“Do you work here?” he continued, disregarding the fact that I’d turned away from him. “So? Do you work at the club or not?”
He started insisting, and I only had two options: run away or run away.
I took a step back but bumped into something solid. I immediately recognized his cologne.
“Aren’t you fucking embarrassed? Can’t you see that she’s underage?”
James was behind me and blew smoke in the creep’s face until he left.
“Thank you.”
“Shut up,” he whispered in my ear, making me shudder.
I suddenly turned around to ask him what we were doing there, but we were too close, and I lost my train of thought for a second. But he didn’t seem to have any issue.
“I can defend myself,” I added pridefully. At least, under normal circumstances.
“Doesn’t look like it.”
I saw him stare at a group of bigger guys glaring at us from far away.
The ringleader was a redhead who reached his hand out to greet everyone who came by. He was probably handling drugs or maybe money. Or both.
I didn’t feel safe there at all. James kept vaping, so I tried to hide behind him.
“I told you to stay away from me.” He glared at me as I almost brushed against his arm. “Are you gonna fucking hug me too?”
“Can I not be near you?”
“Get lost, I told you.” He didn’t seem to understand my behavior until he noticed the group staring at us. “You don’t have to touch me,” he spewed resolutely.
“Right, because I can’t wait to get my hands on you? Gross,” I retorted, getting even closer to him.
James snickered as if I’d just said something ridiculous.
“Right, right, keep telling yourself that, eventually you’ll start to believe it.”
“What are we doing here?” I asked.
“You have some fucking nerve?” he prodded, leaving me bewildered.
“Yeah, well, if you don’t like it, go somewhere else,” I replied acidly.
He suddenly became serious. “Tell me something, Snow White. How’d you know?”
I bit my lower lip. I wasn’t gonna mention Poppy.
“I asked you a question,” he demanded.
“I overheard you talking about it with Will at school.” I said the first thing that came to my head.
“Liar. Does this look like a place where you should be?”
“Oh, right, because this place is only for mysterious assholes like you, right?”
He looked me up and down. “How the fuck do you go around like that?” He laughed, looking at the giant army-green hoodie that went down almost to my knees.
“Quite nicely. I was at Will’s studying.”
