by Lannah Smith
"You're right." She smiled. "You're totally right."
"I know I am," I said with a nod.
"Thanks, Terry. And thank you for protecting me from her."
"Whatever," I murmured distractedly. I still couldn't believe I defended Leon Gage.
Curious, she asked, "How do you know her?"
"She used to go to our school," I muttered darkly. "She was the most popular girl back then, and boy, did she know that. She's the kind of person who acts all innocent and sweet to those privileged to receive her attention but then turns to a mega-bitch to those who doesn't. Especially to girls who she deems competition."
Sophia turned a tad pale as I spoke.
"She transferred to another school last year and we didn't see her again. Until now." I took a step closer to her and dropped my voice low. "You stay away from her, Sophia. She will eat you up and spit you out before you even noticed what happened. Do you understand me?"
She bobbed her head up and down. I narrowed my eyes at her, trying to discern if she wasn't dumb enough to not heed my warning. Then I sighed, snatched my cell phone from her hand and together we headed back to the pizza place.
I kept fixing her problems for her, I thought resentfully as we went.
Will I ever fix mine?
◆◆◆
John pushed Rohan to Leon's direction.
Rohan, being the asshole brat that he was, pushed him right back and glared at him.
John sighed and pushed him again. And while he was doing this, Skull stared at them, biting his lower lip to stop himself from laughing.
Leon leaned against the hood of his car, looking at the leaves, seemingly waiting for the scuffle to end. But John could see his lips twitching and could feel his gratitude. Leon had wanted to talk to Rohan himself and apologize but John didn't let him. Let the brat approach him first, he told him. It wasn't Leon's fault.
"Stop pushing me," Rohan snapped at John when he pushed him again.
Thoroughly pissed, John shoved him. Hard. Rohan almost tumbled to the ground but luckily righted himself up before he could. Realizing how close he was to Leon, Rohan glowered over his shoulder at John, promising vengeance.
Leon dropped his gaze.
Rohan turned his head to glare at him.
Then Leon said, "Come here, Rohan."
"I'm not if you're going to punch me."
"Jesus, Rohan," John groaned.
Didn't he want to fix things with Leon? Why the hell was he fucking this up?
"He's making a fist," Rohan retorted. "I'm being careful."
Leon looked resigned when he said, "Do you really think I'll punch you when you look like shit already?"
Rohan shrugged. "Never stopped other people before."
But even though he said that, he walked over to stand next to him. Leon stared at him for a moment. He lifted a hand and Rohan winced. Then that wince turned into a dark scowl when Leon started to ruffle his hair.
"Stop it."
"Yeah. Only I can do that," Skull inserted.
"Stop talking shit, Skull. Hell, I can't wait for the day I'll be taller than you jerks."
"Keep drinking milk and soon you'll be taller than Skull," John said with a grin as he lifted himself on the bed of his truck and stretched out on the metal with his legs dangling in the air.
"No, don't. I want to be the tallest."
John closed his eyes and expelled a long sigh.
Finally. Peace.
Peace between Rohan and Leon.
Peace between him and his friends.
Peaceful days were coming, as long as none of them fucked things up again, and he was going to enjoy them. They also had one more week before the end of the school year. Ah, but he loved summer.
"You guys remember how I called dibs on the summer party?" Skull suddenly asked and John opened his eyes.
"A party you failed to mention to me?" Leon's expression turned dark.
"A bonfire party actually, but yeah. Anyway, I've already invited the West-"
Leon didn't let him finish. "A party John failed to mention that he had already mentioned the same to Sophia?"
"Like how you failed to mention April went to your house?" John commented dryly as he sat up. "Like how you failed to mention that your father visited you?"
Leon glared at him. "I handled it."
Liar.
"Sure, you did," John muttered.
"Shut up, John," Rohan hissed and his brows lifted.
Wow. Did the brat have Leon's back now?
"Speaking of failures to mention stuff," Skull started. "Let's talk about how you failed to mention a lot of things, John."
They were all staring at him. John narrowed his eyes suspiciously at them.
"What do you mean, Skull?"
They all exchanged glances. Then they shrugged.
"What?" John demanded.
They grinned. Even Leon. And it didn't take John a few seconds to know this was about Terry Evans.
When John saw Terry three weeks ago at the bookstore where he and Sophia talked about Leon and practically followed her around until she got fed up and stomped out, Skull and Rohan were passing by outside. The both of them were eating ice cream and both of them had stopped when they both saw Terry and John. Both of them had the same surprised expressions.
And after quickly getting over their surprise, both of them gave John smug looks.
Terry didn't see them. She got into her car and drove off without a word. John scratched his head as he watched her car disappear.
Damn. He'd already solved Leon and Sophia's problem. When will he solve his?
And damn his friends for acting like they didn't see him running after Terry. They just walked past him, snickering under their breaths, as he continued to stand and sulk at Terry's cruel brush off.
What the fuck did these two idiots know?
"Hey, isn't that Terry Evans?"
John's gaze whipped to the lone figure walking across the parking lot. His stomach clenched. She was so beautiful in the blue dress she was wearing. And her legs, damn it. He still remembered the feel of them around his waist while he was making love to her. He had always loved her legs, remembered telling her so, and remembered Terry giving him an exasperated but loving look.
Damn, but he missed her.
He heard someone whistling and he realized he wasn't the only person who was appreciating her legs. Giving Skull a scowl, he hopped off the truck bed.
"Maybe I should invite her to my party," Skull suggested, not taking his eyes off his girl.
Yes.
His girl.
"Someone that uptight won't come," John spoke up with a growl.
"I can loosen her up."
John fought the urge to punch Skull on the mouth. "Weren't we going to play at my house? Let's leave."
"Wait, I want to try talking to her."
Thank fuck, Terry was on the phone and hadn't spotted them as she made her way to her car. Skull made a move to approach her but John quickly threw out his leg. Rohan burst out laughing when Skull tumbled to the ground.
"Oops," John mumbled derisively.
Skull gave him a look of murderous intent as he rose to his feet.
And John started to run.
What was he doing in my car?
What the hell was John doing in my car?
"Start driving," he ordered, sweating and breathing hard. "Go!"
I looked at him like he was crazy.
No. He was crazy and I wasn't driving anywhere with him in my car.
"Get out," I whispered in disbelief.
He shook his head. "If you don't start driving right now I'll put you on my lap and drive the damn car by myself."
I glared at him. I wasn't moving a dang inch until he gets out.
"Or I'll open the window and get the attention of whoever passes by. Would you like that instead, Evans?"
Jerk.
Someone was yelling as I backed out of the parking lot and I glanced at the rearvi
ew mirror. Skull was running around, shouting John's name and yelling all sorts of curses at him.
"Are you hiding from Skull?" I asked.
His answer came too quick. "No."
I pursed my lips. Then said, "I'm letting you out when we're out of school property."
He didn't speak, just looked out of the window. My hands curled around the wheel when I remembered the last time I saw him.
"Well, well, well," John had drawled when he saw me in the bookstore. He'd been talking to Sophia and I've been looking for some books. "If it isn't Evans."
Something about this hit me somewhere deep. The universe was playing me, Lady Luck had it out for me and Fate, which was never on my side, was apparently not done piling my life with a lot of crap. I'd tried so hard to avoid him but here he was, looking pleased with himself.
It almost made me want to laugh. I did not, of course laugh.
Instead, my eyes went glacial. "Steele," I murmured. "Why are you here?"
John raised a brow. "Am I not allowed to step inside a bookstore?"
"With your level of intelligence, I find it quite surprising you'd even dare to."
Sophia's head snapped from me to John and back to me again. "You know each other?" she asked in surprise.
"No," I answered with a scowl at the same time John said, "Oh, yeah."
My scowl deepened. Sophia did not miss my wintry demeanor and she tensed.
"Want to join us?" John offered, jerking a thumb at the chair beside him.
"No, thanks. I wouldn't want to catch anything," I said with my lip curled.
It was John's turn to scowl at me.
"Are you here to buy a book, Terry?" Sophia interrupted in a panicky voice. "They've got some new titles."
"I'm here to buy prep books," I answered. "But I'll go check them out."
"I'll come with," John announced as he pushed his chair back and stood up. "I'm going to see if they have some good comics around here."
I gave him a look of pure disgust but John merely grinned at me in almost a... challenging way. Without another word, I whirled on my heel and stalked off to the other side of the store.
Dang it.
I wanted to kiss him. I wanted to fall into his arms so bad.
But if Haru and his men saw us I'd be in deep, deep trouble.
I needed to get away from him.
But he'd follow me.
And was clearly done with my constant avoidance when he grabbed my arm, twisted me until I was facing him and pushed me against a book shelf.
"Hi," he said with a grin.
I tried to stomp on his foot but it only served to make him press his body closer to mine.
"Let me go," I growled. "What are you even doing here anyway?"
He frowned down at me. Then he said, "Mending things for Sophia and Leon."
"Don't you think it's better if they break up?"
"Better for whom?" His brow lifted. "They're miserable without each other."
Better for me.
I let out a sigh. "Whatever. Now move. I can't breathe."
But instead of moving away, he dipped his head into the crook of my neck and placed a kiss under my jaw.
"I'm mad at you," he whispered in my ear.
I shivered and he felt it. He chuckled.
"Step back," I breathed.
"You did not even greet me on my birthday. I was really hurt you know."
"I was... busy."
"Bullshit," he clipped, lifting his head back to glower at me. "But whatever. I let it go because it's in the past now and unlike you, I don't hold grudges."
"I don't hold grudges," I denied.
"Bullshit," he said again and it began to irk me. "You didn't pick up my calls."
So I did the one thing I've always wanted to do to him.
"You punched me," John groaned. He was bent over, holding his stomach and kneeling on the ground. "You just fucking punched me."
Shaking my hand, I said, "Be glad I didn't knock you out cold."
Stepping past him, I burst out of the aisle and rushed to the door. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Leon had arrived and was talking to Sophia, who was red-faced and flustered.
"See? They've made up now," John said behind me and I quickened my pace. "Why can't we, Evans?"
"Oh, shut up," I muttered acidly as I pushed the door open.
"Terry, wait."
But I'd already jumped in my car and drove away.
That was almost a month ago.
I'd heard nothing from John since his birthday. But ever since we saw each other at the bookstore, he'd kept calling me again. I let the phone ring but I didn't answer it.
And since then, Sophia became suspicious.
She'd caught the flash of John's name on my cellphone while we were out eating pizza with Hannah. And even though I told her not to mention to anyone, not even to Hannah, about meeting John in the bookstore, I knew that she knows something was going on between us but she was wise enough not to mention it anymore.
"We're here," I told him as I parked the car to the side. "Get out."
John glanced at me. He was drumming his fingers on his knee, his rings making little clinking noise as they knocked against each other. His expression was pensive and I frowned at him. Why wasn't he doing what I told him to do?
I looked out of my car and around the area. Haru had been excessively strict with me since the dinner party at the Camerons and had even gone as far as to put a bodyguard on me before he left to go back to Japan. I wasn't even allowed to drive myself for days to and from school until last week when I called Haru to say I couldn't hang out with Sophia if I was always supervised. So Haru opted to have the bodyguard trail me instead.
And since Julie was hired by my brother, I couldn't act freely in front of her anymore. Iris kept sending me angry messages, asking why I haven't been calling or replying to her recently but I didn't want to get her involved in my problems anymore. She couldn't afford to lose her college scholarship.
"You're acting awfully suspicious," John drawled.
"Shut up," I muttered.
"Are you hiding from someone? Other than me?"
I turned to him. "Just get out, Steele."
His eyes narrowed. "You're not yourself."
Then I saw it.
A black car.
My bodyguard's car.
It was weaving through traffic just a few blocks away from the gates of school.
"You're pale." John's hands went to cup my face and he turned my face to him. "What the hell is wrong?"
"Get out," I whispered. "Please."
His face hardened. Then he seemed to make a decision because he'd snatched the car keys before he got out of my car.
"Hey! Where are you taking my keys?"
My door opened and he bent down to say, "Get out."
"No—"
He grabbed my arm and pulled me out. He dragged me to the passenger's side, opened the door and pushed me to the seat. I had no choice, I didn't want to make a scene and my bodyguard's car was coming nearer and nearer so I sat silently while he slid in the driver's seat. He looked angry, the angriest in fact that I've seen him. My heart was still beating wildly. I couldn't be found out with the guard with John of all people.
John pulled out of the curb and drove wildly, the engine roaring as he did. I threw out an arm to hold the car door when he turned around the corner. I looked back. The black car was nowhere in sight and relief flooded my system.
"What the hell was that?"
I twisted my neck to look at him. "What?"
"What are you so afraid of?" he fired at me.
My lips opened to answer but no sound came out. Pursing them, I looked away from him. He drove the car in an alley and stopped. Then he exhaled loudly.
"Is it him?" he asked.
My hands clenched into fists.
"It's Haru, isn't it?"
I shook my head.
