I glance at Sam. His trousers are dirty, a rip in the knee. “You okay?”
Sam nods, face a furious red. “He does it all the time.”
“Not anymore.” Bobby squirms like the little weasel he is as I glance down. “You hear me, Bobby? I see you messing with Sam again, this is going to be an appetizer for the main event.”
“Fine,” he grunts. “Let me up.”
“Not yet. Forgetting something?”
Kenny’s cheeks are flared with spots of color, mixed in with her freckles. “It’s okay, Theo. It’s not the first...,”
Her mouth snaps up. The red spreads in a deep flush, covering her face and neck in seconds. “I mean—,”
I stare at her as she trails off.
She’s been spending a lot of time with us. Slotted into our group like we were just holding space, waiting for her to get here. Filling up a hole we didn’t even know we had.
Distracting me enough that now I wonder if this is just the first I’m hearing about a problem.
It’s nothing to push down. For satisfaction to curl around my lungs, warring with fury as Bobby’s face presses into the mud. When I pull it back, I lean in. “You wouldn’t bebotheringher, would you, Bobby?”
“No—,”
Again, I push him down. My words roll out, deep and fucking furious, almost shaking. “You don’t go near her. Understand?”
His palms slam into the dirt. “I’m sorry!”
“To Kennedy,” I snarl. “Fucking mean it, asshole.Spell it out.”
His eyes are watering. “I’m sorry I called you a slut.”
Kenny eyes him, that little notch appearing between her brows like a crinkle. “And.”
“And…,” he spits. “Writing on your locker.”
What?
She doesn’t look at me. But she looks a little smaller. “I knew it was you. Asshole.”
I lean in. “You telleveryone. Nobody touches her. Goes near her. Any of you make any trouble for her, and we’re coming for them. You hear me?”
“Kristen said it first,” he mumbles. “Locker was her idea.”
God, what a fucking weasel. And he squeals like one as I smash his face down a final time, making sure it’s smeared with dirt. “Better decide who you’re more scared of then, Bobby. Tough call.”
I’m done. Dropping him, I step over his sprawled body and move over to Kenny. She shifts when I cup her face. “Wait. People are looking—,”
“Let them.” I don’t give a fuck. “You didn’t tell us they were giving you trouble. Why not?”
She shifts, but I’m not letting go. “It was just the locker. And a few hurty words. No big deal, Theo.”
I tilt her face up so I can see her eyes. “You kidding? That’s a big deal to me, Ken.”
She sucks her lip into her mouth. “It… is?”
“Yeah,” I breathe. This close, I can see the flecks in her eyes. A mix of cinnamon and hazel that has my heart thumping, stumbling, suddenly unsteady in my chest. Her skin is soft and warm, sunshine beneath my thumb, and I swallow. “Everything about you is a big deal to me, Kennedy Traylor. In case you didn’t realize.”
My eyes drop as she bites down on her lower lip again. We’re so close—
