At first, I didn’t move. But when she turned around and shot me a look, I jumped to my feet.
“I take it you and Brian are really close,” I guessed as she picked up her pace.
“Yeah, sometimes it’s worse than having a dad,” she answered as she brought the vape pen to her lips.
“He must keep you on a tight leash.”
Amelia turned her head toward me. “He’s possessive.”
“Is that why he has such a beef with Hunter? Because you guys were together?”
She stopped dead in her tracks a few feet away from some kids who were falling off their skateboards. She took a long drag of her vape pen, refusing to dignify my question with an answer.
“You want a puff?” she asked, passing me the vape.
“No thanks, I don’t smoke.”
“Look, June, the whole James thing is a little more complicated than—”
Blaze snuck up on us and we both jumped. “What are you talking about?”
“Did my brother ask you to keep an eye on me?” Amelia demanded bitterly.
“I’m just curious,” Blaze clarified gently.
“James’s family and mine have bad blood—” Amelia froze. “Oh no,” she murmured, looking straight in front of her.
I turned my attention in the direction that she was staring and immediately saw the reason for her anger. James Hunter was standing in front of us.
“Well, well, well, look who we have here.”
It sounded innocuous, but something in his face told me that it was anything but.
“Hood’s sister . . .” he thundered.
Amelia lifted her chin defiantly.
“. . . the principal’s son . . .”
Blaze bit his lip.
James lowered his gaze maliciously at me and sounded out my name.
“And June White.”
He spoke in a biting tone that ended in a note of derision. James curled his lip into an angry snarl then took a drag of his vape, inhaling the smoke before blowing it in our faces. I coughed.
“Oh, can Snow White here not handle smoke?”
“It’s not the smoke that bothers me, it’s you,” I retorted angrily.
I’d gone to school with people from all walks of life, some of whom were from notoriously rough areas. And while I’d always minded my own business, I knew how to defend myself when I had to. Dickheads with loose neckties didn’t scare me.
“Get lost, Hunter,” I said.
He raised an eyebrow as his expression filled with silent rage.
His gaze made me feel like my back was against the wall.
