  “He’s a good kid,” she insisted as I stepped down off the porch. “He’s got so much potential.”

  “I know. Don’t give up yet.”

  I ran to my car, anxious to go check on a hunch I had. But Brielle was there, leaning against my car, so I slowed down, coming to a halt a few yards away from her.

  “Looking for Jason?”

  “Yes.” That was a stupid question, even coming from her.

  “Well, good luck finding him. When he gets like this, he just wants to be left alone.”

  “So you know all about it then?”

  She smirked at me. “Of course. He came straight to my house last night.”

  He’d had a chance to talk to her then. Taking a guess that he had, I said, “Good. That will make things easier when I figure out where he is.”

  “What will?”

  I walked past her and opened the driver’s door. “Did you want something from me, Brielle? Or were you just going to try one more time to keep Jason and me apart?”

  “He is my boyfriend.”

  “I don’t think he is. And I don’t think he ever really wanted to be. It’s almost like he was with you because he had to be.” The thought sank into my brain. “Wait. Is that what it was? Just a way to get Troy off your tail?”

  Brielle shrugged, her expression vicious. “Maybe. But it doesn’t matter. Even if you talk him into dating you, which I doubt, it won’t last. And then I’ll be here, waiting.”

  I shook my head at her. “I suggest you stop waiting.”

  There was nothing else to say. She’d have to deal with her problems on her own. I wasn’t going to let her pull me into her misery. All I cared about was finding Jason.

  Once I was a few blocks away from Jason’s neighborhood, I pulled over and sent my mom a text that I might be back late because I had some errands to run. I didn’t dare tell her anything else. The less she knew about all this the better. She and Cole had a good impression of Jason, and I didn’t want this to mess that up, especially since it wasn’t his fault—no matter what he said.

  I took a moment to look at a map on my phone so I could figure out how to get to the beach where we’d been Friday night. It was a long shot, but it was the only guess I had right now. It would probably be completely vacant by now, and that was probably exactly what he wanted.

  It took me twenty minutes to get there, and I had to park at the lot near the access road because there was no way I could drive my car out on the sand.

  With my phone in one hand, I ran down the access road and emerged onto an empty beach. He could be a mile or more away in any direction, and it was already getting dark because some clouds were rolling in. I didn’t have much time.

  Moving down to the wet sand line where the sand would be compacted and easier to run on, I turned in the direction we’d gone the other night. Waves crashed close by, occasionally washing high up on the beach. My right foot got soaked, but I kept running. Shells crunched under my feet as I scanned the beach ahead for any sign of Jason’s truck. Soon I realized I was straining my eyes because it was getting dark quickly. Just as I was about to admit defeat, I realized that the darker shadow ahead was actually a truck-shaped silhouette with a slight glow behind it. Running harder, I almost whooped for joy when I recognized the battered green paint job.

  When I came around the corner of the truck and found Jason sitting in the sand, poking the coals in the fire, I stumbled to a stop and slammed my hands on my hips, gasping for breath. Running on sand when you can’t see and with adrenaline pumping through your body apparently takes it out of you.

  “Amber? What the…” Jason jumped to his feet.

  I didn’t give him a chance to start thinking straight...or thinking at all. Thinking was the enemy now. I ran forward and threw my arms around his neck. I’d never kissed anybody in my life and Jason was not the kind of guy to whom you wanted to give a bad kiss. Here’s hoping he’d be too shocked to even pay much attention to it. I tugged on the back of his neck and stood on my tiptoes—which proved to be worthless when the sand shifted under my feet. But somehow, I managed to plant my lips firmly on his. I kissed him, harder than I meant to, and then stood back and waited for his reaction.

  With only the light from the fire, it was difficult to judge his reaction. Then his arms came around me, pulling me tightly against his chest, and Jason Hunt proceeded to teach me how to kiss properly.

  Turns out, it was the most natural thing in the world. All I had to do was respond exactly the way my instincts told me to, mimic the way his lips gently tugged at mine, and just enjoy the sensation of him sweeping his kisses from the corner of my lips up to my cheekbone and over to my left ear. He exhaled, hard, sending a wave of warmth across my sensitive skin.

  “I wasn’t going to let this happen,” he murmured in a broken voice.

  “I know. But I was tired of us acting like idiots.”

  A big drop of water plopped on my head. I looked up, even though I could barely see anything in the dim light. There was no sunset, just the darkest of grey skies overhead. More rain fell on my face. It was cold, but somehow, I didn’t even care. Maybe because Jason pulled me back for another kiss then. And this time, he was not holding back. It was like a dam had burst inside him. He cupped the back of my head and deepened the kiss. I could taste the rain on our lips and hear the hiss of the fire where the rain hit the smoldering coals.

  “Come on,” Jason said. “We have to talk, and clearly, we can’t do it out here.”

  “Are you sure? This seems much more fun.”

  “Amber, for the love of…get in the truck.”

  15

  Turns out that Jason, the guy who didn’t even care much about graduating from school, was way smarter than I was, the straight A honor student. As he practically shoved me inside the truck, a crack of thunder ripped open the clouds. He was soaked in the seconds it took him to get in after me and close his door. The rainfall on the metal roof of the truck was deafening, but all I cared about was convincing Jason that we were now a thing.

  “You know your grandma is worried sick about you, right?”

  He blinked at me and then
looked away. “Yeah, I’m sure.” His voice was rough. “She should be used to me disappointing her by now.”

  “Are you crazy? She thinks the world of you! Don’t you get it? She just wants to know you’re okay.”

  “I’ll go see her as soon as I get you home. How did you know I was here?”

  “I didn’t. I just hoped you were. By the way, you are getting a phone—even if it’s just a flip phone with prepaid minutes. I’ve almost gone out of my mind wanting to know if you were okay. We need light. I want to see your face.”

  He sighed. “No, you don’t. But I have a feeling you’re going to insist anyway.” He reached out and turned on the truck. As the engine rumbled to life, he turned the controls that would get the heater going and then reached up and turned on the cab light.

  Even knowing that it might look bad, I still had to bite my lip to keep from gasping. The right side of his face was mottled with purple bruises and there was a slightly jagged line of stitches across his cheekbone. “I wish I could have five minutes with Troy.”

  “What?”

  “With a baseball bat in my hands,” I clarified. “I mean, sure, you beat him up too, but it was because he was being a total jerk. And you didn’t come at him from behind. Don’t worry, you’re going to look even hotter with a cool scar like that.”

  “I’m going to look even more like the town toughie.”

  “Well, your bad reputation works for you, trust me. Besides, I’ll always remember that you got it by defending my honor. It’s kind of weird being called a slut when I hadn’t even kissed anybody before.”

  “Never? So that was—?”

  “My first kiss? Yes. Sorry. I’m sure it was awful, but you know how dedicated I am at practicing until I’m perfect at something.” I grinned, and he couldn’t help grinning back at me, even though I could tell he totally tried not to.

  He growled softly and reached up to turn off the lights. At least the lights from the dashboard made it possible for me to still see him.

  “Amber, look. As much as I want to change and make myself a better person for you, I’m cursed. I was born to be a certain way, and life just won’t let me be any different.”