I look at him with parted lips. “Are you stalking me? Are you really stalking me? Like,really,really.”
For some reason, my heart starts to pound.
My fingers slip and tremble around the glass and I can’t catch my breath.
I wouldn’t put it past him.
If he can lock me up in closets, he can stalk me too.
He cocks his head to the side, still calm as ever, as he asks, “Why, does it make your little ballerina heart spin in your chest? Knowing that I’ve been keeping tabs on you.”
No.
Absolutely not.
It doesn’t make my heart spin in my chest. Itshouldn’t.
I’m not that girl anymore. I don’t like to be locked up or chased after.
Idon’t.
I’m smarter.
“No,” I tell him, trying to sound all authoritative.
“Maybe it makes you tingle a little bit to find out that even after two years, the first thing I do when I come back to town is to hunt you down and watch your every move.”
“It makes me feel violated.”
He watches me a beat.
Then, “Relax. Stalking isn’t an interest of mine. I hear it’s something crazy ex-girlfriends do. Or girls who fall in love with you even after having been warned. No, wait. I think they steal cars.” He throws me a mock boyish look as he sips his coffee again. “My bad.”
I clutch my glass tightly. “Are you —”
But he continues, “Anyway, you have a bad habit of writing really long emails to my sister. And my sister has a bad habit of blurting it all out.”
“Tempest?”
“The one and only.”
I frown, trying to put all the pieces together. “She told you I was gonna be here?”
“A word of advice: if you want to keep secrets from me, don’t tell them to my sister.”
Tempest.
My best friend from my old life and the sweet little sister of the guy I fell in love with.
I did tell Tempest where I was going to be, yes.
I usually do.
We pretty much email each other every other day.
After the whole car-stealing debacle and him pressing charges against me and me almost landing in juvie, I thought I’d lose Tempest’s friendship as well.
Even though she helped me and stole his keys, she’s still his sister and so I thought she’d inevitably take his side.
