Asher kept his darkly outlined eyes on mine. “I don’t know which of you is gonna make the first move, but it’ll be epic.”
I snorted. “Way off the mark, Asher.”
“Am I?”
I nodded. I wasn’t about to break the fragile truce, or whatever was between us, and get in trouble again.
“Then tell me nothin’s brewin’ between you even when he’s starin’ at you right now.”
I glanced at Cal, and sure as shit, he was watching me over his shoulder.
“How the fuck did you know that?” I hissed.
“Better question is when the fuck is henotstarin’ at you?”
I liked the sound of that more than I should.
Cal had given me every bit of the rage I’d flung at him. Yet, now that I’d simmered, so had he. Could we really be thinking the same thing? Feeling the same way about each other? Even with the insights, Asher might not have figured out the exact emotion behind my actions, so I played it carefully.
I dropped my chin to hide a smile I didn’t want Cal or anyone to see. “Who the hell are you?”
He shrugged. “I’m a work in progress.”
I elbowed him with a snort about the time the teacher sighed and raised his voice to get our attention.
Cal and I continued our silent stare-off all day. Ty said I should try to talk to him, but I wasn’t ready. Our texts with each other and the forced conversations we had with Trent were more of the same shit we flung like deranged monkeys at the zoo. It was only in these across-time-and-space moments when this thing between us seemed as if it might be something more than we’d shown each other.
Or something we weren’t ready to show each other.
Trust was hard-earned in my book, and even though Cal and I hadn’t blown up at each other recently, that didn’t mean shit yet. We had eyes on us constantly. Teachers, other students, coaches, and Trent, everyone seemed to be holding their breath for the next brawl. Cal could be waiting for the right moment to strike.
No matter how I wanted things to be between Cal and me, we still had a shitload of unresolved bravado between us. I didn’t know what he meant by all of it. I wasn’t sure what I wanted it to mean anymore.
One thing was for sure, though: the more hope tried to wiggle in behind my ribs, the more pissed I became. Fuck Cal Winters. Why did he make me think so hard? Or dream so big?
Afternothingbutsilenceon Sunday, I’d thought my words had sunk in, that Sasha had accepted we were broken up.
Nope. She’d been plotting and planning or some shit and hit me with it the next morning. Not once did she apologize for attacking me Saturday night. I’d been so shocked and fucked-up in the head, I couldn’t remember all of it, exactly, but I’d told her to stop, right? I was sure of it. Maybe not loud enough, though.
The redness from her slap across my face had faded quickly. The ache in my balls lasted a little longer.
So I fucking blocked her number. Done.
Sasha wasn’t done.
When I didn’t respond to her or show her attention at school, Sasha texted Cara, getting my little sister involved in her shit.
“I don’t know what to do with this.” Cara showed me her phone. Even with seventh through twelfth grades being on the same campus, we didn’t see each other much in between classes, but she’d found me.
Sasha Dobson
Where is Cal?
Have Cal call me.
Your brother is ignoring me and this in an emergency.
I growled, not bothering to read the rest of them before I deleted the entire conversation and then promptly blocked Sasha’s number. “You signed into Insta and all that?”
