“You taste like mint,” I blurt out. His brows rise. “You stopped.”
“Yeah, I stopped.” He glances over my head, and I clock that we’re standing outside of my school for everyone to see.
“Oh, right! Then why did you kiss me? You knew where we were.” I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand.
“Did you just wipe my kiss off?” He has the audacity to act offended.
“So what if I did?” He steps toward me. “Don’t you kiss me again.” I put my hand over his mouth for good measure. “You stole my first kiss and didn’t even want it.” His hand wraps around my wrist, gently pulling it away from covering his mouth.
“I stopped so I wouldn’t fuck you right here.”
“Oh.” I bite my bottom lip.
“Just so we’re clear, I didn’t say anything because I don’t need to. I know my girl had that shit handled better than how I handle things.”
“Oh, right,” I repeat. His way might not have been the best. While I love his ways, they might not always be helpful. I suppose that only goes to show what a perfect team we make. “And I was being a brat about Matt.”
“I know,” he says, but I can tell he’s still pissed about it.
“I am sorry.” I want him to know that. “My mouth can get the best of me.”
“I get it. Your mouth gets the best of me too.” His lips tilt up on one corner, his smile coming back. “But, rebel, there is only one thing you need to worry about with me.”
“What?”
“Me falling in love with you.” He winks at me. There’s something in his eyes that makes me think he’s not teasing, but that can’t be right.
“Liar, you’re already obsessed with me,” I tease.
“You’re right,” he agrees.
“Obviously.” I fight a laugh. “Now kiss me again so we’re fully made up.”
I don’t have to ask twice.
Chapter Thirteen
BAM
She’s prettier than anyone should be. Like outside of paintings and statues and museums, it makes no sense for someone to be as pretty as her. Plus, she’s smart. If the Maker is a fair one, she should have been given one or the other: beauty but not brains or brains but not beauty. My musings are interrupted when Josie reaches up and scratches the side of her nose.
“Do I have something on my face?” she asks, not taking her eyes from the screen. After getting two kisses in, Josie dragged me back to her house. Unfortunately, it was not for more making out but for looking at the files she emailed herself from the teacher’s laptop.
I’m sitting next to her at the kitchen table. I’ve downed two glasses of milk, but I’m still very, very thirsty.
“No, I just enjoy looking at you.” I prop an elbow on the table and lean my head against my hand. “You ever think you might be too attractive?”
“No, no one has ever thought that about me. Candace, maybe.”
“Who’s Candace?”
“The girl that you were questioning at school. Blonde—” Josie holds a fist on the crown of her head.
I think back, and a vague image of a girl with a bow in her hair repopulates in my mind. “She’s not even remotely pretty. If I’m rating her, she’s at the bottom.”
Josie abandons the computer file she was reviewing and gives me her full attention. “I’m starting to believe that you really do like me because only someone who liked me would say stuff like that.”
“Nah. Anyone with eyes would say that, but people aren’t being fully honest because they don’t want you to get a big head. You’re already the smartest person in the room, so they can’t be saying you’re also the best looking.”
