“Hey.”
I jumped, fumbled the book, the note fell out and flutteredto the floor, but I didn’t go for it, because Darius Tucker was standing rightthere.
Right there.
“Uh…uh…”
Oh my God!
I was strangling.Why was I strangling?
I couldn’t breathe!
His lips curled up at the ends before he crouched and pickedup the paper, straightened and held it out to me.
“You dropped this,” he said.
My hand was trembling when I took it and forced out, “Yeah.”
He looked down, and it was only then I realized he wasn’tletting go of the paper.
This meant he had his fingers on the paper, and I had myfingers on the paper, which was only two steps away from us, like,holdinghands!
“What is it?”he asked.
“What?”
He dipped his head to the paper, and I lost track of whatwas happening, considering all I could think about was how smooth his skinseemed, how warm and soulful his brown eyes were, how long and curly hiseyelashes looked, how beautiful his lips were formed.
He gently tugged on the paper.“This.”
“What?”
He smiled, wide and white, it made his expressive eyestaper, his cheekbones pop out.
Okay…um…
What was going on with my legs?I was having troublestanding.
“Malia?”
“Hunh?”
“You okay?”
“Uh…uh…”
Oh Lord!I was strangling again!
He pulled the paper from my fingers and looked at it.
“I know this song,” he said.
I said nothing because I had to focus all my attention onnot passing out.
“Why’s Duke giving you song lyrics?”he asked.
I didn’t answer because I couldn’t.
