He’s leaning against the now closed door of the storage closet, his gray eyes glued to me. And just at the sight of him, at the fact that my secret, dangerous wish has come true, I stop breathing.
I don’t need to breathe anyway because euphoria is bursting in my veins like firecrackers.
He’s here.
Here. Finally.
My heart races as if it’s been waiting and waiting for him to come find me.
Even though I’ve been making every effort to stay away from him and to run.
Even though the words that come out of my mouth are the exact opposite of what I’m feeling. “Y-you can’t be in here.”
Good.
Good, this is smart.
This is what I should be saying to him.
He’s a bad guy, remember?
It doesn’t matter what I feel.
It doesn’t even make sense that I feel these things.
In response, Reed shifts on his feet and settles even more against the door like he has no plans to go anywhere. “Yeah, why not?”
“Because Ledger is here,” I tell him, my own feet doing what they’ve been doing for the past few days, itching to go to him as soon as I see him.
But I dig my toes into the ground and stop them.
“So?”
God.
Why is this so appealing? His reckless, daredevil,rule-breakingattitude.
Maybe because I’ve never broken a rule myself.
Maybe because I’ve neverseenanyone break a rule with so little care where the repercussions are so dire, AKA getting beaten up by my brothers.
I bring my arms back and grab hold of the shelf behind me. Just so I’ll stay put. Even though it’s getting harder and harder to do that.
“He’s at the library, waiting for me to finish up so he can take me home. And I can’t be late. Not after…” I trail off, glancing at the bruise, still so fresh looking and red, sitting on the left side of his jaw.
His jaw that is shadowed with a light stubble that he must hate.
Under my gaze, he thumbs it. “Friday night.”
He remembers…
Like a fool, I think of that first.
It doesn’t matter whether he remembers or not.
What matters is, he needs to leave.
Nodding, I whisper, “Yes.”
