“It sounds like you know him really well.”
The only thing more insatiable than my appetite was my insecurity, and the only thing worse than that was that I didn’t know how to keep my mouth shut. I didn’t mean what I’d said maliciously, but Brian shot me a look that was anything but reassuring.
On her end, Amelia seemed to be struggling. “No, well . . . I meant to say that everyone knows him.”
A question entered my mind. What did she see in that asshole?
“June, trust me. If you want to stay out of trouble at this school, forget Hunter,” Brian interrupted, visibly exasperated.
I didn’t say anything. I was too busy eyeing the pack of Oreos until we found a spot on the lawn. All the benches were taken, so we sat on the grass.
With a look of pity at my hungry expression, Amelia offered me another cookie. Just as I was about to bite into it, the guy who’d helped me open my locker caught my eye.
William.
I watched him sit with his back against a tree trunk, poring over a novel with a worn cover.
“Who’s that?” I asked pointing at him.
Brian had just put on his headphones and had completely tuned us out.
“That’s William Cooper. He’s one of Hunter’s best friends,” Amelia answered, pushing the half-empty packet toward me. I was about to grab the last Oreo, but then I suddenly lost my appetite.
“You’re kidding,” I blurted.
“They’ve been best friends since middle school.”
Amelia stared at a specific area in the courtyard. Just a few feet away from William, James sat with his group of friends, his arm around a curly-haired girl. The scene confused me. I’d just seen him in the hallway with that blond chick, and before that I could’ve sworn that he was flirting with another girl in class.
“Isn’t Hunter with that cheerleader?”
“Are you talking about Taylor Hart?” Amelia spat out her name in disgust.
“The chick at the vending machine. Isn’t that his girlfriend?”
Amelia burst out laughing. “Girlfriend? Hunter changes who he’s with four times a day.”
It was a real-life textbook example of what the documentary said last night.
“A male peacock mates with four, five, or even six females,” I muttered. Amelia turned to me with a confused expression.
“What do you mean?”
“I’m just saying I don’t understand how someone like that could get that many women. He’s so rude.”
“Rude? James Hunter is the undisputed king of assholes.” She said this emphatically, but her voice softened almost immediately afterward. “But despite all that, he knows what he’s doing.” I saw her look down at her knees, while my imagination created a scene in which she and James were the main characters of a romantic tragedy. “He and I had a thing last year,” she admitted quietly. “But things ended really badly. Like really badly.” She craned her neck toward Brian, who was still lost in his own world and wasn’t paying any attention to us.
I let out a soft murmur. “I’m sorry.”
I had no idea what Amelia was talking about, but the peacock theory had been proven. There was no doubt that he’d done something bad. This belief was supported by the fact that Amelia was still suffering while James sat on the other side of the courtyard with his hand halfway up another girl’s skirt.
“Maybe it’s better that way. He doesn’t seem like he’s boyfriend material. No offense.”
“You’re totally right. It’s just that—” Amelia looked around cautiously. “James is really hard to resist.”
I snickered. “Well, based on everything I’ve seen today, he’s exactly the type of person I’d avoid like the plague.”
“Yeah, but that’s just a façade he puts on. When you get to know him better—”
