“Hey, June.”
Oh god. My common sense went out the window immediately.
“Hey, William.”
I put my hands behind my back to hide my nervousness.
“Are you here with Blaze?”
My eyes widened. I hadn’t been expecting such a direct question.
“What? No! I mean, we’re here as friends,” I stuttered.
William barely curved his lips, then touched a lock of his hair to diffuse the awkwardness.
Stay calm, June, I told myself as I gazed at him.
It was impossible. It was statistically impossible that a guy like William Cooper could like me. He was just too hot to be real. He’d never want to waste his time with a girl like me. I’d never thought I was pretty enough, but one day Fiona Burton, the most popular girl at the high school in Seattle, told me,You know, June, you would be pretty, but when guys look at you, they see you as a friend.I’d asked her what had prompted her to tell me this, and she’d continued,They don’t care about your pretty baby face. They only see your baggy clothes, your makeup-free face, and how unladylike you act. They want a girlie girl, not one of the guys.As superficial as Fiona was, I listened to her partly because I had a crush on her, and partly because she was right; no guy had ever paid attention to me.
But at this very moment in this unfamiliar beach house on the coast of Crescent Bay, William was paying attention. He looked at me, and I didn’t know what to say.
“Um, I . . .”
“I’ll give you a choice, June,” he said, still smiling. He moved closer to me, and I let myself be swept away by his fresh-laundry scent. “Do you prefer to talk or dance?”
“Talk,” I responded immediately.
“I’d prefer to talk too. Let’s go outside.”
Surprised, I followed him to the front door. William opened it and motioned for me to go through.
The beach was teeming with people, but a lot of them were leaving.
He leaned against the wall. “How on earth did you end up here?” he asked.
“My mom’s an artist. We moved here for her work. As luck would have it, she had business here in Los Angeles.”
I caught a spark of interest in his expression.
“Are you staying for long?”
“Who knows?”
I rubbed my arms to warm myself up. William straightened and inched close to my face.
“You know, I like it,” he said before fixing his blond hair.
“What do you like?”
The gray of his eyes was deep and unreadable, like a painting you can’t stop staring at even if you’re not sure what it means. I pushed my hair behind my ear nervously.
“I like that you’re here at the same school as me, June White. I’ll see you every day, but every day could also be the last.”
William was getting so close to me that it was hard to hold his gaze.
“Romantic, isn’t it? Carpe diem, right?” I added with a smile.
Tell me I didn’t say that out loud.
