All it does is take me back to when he said?—
“You haven’t kissed me since the rooftop…”
And now she’s next to me with his mouth drying on her face.
She turns to me.
“Wait—this your first time hearin’ him,
“or am I readin’ this whole scene wrong?”
I ignore her,
spine glued to the beam,
eyes on Andrew.
If I look at her, I’ll stare at her mouth.
Then she’ll know the kiss got to me.
That inside, I’m dying.
“He never used to sound like this,” Talia goes on. “Used to bite Matty’s sound so hard it was embarrassing. Real cover-band shit. Same exact tone, same vibe, down to the little cracks. Whatever he’s doing now? That ain’t him.”
She’s watching me not react.
Then she steps closer?—
a wicked smile cracking across her mouth?—
and leans in to talk over the music,
placing a hand on my arm.
And I want to rip my skin off
and leave it in a pile at her feet.
“Oh my God—the drink thing?” She lifts her brows. “Don’t take it personal. Girls in this place? Straight-up feral. You breathe in a guy’s direction and all of a sudden they wanna square up. Like, calm the fuck down, Alexa. He’s smilin’ at her, not fuckin’ her…”
I love how she says‘girls in this place’as if she isn’t one of them.
Her gaze digs into the side of my face,
studying me now.
She’s watching me watch Andrew,
waiting to confirm what she’s known all along.
He drops into the bridge of the first song,
voice raspy and slow,
abandoning the guitar
and leaning into the mic,
