William had always been calm by nature, so it wasn’t hard to recognize when he was fixated on something. He became frantic and obsessive.
Without even realizing it, he was treating June like an object to trade whenever we wanted to, and his disregard about what she might feel was unnatural. It wasn’t like him. And it disturbed me.
“Why are you doing something you don’t give a damn about now when you were the first one who got turned on by the situation, James?”
I stopped him with a cold glare, putting a finger to my lips. I didn’t want anyone at school to hear about this.
“It bothered you,” he added.
Fuck, why do we have to talk about her first thing in the morning?I threw the joint on the ground before flattening it with my shoe.
“What, Will? What?”
“It bothered you that I wanted to make out with her, that’s why you stopped me.”
“No, I stopped you because she complained and you didn’t notice. You hurt her or something. What the fuck do I know?”
I looked down at the asphalt, further crushing the butt that was now a powder.
“Hurt her? Are you serious?” William burst out laughing. Then he grabbed my shoulder and came closer to me.
“With what we were about to do, you’re worried about a bite on the lip?” he asked under his breath.
In Will’s eyes, I was probably acting like a paranoid moron, but I was getting really tired of it.
“There’s something you don’t understand about her, Will.”
I watched him blow a rebellious curl off his forehead before he smirked at me.
“Oh, and you know everything about her, James. Tell me, what don’t I get about her?”
I let out a long sigh, blowing out all the smoke in my lungs. “She wouldn’t have gone all the way.”
“Who told you that?” he asked, rubbing his lower lip with the tip of his index finger. I’d fucked up a lot, but Will had ideas that were so sick . . .
First, I couldn’t even look at her, now he wanted me to bang her with him. It didn’t make sense.
She didn’t want him anymore, and he wanted to put me in the middle just to not lose her? No, that theory shouldn’t even exist.
“Who told you that?” demanded Will, robbing me of any sensible answer with just one look.
I watched him as he adjusted his backpack on his shoulder. The whole idea had become an obsession for him, or maybe he was just turned on by it. I lingered on his full lips. No, I didn’t like the idea of it.
It was Will, and there was nothing about him that turned me on. He was my best friend. And the idea of seeing him with her, I didn’t like that. Of course, if they had to do something, it was better to do it in front of me than alone.
I shook my head quickly, as if that was enough to chase away these thoughts. I nervously fidgeted with my hair. This whole thing was starting to make me anxious. The sense of guilt was eating away at me.
“Look, let’s be done with this,” I burst out all of a sudden.
Will was in one of his manic phases. There was no question about it. And if I’d indulged or tried to dissuade him the other times, this time, even trying to do that could hurt him. Even though I had to do it.
“With what, James?”
“You, me, and her. It’s not fun anymore,” I said, before heading into school.
38
James
