“How did you know that, June?”
“Because a guy like him doesn’t know how to keep certain things to himself,” I retorted.
“But it’s not what you think.”
Poppy seemed sincere; maybe she was overly naïve.
There was only one thing you could do with someone like James Hunter, I thought.
“Is he still with Amelia?”
My question didn’t throw her off at all.
“No, June. Amelia and James, nothing ever happened between them.”
I knew it. I had a feeling that the girls were messing with me. Why lie about something so inane? What were they hiding behind that lie?
“And why’d Amelia tell me otherwise?”
“They were never . . . never together.” I believed Poppy, and she said it without any hesitation.
All of my assumptions about Brian being overprotective and angry at James for how he’d treated Amelia went up in smoke.
“Amelia’s seeing someone else.”
“Who?”
But that was too much even for Poppy. She shook her head, and I decided to drop it.
“Look, Poppy. Look at him.”
James had just jumped into the pool with his clothes on. He emerged from under the water a few seconds later and leaned against the edge. His arm grazed Jackson’s muscular shoulders, and Jackson continued to bite his lip every time his friend came near him. A little while later, James was flirting with Becky, who couldn’t take her lips from his jaw.
“What the hell did that asshole do to you? Brainwash you?”
Poppy looked at me earnestly. “He just asked me to go with him. There was this race . . .”
I looked askance. “What kind of race?”
“A race, Jesus, June! Why do you want me to tell you?”
“Is it illegal?”
She nodded then covered her mouth. “Oh shit. That was a secret.”
“What race?” I demanded.
“Forget it. All I can tell you is that James wanted to know . . . The last time we saw each other he asked about you.”
“What?What’d he wanna know?”
“He wanted to know how integrated into our group you were, what you knew about us, about him.”
“That’s none of his business. He just wants to ruin my life,” I grumbled, getting irritated. I looked at him again, and he turned to us at that exact moment, catching us red-handed. James’s eyes glittered in the dark, and they smashed into me like two rogue meteorites. I could perfectly describe William’s eyes, but not his. I gathered all my strength and looked away before getting lost in that dangerous void.
“You know, June, I think he likes you.”
I choked on some saliva and started hacking. I chuckled nervously between strangled whimpers, then pulled myself together. “Look, Poppy, don’t let an asshat use you like that. You deserve so, so much better,” I told her as she put her head on my shoulder, deliberately ignoring that absurd notion.
