Unease trickled into my gut, forming a black sludge as heavy as concrete. It hardened, filling me up from the inside out. It was harder to breathe than before, but I didn’t want him to notice, so I plastered on a smirk and threw a roll of paper towels at him. “You jealous, Cres?”
The roll of paper towels hit him in the shoulder, bouncing off and to the floor. “Only thing I’m jealous of is the fact that you guys get to watch TV. I tried to get Star to beg Mom and Dad for one the other day, and they claimed it was still too harmful for our developing brains. I mean, I’m almost eighteen!”
I pulled my backpack onto my shoulders and secured the canvas with a white trash bag to keep it from getting damaged as much as possible. “I don’t know why you try, man. I wonder if Moon would let us crash one weekend and use his TV.”
“Good idea. I’ll bother him about it later. So, are you bringing it?” He pointed to the bag in my hand.
“Yeah, I might as well. I’ll have him swing me by so I can drop it off first.” We walked down the hallway, almostfully abandoned at this point. Arriving at the main entrance, I spotted Jude standing at the far wall.
His back was against it, his foot propped up behind him. A black hood covered his head, but the rest of his jacket was unzipped. The slight stubble on his jawline had me blushing, but the look in his eyes when he spotted me had my blood curdling. He looked angry.
I’d gotten used to that look by now.
Crescent followed me almost all the way to Jude before stopping. “I’ll see ya at home. We can hide the painting in my room.”
“Sounds good.”
“Love you, bye!” he called out, turning on his heel for the front doors.
I called back to him, cringing even as I said it. “Love you, bye!” We always said that. It was just our thing. You never knew when it’d be the last time you saw somebody, and I wanted to make sure my last words were always “love you.”
When I turned back around, Jude was staring at me. A hard, pinning stare that made my lungs curl up and twist in on themselves. “Took you long enough,” he seethed, black smoke swirling from his mouth. It was invisible to anyone but me.
“I’m sorry, baby.” I walked up to him, putting on the sweet charm I knew he loved. “I had to put everything away. I didn’t mean to make you wait.”
Jude hummed a non-answer, walking toward the doors. I followed behind him as I was expected to do, running a little at first so I could catch up to him. “Could we stop by the Millers’ first? I need to drop this off so I can work on it later.”
“No.”
He walked faster, not even stopping as cars raced throughthe parking lot. I stumbled after him, almost tripping. “But, I don’t want it to take up too much space in your house. I’d rather it be dry and ready for me when I get there tonight.”
Silence.
I fought to keep up with him, huffing and puffing my way through the cars and trucks in the lot. When we got to his car, I waited by the trunk. Instead of unlocking it for me, though, Jude got into the driver’s side and slammed his door.
The engine roared to life, startling me and making me jump. I sighed, rounding the car to the passenger side. “Where do you want this?”
“Back seat. Hurry up.”
Great. I’d really pissed him off. I never meant to, but we’d been together for over a year now, so it was bound to happen. I knew what I was supposed to do and not do, yet I kept doing it.
After putting the covered canvas in the back, I slipped into the passenger seat. “I’m sorry, baby.”
Jude put the car in reverse, backing out of our parking space and heading for the long line of students leaving the school. “You know that shit pisses me off, Elio.”
I wasn’t sure which part he was mad about, but I wasn’t about to ask. “I know.”
“You guys hang out too much.”
“He’s my best friend. We live together. I’m not sure how I could just…stop being around him so much.”
“You could always go back to your parents’ house.”
I laughed. He didn’t really mean that. Right?
The car lurched, and my body was pulled to the side. I clutched the handle above me as Jude swerved down a road I wasn’t familiar with. My head fell forward, my entire upper half lurching with the force as he braked abruptly.Gasping, I looked around, noticing the trees and dirt around us. It looked like some weird side road.
“I’m fucking serious,” Jude growled from beside me, reaching over and grabbing the collar of my shirt. “He wants you. You see that, right?”
