I tried to go back, but this time he grabbed my wrist and stopped me.
“Go home. Trust me.”
I nodded because this time he was right. I didn’t want to spend another minute there, not even to wait for William.
“Are you coming with me?” I asked, realizing that we were already in the right seats.
James frowned contemptuously at me. “Do you really think I give a fuck about you?”
“Would you rather go back there? Do you want me on your conscience?” I bugged him.
“My god you’re a pain in the ass, White.”
I got out of the car, and before closing the car door, I bent over to look at him.
“So, Hunter?”
“Get in the car.”
>> <<
“Do you have to vape? It’s rude to people around you.”
James took his eyes off the road to shoot me a dirty look.
“Shut the hell up,” he spat.
“I just said you vape too much,” I explained, trying to keep calm. James curled his lips into a sarcastic smirk, shaking his head like the guy who never gave a fuck about anything that he was.
“Why’d you do it?”
I saw his upper lip curl. “I would’ve done it for any girl.”
“That’s good, I’d say. But I asked you something else. Did you do it just because you wanted to punch him? It wasn’t to, like, defend me or anything, was it?”
James put the vape pen between his puffy lips and put his hand on his cheek as if to disguise the bored expression that he wore every time I talked.
“If anything, I did it for William. Not for you.”
I closed my eyes, exhausted by the countless emotions I’d felt in the last few hours. First the fear of being near him, then the sensation of feeling safe around him. Yeah, I felt so much rage around him, but seeing him look that battered made me feel guilty.
“Are you done?” he demanded bluntly.
I quickly turned around to look out the window.
“Quit treating me like this, Hunter.”
“And you quit staring at me.”
“I was just looking . . . you still have a little blood—”
“It’s nothing.”
“Your parents never say anything when you show up like this?” He burst out laughing and I crossed my arms across my chest, irritated.
“I don’t see what’s funny about my questions.”
“Keep living in your fairy-tale world, Snow White,” he teased, as he parked in front of my house.
