I nodded, turning around to try to find Amelia and Brian, who seemed to have disappeared.
“Brian will have found Ari,” explained Blaze.
I followed Blaze to the kitchen. He didn’t seem particularly comfortable, but I sensed that he wanted us to stay for a bit.
“Are you avoiding someone?” I asked.
He blushed. He handed me a little bottle of water.
“June, you’re very . . .”
I didn’t hear the end of the sentence very clearly, but judging by the smile he shot me afterward, I guessed that he’d given me a compliment.
“I didn’t hear you, can you repeat that?”
“You look really pretty tonight.”
I looked into his black eyes curiously. “Uh, thanks.”
“I mean, actually, you always are,” he clarified. “I mean, you’re pretty at school, too, not just . . .”
Blaze picked up on my embarrassment and trailed off, as a hard shove sent him stumbling toward me.
“Dickhead,” someone said.
James Hunter and his friends pushed through next to us. I didn’t see who did the shoving, but Jackson was the one who’d saiddickhead.
“You’re an embarrassment to men.”
Blaze was paralyzed, unable to utter a word.
I threw all courtesy and every smart thing I’d been taught over the years out the window.
“Hey!” I shouted. “The only embarrassing thing here is your stupid leather jacket, Hunter.”
Jackson turned around, and a clean-shaven guy turned around immediately after. But it was James who walked toward me. His icy gaze made me freeze.
“Still being a pain in the ass, are you? I told you to stay away from me, White.”
“It’s hard to stay away from you when you keep hovering around me.”
At the risk of sounding presumptuous, I was telling the truth. But despite this, I felt my knees go weak and my chin tremble. James clenched his jaw.
“Your point? What are you getting at, huh? That I want something from you, Snow White?”
“Judging by how much you manage to bump into me, I’d say so.” I raised my voice so everyone could hear me over the music.
James didn’t seem to appreciate my brazenness. He took a step toward me, forcing me to move back. I wrinkled my nose at the scent he gave off. He smelled good.
“In your dreams, White. I wouldn’t ban a prude like you even if you paid me . . . what was it?” His eyes narrowed into two threatening slits. “A million dollars.”
“Hunter, come on,” Blaze intervened. “Please, leave her alone.” The calm in his voice seemed to enrage James even more.
“Or what? You’ll tell your daddy so he’ll expel me from that shitty school again?”
As soon as Hunter looked away from me, I took control and pushed him away.
“Let’s go, Blaze. These idiots don’t deserve anything, especially not our attention.”
