“Where?”
“My place,” I said, feeling like I had at Chance’s party. Tempting fate. Stripping my chest bare and daring River to plunge a knife straight into my heart. “I’m in the guesthouse. It’s private.”
River’s eyes filled with thoughts, and I wondered if it was too much, too soon for him.
Tell me to fuck off, River. Kick me out of your house, out of your life, once and for all.
He inhaled deep and tilted his chin.
“What time?”
Twelve
River
“What are you going to do?” Holden asked. And then I was grabbing him, kissing him. His tongue was in my mouth and mine was in his, and something lost in me came home…
“Hey, Whitmore? You still with us?”
I blinked out of the hazy, heated thoughts and into the glaring white light of the Burger Barn. At 7:00 on a Saturday night, the restaurant was loud with the voices of dozens of conversations and the hiss and spit of meat on a broiler.
Chance, Mikey, Donte, and I took up a booth made for eight, sitting spread out, arms resting on the backs of the seating. Baskets of fries and burgers were strewn between tall milkshake glasses.
“Dude, what’s with the dopey-ass grin?” Donte asked. “You getting some action we don’t know about?”
Chance perked up. “Oh, damn, are you? That’d explain why you’ve been acting so weird lately.”
Shit.
Mikey leaned in eagerly. “Spill it, Whitmore. Who is she?”
“Anyone we know? Give us a clue.”
A clue…
Holden Parish, in the band room, with his lead pipe.
A crazed laugh nearly burst out of me, and I covered it with a coughing fit. I reached for my water. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You sure about that?” Donte asked. “You looked about ready to rub one out right here at the table a minute ago.”
“Fuck you,” I said, my laughter dying. I leaned back in my seat, casual as hell, and forced myself to say the words. “There’s no one.”
“I call bullshit,” Chance said loud enough that a mom at a nearby table gave him a warning look. “Something’s going on. And it’s not new either.”
“Since homecoming at least,” Donte said. “Maybe earlier. The party…”
He watched me with sharp dark eyes. He was smarter than the other two boneheads, and I cursed myself for being so careless.
“Yep, Homecoming.” Chance said. “When our king ditched the queen in front of the whole school. I still can’t get over that shit.”
Mikey nodded. “Epic.”
“For the last fucking time, nothing happened at homecoming,” I said. “I just wasn’t up to it.”
It would’ve been easy to lie and say my mom hadn’t been feeling well, but I wasn’t going to be a complete scumbag and use her to cover my cowardice.
“You sure you’re not hiding some piece on the side?”
