“And other than the books.” James was about to harass me again. “Snow White likes taking drastic measures.”
“Sorry, what?”
Suddenly, I turned around, and my heart stopped in that moment. James had gone into my bathroom and was holding my curling iron.
Oh for Christ’s sake, I shouldn’t have left it on the sink.
“I recommend you turn it off when you use it,” he taunted, mimicking the gesture of putting the piece of metal in his mouth.
I drew nearer to take it out of his hands, when James started staring at me with a serious frown.
“What do you do with it?”
“What do you think someone does with a curling iron? Idiot.”
I tried to hide the nervous chuckle that overtook me every time I was in a tough spot.
“It’s still warm,” whispered James, becoming even more somber.
His eyes darted to my spaghetti-straight hair. A moment of embarrassment that seemed to last an eternity arose. My heart started pounding in my chest.
James wasn’t stupid—now what?
I avoided his gaze and looked at Jasper, who was looking at me without understanding what was going on. I suddenly had the strong fear that James would say something inappropriate in front of his brother.
“Um, Jasper, can you go downstairs for a minute?” James asked him.
Jasper looked at him, confused.
“I think the long-awaited moment for desserts has finally arrived.” James played that card, and even though Jasper looked at him suspiciously, he decided to leave anyway.
And when James took two steps closer to me, I pulled back, afraid, and bumped into the desk. I heard the rustle of papers dropping to the floor.
“What now?”
For Christ’s sake, why was my voice shaking?
“You’re weird.”
“That’s not true.”
“Are you afraid of me?”
I looked around.
“Why would I be afraid of you?”
“Are you afraid that you really like me, Snow White?”
Seriously? Who did he think he was?
“I’ll never like you, James.”
He sneered, then his intense eyes narrowed to two slits.
“Sure, sure.”
“Everything’s a challenge to you, isn’t it?”
