I gasped, an imaginary light bulb appearing above my head. I turned to Lola with an optimistic grin. “What if we can still get it?”
“How?” Lola whispered.
The seat snapped upright when I abruptly stood, causing a loud smack to echo through the room. Lola, embarrassed to be next to me, turned away and covered half her face with her hand while the class stared. The way they were gawking at me, you’d think I had just dropped a bomb in the room.
I didn’t bother apologizing to the professor as I moved toward the double doors. No need to cause more of a scene than I already had.
I could only hope he hadn’t gone too far yet. While I had his phone number, I had yet to call him. There had never been any reason other than that I wanted to hear his voice.
Every time I thought of calling, I stopped myself. Things were growing more complicated between us by the day, and I wasn’t trying to speed up the process.
You sped up the process last week at the water fountain.
That… was a weak moment. Alex’s damp hair clung to his forehead, his cheeks were red and flustered, and every time I looked into his eyes, they were begging me to kiss him. It was how he always looked at me—mystified. Like I was the only force keeping him grounded in this world, and if I walked away, he’d fade.
Alex couldn’t stare into my eyes with such tenderness, lick his soft, pink lips like he knew what he was doing, and then not expect me to lift him and do what his body was asking me.
Now, outside the door, I searched frantically. He couldn’t have gone far…
“Stalker.”
My eyes grew wide as I flinched. I turned to my side, and there was Alex, leaning against the wall with his arms folded across his chest like a Disney Channel motorcycle riding bad boy.
I couldn’t help the grin forcing its way. “Who’s a stalker?”
His Adam’s apple bobbed. “You.”
Shifting my weight onto one leg, I scoffed. “Do you think I’m obsessed with you or something?”
Alex shrugged simply. “You followed me out here, didn’t you?”
“But you waited out here to see if I’d follow.”
His lips formed a line, and his eyes drifted from mine. Ha, I got him there.
“What do you want, River?”
I wish I could time-travel, fix all my fuck-ups, get drafted into the NBA, win the lottery, have my way with you?—
That last one was a relatively new wish, one that should have made me feel more uneasy than it did. I always had potent feelings about my best friend. The need to protect him from every bully who tried to take advantage of him was the biggest, but then there was the inclination of needing him to be mine. I paid little attention to it—I felt that way because he was my best friend, and I wanted it to stay that way.
But now I wondered if I had misinterpreted that feeling.
Or maybe the reason why every time he bit his lip, I had to make a subtle adjustment to my pants was simply because I hadn’t been with anyone in what felt like forever.
“Are we ever going to have a rematch?” I asked with a smirk. “So that I can win by beating you instead of by default.”
He pushed himself off the wall. “Are you ever going to use your wish?”
“Do you want me to?”
“I want you to get it over with.”
I leaned forward, right beside his ear, and asked lowly, “Where’s the fun in that?”
Smirking, I took a step back, our gazes locked as Alex brushed a strand of hair out of his eye.There’s that look again.
“Come over tonight,” I tried to ask, but it came out as more of a statement.
