I didn’t notice the paws…but I’m noticing them now, along with a pile of fur a few feet behind him that he must have dropped when he tripped over the fence.
Good lord.
“What kind of an idiot puts on half a mascot costume and then trespasses through someone else’s yard?” I hiss. “What are you doing? Are you purposely trying to get suspended before you graduate?”
Why do boys do the dumbest shit? We do not go to Parker Lane Prep; I can’t wrap my brain around the reason Easton would be dressed as their mascot. A player for our hockey team wearing our rival school’s mascot costume…a player forourhockeyteam…
I try to make it make sense, but the math isn’t mathing.
“Answer my question,” he demands, feebly attempting to rise from the ground. “Why are you taking my dang picture?”
I give him a nudge back into the dirt. “Um,excuseme? Answer my question first: Why are you wearing the Parker Lane mascot?”
He huffs. “Because I’m a freaking idiot, okay? As if that weren’t fucking obvious.” His voice is hesitant. “What are you going to do with those pictures?”
I shrug, sliding my cell into my back pocket. “I haven’t decided yet.”
Because it’s true.
I don’t know what possessed me to take his picture, but the damage has been done and I have the evidence. Ha!
Easton Westermann is lying inmyyard, atmymercy.
My chin notches higher when he asks, “Will you at least let me up?”
I shake my head. “Not until I figure out what I’m going to do with you.”
“I don’t have all night,” he grumbles. “I’m on the clock here.”
On the clock. What a smart-ass.
“What do you mean, on the clock?”
“I have to get this to the drop zone by eight.”
“Well, I’m sorry to interrupt you. Thanks for scaring the shit out of me while I was minding my own business.” I squint down at him, trying to make his face out in the dark. “Is what you’re doing even legal?” I pause. “Wait. Isthis illegal?”
It’s not.
Can’t be!
Easton Westermann would never be lying here like this if it were. On the other hand, it’s dark and he was trying to sneak through my backyard and if this weren’t a crime wouldn’t he havejust gone out the front or walked through Parker Lane’s playing fields at the back of the school?
“This is the senior prank, Harper,” he finally confesses breathlessly, arms down at his sides in resignation.
“Ohh.”Duh!Now it makes sense! “This is the prank?Youjumping over fences like a prize horse is the senior prank?”
“Harper, don’t be a smart-ass.”
My heart skips a beat when he uses my name.
“This is the senior prank. I didn’t choose it.” His sigh is long and heavy. “If I get caught I’m in deep shit.”
I roll my eyes. “Obviously you’re in deep shit no matter what.”
I mean, it’s not as if I’m going to let him off the ground so he can walk off home free after causing me such grief. Not a chance.
“Then why won’t you let me up? What do you even care if I get in trouble?”
