“Fuck yeah it did.”
It was his turn to chortle with laughter while slapping his knee. Suddenly, he stood. “Hang on. I’ll be right back.”
Before I could ask what he was doing, he’d left the room.
I took a moment to gather myself. Looking down at my shirt, part of it had come untucked. Feeling ornery, I dragged the entire hem out, enjoying the way the material wrinkled.
Mom would have a holy meltdown if she saw me right now with my wild hair, tear-swollen eyes, and crinkled clothes.
Vicious pleasure swept through my limbs imagining her face.It would serve her right.
Pax’s tall figure reappeared in the open doorway with an acoustic guitar in his hands. Turning, he quietly shut the door, then took up the end of my bed, settling the instrument across his lap.
“What’re you doing?” I asked, curious if he could truly play the instrument.
“I’m going to make you smile again.” His fingers picked out some chords, then he tuned the strings as he strummed until he seemed satisfied. He played several repetitive notes, starting low and building up, just to let them lower again.
I didn’t know anything about music. Mom had always pressed me into focusing on English and other classes which might help me to‘find a suitable husband one day’, so I’d never really gotten a chance to explore things she saw as frivolous.
“I like the way that sounds.” Tucking my feet under my hips, I pushed my spine against the headboard and closed my eyes, letting the tune calm my nerves.
“When I felt depressed, or if I needed to distract myself from being hungry, I’d play a little game by creating a song based on the one word that defined my mood.”
He’d distracted himself from being hungry?I opened my gaze and looked at the boy sitting on my bed with his black hair in desperate need of a cut. Those sharp angles of his face, which I’d thought were genetic, might have been from lack of food instead.
Suddenly, I wanted to know more about him. Not just where he came from or who his dad was, but I wanted to hear his dreams, his nightmares, his hopes…and his fears. Good or bad, truth or lies, beautiful or ugly, I wanted everything he’d willingly give.
Earlier today, I’d seen how Katrina and all the other popular students gravitated around him and I couldn’t stop a stab of jealousy. But now, sitting in front of him, I could also feel the quiet charisma and charm he carried, unable to resist his magnetic pull.
He changed up the melody, dropping a high note in the middle of the buildup, then captured my gaze with his and began to sing.
“Cotton Candy was down on her luck,
So she stood in defiance and said the word fuck.”
A high giggle burst out of me. His voice was pure velvet, and I couldn’t help laughing. He sounded so serious, yet the lyrics were ridiculous.
“I liked CC better,” I teased.
He strummed, grinning at me, his face alight with mischief. “Now this is where you’ll start coming in. At the end when I need that special word, okay, CC?” He winked and my heart seized.
My God he’s gorgeous when he smiles.
“She tore off the dress, her hair was amuck,
She gave them the finger, and said the word…”
“Fuck!” I held up devil horns.
His beautiful smile widened.
“The first time we met she fell on her butt—”
“Hey,” I grumbled, giving him a mock glare.
“That’s when my heart jumped
And I said the word…”
