“Yeah, because you disappeared,” I clarified, confronting him with my gaze.
“I didn’t forget about you. I asked him to stay with you.” I heard heavy steps coming closer, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a familiar silhouette approach us. James passed by us, chewing gum without acknowledging us. He’d actually bothered to put on his uniform this morning.
The jacket was tight on his shoulders while his untied tie slid in a disorderly way on his shirt. His hair was messier than usual and didn’t have any gel in it.
“Will you have dinner at my place one of these days?”
William’s suggestion piqued my curiosity. “Why?” I asked quickly, without hiding my skepticism.
He’d let me down countless times. Inviting me to dinner wasn’t enough to make me forget what had happened.
“To introduce you to my parents,” he declared calmly. I raised my eyebrows.
“Ah, when do they get back?”
“Tomorrow.”
I sighed. “I don’t know, Will.”
“What you said the other day made me think. Really, June. If we aren’t honest with each other from the start, we risk laying the groundwork for a nonexistent relationship.”
“Maybe it’s just me, but lies scare me away,” I said.
He smiled, running his fingers through the hair on the nape of his neck. “Are you always this direct?” I didn’t know how to answer that. Maybe I’d given him the impression that I was so insecure that I’d accept anything just to be with a guy as hot as he was?
“It’s true, Will. If you want me to hold a grudge against you for two days, not answer your messages, and then play hard to get so you can apologize for the millionth time, I can. But I don’t care about your apologies. I don’t like those kinds of games. If you want to be with me, I’m just asking for one thing. Honesty. It’s not hard.”
My words seemed to strike a chord. I noticed it when his crystal-clear gaze intensified.
“Yeah, but the girls I’ve been involved with before didn’t usually reason like that. You’re really mature,” he asserted.
“Did you think you could just show up with that pretty face of yours and everything would fall into place?” I teased with a hint of sarcasm.
“I was hoping.” Smiling, he shook his head to ruffle his hair, then became serious. “All jokes aside, I agree with you. I just wanna get to know you better before I tell you everything.”
Now I was skeptical. The line between pathological lies and mistrusting others was blurry in this case.
“You’re always with Ari, Poppy, and Amelia, and those three aren’t known for keeping their mouths shut.”
“Well you’re always with James, what should I say?” We heard a cough behind us.
“It’s wonderful to be the couple of the year’s favorite subject. But haven’t you got anything better to talk about?” James knocked on his locker door and then pretended to smile at me.
William took my hand and kissed me.
“Nasty,” I heard James remark.
“Shouldn’t you three be in class?” The gym teacher ran up next to us and rebuked us.
“Of course. It’s just that Romeo and Snow White are reenactingHigh School Musical. Have you seen how they make out?”
“Let it go. He’s just jealous.”
“He’s hateful, not jealous,” I muttered, as Will checked the time on his phone.
“I have to go, the teacher’s calling to interrogate the people who did badly on their history exams.”
He leaned in to kiss me, but I pursed my lips again, limiting it to a peck.
