But William wasn’t thinking at all. “That’s not true. That’s bullshit. We could’ve done it, we were almost there. Should we try again tomorrow?”
James and I looked at each other in the rearview mirror.
“Okay, Will, we better get home. What do you say?” I tried to reassure him by putting my hand on his shoulder. He seemed upset.
“Fuck, we almost had it!”
“We’ll try again. Now calm down,” said James with an icy stare.
We stayed silent for a few moments, until I spoke up. “I think Austin threatened me.”
James ran his hand through his hair. “Just what we need.”
“He said that if he finds out you were behind all this—”
My chin started to tremble, and my breath escaped me every time I tried to breathe in.
“What the fuck did he do to you?”
James’s question was so abrupt that I shut my mouth. At that point even William turned around to look at me curiously.
“June, what did he do?”
“Nothing. He didn’t do anything to me, but when he threatened me, well, I was scared. He can’t find out where I live, can he?”
“Oh fuck. Maybe he figured it out.” I saw William cover his mouth.
“You’re never setting foot in there again. You don’t know what he’s capable of,” James said, a hint of rage in his voice.
Will seemed to stop reacting. From the way he put his head against the seat, I got the sense that he was tired. And when we got to his house, I noticed that it was hard for him to even concentrate while we were talking.
“I didn’t want you to get scared. I thought it would be easier, June.”
“Don’t worry about it. Get some rest. I’m going home.”
He came closer to me, and we exchanged a kiss so light that I almost didn’t feel it.
“I’ll call you when I’m up, okay?”
“See you later, Will.”
I counted his slow-moving steps away from me while James came back in workout clothes.
“Shouldn’t you be getting home, White?”
I nodded while James took some boxing hand wraps and unrolled them. He took a few moments to look at me, and I couldn’t help but do the same with him. His brown hair had lighter flecks when he wasn’t using gel, and his slightly bronzed cheeks had turned red with the temperature jumps.
I saw him freeze, holding a black band suspended for a brief moment.
“Did that asshole touch you?”
The unexpected question chilled me. I shook my head. He expected that, so he went back to wrapping his hand, and his lips turned up in a smile.
“Um, but you lied to your mom, you slept with me, you cut class, you did a lap dance . . .”
“What do you know about it, Hunter?”
“Do you think I didn’t catch you moving your ass on a pole?” he taunted derisively.
