With two fiery balls where her eyes were supposed to be, my mom barged into my room.
“Nothing!” My tone of voice was several octaves too high.
“What happened to your eyes, June?”
“Your paintings, I was so moved by their beauty.”
I stayed still in the middle of the room, but my stomach was doing backflips trying to prevent me from cracking up.
“Are you alone?”
“Yeah, who would I be—”
We looked out the window, where the backyard was full of guests. My mom’s eyes immediately darted to Will and James, who were deep in conversation along with Jasper.
“June, please be careful.”
37
James
“It’s not like the other times.”
William’s eyes looked delirious, to say the least. He couldn’t keep his hands still. He looked high or like he just drank five coffees.
But unfortunately, I knew that it wasn’t caffeine giving him all this energy.
“What are you talking about?” I asked him, blowing smoke into the morning air.
I saw him move around the school lawn, going back and forth, following imaginary circles that probably made sense in his head. Something to calm him down.
He was so frantic that he made me look chill.
“If it was anyone else you would’ve torn her to shreds on that bed.”
Was he really talking about the girl he was with up until three days ago? The one he punched his best friend over?
I felt guilty; after all, it was William. Unpredictable. The same William who once went to therapy and set his psychiatrist’s car tires on fire just because he was trying to stop William from drinking and smoking. Nobody, not even the psychiatrist, ever suspected him when he stood in front of the slashed tires. That, and who would ever suspect someone with a sweet face framed with blond curls and two eyes that were so pure and innocent?
Whenever something happened, it was always James’s fault.
Just like what had happened with the smoke shop. Even Tiffany thought it was my idea to destroy the business. Will never thought twice about going there alone, and to prevent the man from reporting him, I had to solve it by buying the guy’s silence. His daughter looked so disgusted by me when I came in to give her dad the money, like I was also paying her for banging her a few days ago. There was no amount of money worth what I took from her—not her virginity, but the moment of her first time that she could’ve shared with someone better than me.
“James?”
Will’s hot-headed tone brought me back down to earth.
“I wasn’t in the mood.”
I shrugged it off, looking around. The school lawn was still half empty when William planted himself in front of me with a surprised look on his face.
“You weren’t in the mood, James? Sure.”
In reality, the princess and I have already fucked, dear Will. She in her head and me in mine. But how could I explain that?
“What the fuck do you want me to say?” I grumbled, leaning my back against the old building.
William laughed at my sullenness, confusing me. I wondered if he realized what he was saying and what he wanted to do. Probably not.
