He scowled.
“Yeah, yeah.” I ran my fingers over the piercings in my eyebrows. Normally I took the curved metal out when I exercised, but this morning I’d left them in, and I’d definitely noticed Alexander giving me a shitty look, as if me being pierced was somehow an affront to early morning jogging. He seemed to have a problem with everything I did. He’d given me the same look when I’d shown up to classes with the tips of my hair dyed purple three weeks ago.
The boy had a lot of fucking baggage.
Every time I discovered something new that irritated him, it was like gasoline tossed on this fire raging between us. I’d never met anyone in my life I wanted to piss off more, and it was probably bad that I was taking so much joy in this, but I couldn’t stop.
Besides, he’d started this war.
And I was going to win with my ace-in-the-hole, super-secret nuclear option. I got tingles thinking about Micah. Was there any way I could make that big man scream Daddy while I fucked him? I wanted to record it and send it to Alexander, special delivery over an intercom for everyone to hear. Guilt bubbled in my gut. Micah wasn’t like Alexander. He seemed sweet.Okay, maybe I wouldn’t do anything so public, but I would definitely rub Alexander’s face in it when I succeeded.
“God fucking damn it,” Milo muttered as Alexander dropped back until he was only running a few feet in front of us.
A thrill zipped through me. While I waited for the dickhead to work up the balls to say whatever shitty thing was bouncing around in his skull, I smirked and thought over ideas in mine. My first very subtle approach at getting his father’s attention hadn’t really worked. Micah was hot but pretty oblivious. I would need to step up my game.
And what if he didn’t like guys? Well, I would burn that bridge when I crossed it, but I didn’t think I was wrong. He’d checked me out.
Alexander dropped back even more, forcing Milo to slow down, which he did while swearing a blue streak. Milo paced us, about three feet at my back, which gave me the confidence to grin widely at Alexander. I had my bestie right here, and Alexander’s pals were almost out of shouting range now.
“You’re brave,” I said casually.
He bared his teeth at me and grunted, and now that I was looking at him in the sunlight, his eyes were more blue than gray. Micah’s were much prettier. “Why the fuck did you have to get me in trouble?” The shitty glare he shot my way made me laugh, which caused a fantastic red flush to spread up his neck to his face.
“Your memory isn’t exactly veridical, is it? You didn’t have totryto punch me. You chose to fight. Therefore, you are your own worst enemy.”
He scowled at me.
I gave him the most innocent smile in my arsenal.
“I didn’ttry. I did punch you.” He snarled as he stumbled and had to right himself before he face-planted.
I picked up the pace.
He huffed, sticking next to me.
Lifting my tank top, I glanced down at my side, and I didn’t miss how Alexander looked, too. I turned a little toward him. “Oh yeah? There’s no mark there. Did you actually connect? I can’t tell. My little brother hits harder than you. Asuka is five, by the way.”
Milo chuckled.
A whistle blasted behind us. The noise pierced my skull and set my teeth on edge. “Boys! Run faster. You have an entire game to get through on your feet. Bare minimum, that’s forty minutes of moving your ass. Go, go, go!” Coach was rugged with a thick beard and lean like a wolf. He was about my height and all muscle. His light blue shirt was nearly transparent with sweat on the front and back, which showed off a finely sculpted physique as he raced ahead of us, only to blow his whistle again, yelling at the next group to get them to speed up.
Glancing back at Milo, I grinned at him.
“No.” He groaned, shaking his head.
I powered forward, and Milo was a good sport and kept up with me. We left Alexander huffing and puffing behind us. He had longer legs, so in theory he should’ve been able to run faster than us, but he must not have kept up with training over the summer because he lumbered along and flipped me off when I blew him a kiss over my shoulder.
If only he knew what I was contemplating doing, he wouldn’t be so fucking full of himself. Laughing, I ran even faster.
“You’re gonna kill me, Yukio,” Milo said, swatting at my arm. “I can’t keep up this pace.”
“Sure you can! Live fast or die,” I yelled at the top of my lungs, earning some laughter from the group in front of us.
He groaned, but he was a good friend, so he kept up with me.
“Say I spent the last week stalking someone who likes to study a lot. What do you think I should do to get their attention?” I glanced at Milo. Sweat gleamed on his forehead and he swiped it away with the back of his arm.
“How much do you like this guy?” Milo asked. His brow furrowed, as if maybe he was having trouble thinking and running.
