Love Between Enemies

by Molly E. Lee

  “Me, either,” she said, her voice suddenly breathless. “I wish I could. Bray gives me a hard time about it.” She swiped at the dirt on her cheeks. “But I can’t keep up with her.”

  “Who could?” Bray had the unique ability to keep track of all the characters, relationships, and timelines of so many different shows. Fynn did, too. It was like an art. Something they enjoyed doing together, but it sounded downright exhausting to me.

  “Someday,” Zoey said, plopping the rag in the sink and switching the water off, “I’m totally going to take a week off from life and find out what I’ve been missing.”

  I grinned. I doubted that would ever happen. The girl couldn’t sit still for long. We had that in common, too. “If that ever happens, please be sure to call me. I might just have to join you.”

  “You think I won’t?”

  I leaned against the sink, facing her. “I think hell has a closer chance of freezing over than you not studying, working, or planning anything for an entire week.”

  Her lips parted open like she wanted to argue, but she relented, laughing. “Whatever. I will call you, and you’ll have to trash all your plans to keep your word.”

  I raised my hand like a good boy scout. “Promise. I’ll gladly accept that challenge. If you ever do.”

  She clucked her tongue at my tone, but the smile on her lips was genuine.

  “Hey,” I said. “Do you remember that time freshman year we both signed up to host the lock-in for the Boys & Girls club?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” she said from where she stood across from me. “It was chaotic.”

  I smiled to myself.

  The night was supposed to be a fun volunteer project, one where we organized games and activities for the Boys & Girls club members that related to the relative topics they currently studied. We also threw in a few games that were pure—non-study—fun, like shuffleboard for candy prizes.

  Zoey and I had divided up the activities, splitting the room down the middle. She’d been in charge of her activities and I mine. The idea had been to have half the work, and be able to dedicate more time to each section.

  Except that night, nothing went according to plan. Some kids loved certain games while others hated them. The more popular activities—the ones with the best prizes or biggest laugh factor, like charades—were overcrowded quickly. And the more tired the kids got, the shorter their tempers became.

  We’d set up in the gym, and I remember glancing over the heads of dozens of kids running rampant. Each one had sprinted from station to station in a speed I still to this day think was supernatural. I’d locked eyes with Zoey, who’d been frantically trying to calm a boy down who thought another boy had pushed him on purpose when it was his turn at shuffleboard.

  Within the chaos—the sounds of laughter and arguing and excitement bouncing off the walls made it hard to think straight—I looked at her and I’d somehow known we’d figure it out…together.

  In that moment we weren’t opposing each other. We were teammates on the same crazy sinking ship. The second we crossed the line we’d split down the middle of the room and put our heads together, the night had become more manageable. We were able to make a seamless transition from the games, to the reading selection, to finally, the movie at the end of the night. It had only played for a few minutes before more than half the room had fallen asleep in their sleeping bags—despite each one of them saying they’d make it through the entire lock-in without sleeping.

  As the room had quieted for the first time in hours, Zoey sank into a chair next to me. We were in the middle of idle chitchat when she’d nodded off. I didn’t bother waking her, simply tossed my hoodie around her shoulders and took over to watch the rest of the night.

  “What made you think of that?” she asked, drawing me out of the memory.

  I laughed. “I think it was the first time I ever realized how well we worked together,” I said. “But I didn’t know for sure until tonight.”

  “I did,” she said. “If we hadn’t found common ground that night those kids would’ve overrun us for sure.” She chuckled.

  “I know,” I said. “I think I was always so wrapped up in trying to be as good as you, or a shade better, that I didn’t realize.”

  “It’s not a big deal,” she snapped, and I couldn’t help but notice the frustration in her tone.

  “Isn’t it?” I asked, peering down at her.

  “It’s in the past, Gordon,” she said, waving me off. “Don’t let it bother you.”

  “I’m not,” I said, raking my fingers through my hair. “Wait, that’s not entirely true.” My head was spinning, the whole night—the whole damn day—surging and twisting questions I never entertained the answers to. “It is bothering me,” I admitted. “The idea that all these years we were at each other’s throats when we could’ve been…”

  “Could’ve been what?” she asked when I hadn’t finished.

  “Friends,” I said. “I think we would’ve been really good friends.” Or maybe even more than that. The hope pulsing in my gut wished to be more than that, now. And I couldn’t deny it, even though our competitive history suggested I should. Even though the pending meeting with her father screamed I should lock my jaw and head home right this second. Making a move on his daughter? That would likely be grounds for him to ignore my entire proposal. Quite possibly burn the shop to the ground on principle, too.

  But tonight had made so many things clear, and I didn’t have a clue what to do about any of it.

  She smiled. “Like Braylen and Fynn?” Her eyes flashed wide and red flushed her cheeks. “I mean, not exactly like them. Because they…well, she…”

  Zoey stumbled over her words, and I couldn’t stop the smile spreading across my face. Maybe we weren’t that far off in our lines of thought. I knew she saw what Bray and Fynn couldn’t see—that they were perfect for each other. Did that mean she thought in a different life we could’ve been, too?

  “I think so,” I said, stepping closer to her. “Why not?”

  A stuttered breath escaped her lips. “Because,” she said. “We…we’re not friends. We’ve never been friends. We’ve always been…”

  “Rivals?”

  “Enemies.”

  I flinched at the word. “But that’s over, now, right? School is done. The internship decision is out of our hands. There’s nothing left for us to fight about.”

  She darted her gaze to the floor, picking at the polish on her thumbnail.

  A charge of electricity crackled in the air between us. Something tangible and real and new. My heart raced, and I couldn’t stop myself from looking down to her lips.

  Kissing her would never end well. Even if she liked it, her dad would kill me if he found out. And if she didn’t like it? Forget torching our shop. He’d find new ways to make my life awful.

  But the powerful swirling in my heart had no sense of logic. It knew only what I wanted. And what I wanted was to taste Zoey’s lips.

  I gauged her reaction as I shifted to lean closer to her, never losing her eyes as I inched my face toward hers. If ever there was a moment to take the risk and kiss Zoey, now was that time. I could feel it in my bones.

  She shifted her head up to meet mine, nodding slightly as she did.

  The permission only made my heart race harder.

  Only a breath separated us.

  Then the room was engulfed in darkness.

  The music that had been playing in the speakers throughout the house died.

  We both jolted at the shock, the sounds of gasping partygoers echoing outside the closed bathroom door. Zoey shuffled in front of me, immediately digging out her cell phone and lighting up the screen. My eyes drew to the light, and I accidentally read a preview of a text someone had sent her.

  “Whoa,” I said, squinting to make sure I’d seen that clearly. “Is someone texting you about me?” I’d seen my name in the text, but she’d turned her phone around before I could read the rest.

  Zoey f
orced out a laugh, shook her head, and pocketed the cell, submerging us in darkness again.

  “What—” I began, but Zoey clutched both sides of my face, successfully cutting off my words. She jerked me downward, her mouth colliding with mine in an intense, hungry, almost angry way.

  And I absolutely effing loved it.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Zoey

  Gordon tasted like mint and warmth, and the way he kissed me back made the butterflies in my stomach do figure eights. Sparks shot across my skin as he clutched my hip and drew me flush against him without breaking our kiss.

  This was bad. Really bad.

  The text from Julie. He’d seen his name. I’d done the first thing I’d thought of…kissed him.

  But now that my lips had touched his, all I wanted was for him to keep kissing me.

  Though I was 100 percent certain before the lights went out that he’d been about to kiss me…and I’d been about to let him.

  I needed to get out of here, call Julie. Tell her to try to get everyone out. I couldn’t go through with this…not after everything—

  Gordon gently nipped at my bottom lip. I gasped from the heat of him, the wonderful way he held me tight and gentle at the same time. His scent swarmed my air, filling my head with all things Gordon. It was like he’d kissed me hundreds of times. As many as he’d needed to master it, because this was absolute perfection.

  I fingered the strands of hair at the base of his neck, popping up on my tiptoes to get a better angle. He let me take the lead but didn’t hesitate to follow me any which way I pointed us. I swiped my tongue over his, relishing in the way my blood sizzled and my insides melted.

  Where one strong hand held me to him, the other explored the length of my spine, a trail of warm shivers following his fingers. There, in the complete darkness in one of dozens of Lennon’s guest bathrooms, I totally forgot who I was. Forgot what I was doing there. Why I’d come to the party in the first place.

  In Gordon’s arms, with his lips working over mine, with mine, I no longer cared about the rumor mill surrounding my name. The arguments with my parents were a distant memory. The speech he’d made this morning could’ve happened to someone else. I was simply a girl losing her mind over the charming, smart, handsome guy who knew how to make her weak in the knees. And I liked her. Wanted to be her.

  The rush was the sweetest buzz, and I craved more despite our lips never breaking. I fisted his soft cotton shirt in my hand, moving him to the side until he sank down on the edge of the bathtub. I immediately sat on his lap, never breaking our kiss, unable to stop drinking him in. I’d never felt so good, so matched, so…on freaking fire.

  A tiny, super distant voice in the back of my head shouted this is Gordon effin Meyers, your nemesis, but the rumble in his chest easily quashed it as I wrapped my arms around his neck to draw him closer.

  There was no use listening to a brain that had completely, utterly switched off. Now nothing ruled me, chained me, ordered me. Nothing but my heart, and the only word it knew in that moment was Gordon’s name.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Gordon

  The girl had a direct line to my thoughts. Somehow, Zoey had managed to see inside my head and figure out every way to push my buttons, get under my skin, and have me begging for her to stay. I gently held her as she sat on my lap, the room too dark to see her properly, but my eyes were closed anyway.

  I’d kissed a few girls over my high school career. Random dates that ended in soft pecks or polite goodbyes because they just couldn’t understand why I had to work so hard or so much.

  This? This was real, and raw, and terrifying.

  Zoey’s lips fit perfectly under mine. She felt right in my arms, like she belonged there. Like I’d held her this way a million times. She was familiar, and yet so excitingly new. Her kiss was hot and irresistible, and I let her have whatever the hell she wanted. I hated it, but I loved it. The girl owned me in a flash, and every reason why this shouldn’t feel so right was blown away by every way in which it was.

  I trailed my hand up her back, pushing her hair out of her face as our tongues danced. God, this girl would be the end of my sanity, though, to be fair, I was already teetering close to the edge after everything that had happened today anyway.

  It was easy to forget all that when she sighed against my lips. The warmth from her body as comforting as my favorite hoodie, but a thousand times more exciting.

  A pop sounded outside the door, and the bathroom flooded with bright light that made both of us squint. A round of cheers erupted around the house, barely muffled by the closed door.

  Zoey’s eyes were wide as saucers as she looked down at me from her poised position where she straddled my lap. She leaped backward, like my touch all of a sudden burned her. Her fingers flew to her lips, which were slightly swollen from our kiss, and her chest rose and fell rapidly.

  I took a steadying breath to calm myself, a rush of cold washing over my skin from the way she’d put so much distance between us. Like the temporary blackout had made her lose herself for a minute, and now that the lights were back on, so was her brain.

  “Zoey,” I said, rising to stand. “Was that…” I reached for her but dropped my hands when she was frozen solid. “Was I wrong? Should we have not—”

  “No,” she cut me off. “It was fine.”

  A knife to my heart. “Fine?” I snapped.

  Was that all it was to her? Was I the idiot who was falling harder and harder by the second? How the hell had that happened?

  “Yeah,” she said, shrugging like she was unaffected. The dusting of red over her cheeks said she was lying. She glanced toward the door. “Wonder what that blackout was caused by?” She tried to laugh, but it came out all wrong.

  I opened and closed my mouth, unable to form a coherent sentence. “Probably a breaker.” Were we really talking about the technicalities of a blackout and not the fact that we’d just shared a kiss to end all other kisses?

  “Zoey,” I said, trying to be real again.

  She jolted away from me, grabbed her cell, and swiped open the screen. Her fingers flew in a frantic text before her eyes darted up to me, her movements almost twitchy.

  What is going on in her head?

  A few minutes ago, I’d thought we were on the same exact page, but now? Hell, I had no idea what was spooking her. Was it because she did feel something and it freaked her out? Or was it because she didn’t?

  And again with the whiplash.

  I sighed and shoved my hands in my pockets. My own cell vibrated, and I quickly fished it out. My heart lurched when I saw Dad’s text.

  I read the words three times before my stomach dropped.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Zoey

  Julie hadn’t responded, even though she normally got back to me within seconds. After I’d broken my and Gordon’s kiss, I’d sent her a panicked text, begging her to clear the place out.

  “I can’t do this,” I whispered, mainly to myself.

  There was no way in hell I could keep up this revenge plot…not after what had just happened between us. I spared a glance at Gordon, whose brow was furrowed as he stared down at his own phone.

  “Gordon?”

  He snapped his eyes to me, completely and utterly confused. “I’ve…I’ve gotta go.” He bolted out the door, and acid crept up my throat.

  He knows.

  “Wait!” I grabbed his arm, stopping him in the doorway. “Let me take you!” I pleaded.

  “I’m fine to drive,” he said, already moving out of the bathroom and down the hallway. “I’ve had coffee and water, and after…” He paused his quick steps, glancing at me and then my lips. “Well, I’m completely sober.” Another glance at his phone and he shook his head. “I’m sorry. I have to go.” He all but sprinted toward the front of the house and out the door.

  I was hot on his trail until I saw Julie and Kennedy walk in the door he’d just run out of. I screeched to a stop. “What are you two do
ing here?” I asked, frantic.

  Julie tilted her head like I’d lost my mind. “You wanted us to bring these back, right?” She dropped Gordon’s keys into my hand. “If not, we totally would’ve stayed—”

  I squeezed the keys. “Tell me you got my text. Tell me you made everyone leave.”

  “Was that Gordon?” Kennedy pointed out the open door. “Aren’t you supposed to be driving him there? Isn’t that the plan?”

  I bounced on the balls of my feet for a second before taking off after him. “Gordon!” I yelled at his back but he kept jogging to his car. “You dropped your keys!” He finally skidded to a stop and spun around.

  “What?” His eyes were panicked.

  “Here.” I tossed them to him. “But, please,” I said once he’d caught them. “Let me drive you.” Maybe I could explain on the way over. If he’d just—

  “I can’t, Zoey. I’ll call you later. I promise.” He spun back around and sprinted the rest of the distance to his car. He was inside and skidding out before I could even catch a breath.

  “Damn it!” I stomped my foot, unlocked my car, and sped after him.

  Tears burned my eyes as I drove, silently cursing every stoplight I hit along the way. I’d been so stupid. The revenge plan I’d hatched was completely off the charts wrong, but it had taken me seeing Gordon as human again before I could realize just how horribly off-base I’d been.

  I can fix this.

  How the hell could I fix this?

  I scrambled for an idea but came up blank. Two more red lights slowed my progression to a torturous level, and the longer it took me to catch up to him, the worse I felt.

  My cell lit up in the passenger seat, and a spare glance showed Braylen’s number on the screen. I wanted to answer and sob into her ear, but I didn’t have time. That would have to come later. Right now, I had to get to him.