After ditching school to spend the day with Maverick, I was obsessed. I couldn’t explain why, but I was. He fascinated me. I envied hisfuck alloutlook on life and how easily he seemed to live it however he wanted. He was unfiltered and a little unhinged, rough and wild, but he made me smile—actually smile. I didn’t feel like I had to force it around him.
Which, honestly, was a lot to say after a single day, but this was probably what having a real friend was like.If I could count him as a friend.
That last one was up in the air still, but we’d see.
His locker was in a different hallway than mine, which made it harder to find him than expected. I didn’t stray far from my path between my locker and my classes. It was easier to stick to my routine and not deal with everyone else.
His locker was in the middle of everything, but he seemed unfazed by the activity going on around him. In fact, he just stood there with his arms crossed over his chest as he leaned against his closed locker, just staring off into space like he was untouchable.Who knew? Maybe he was.But I also recognized the difference between calm and coiled. He wasn’t relaxed. He was a ticking bomb just waiting for something to set him off.
His expression was severe, made worse by the split in his bottom lip and the deep purple around his eye. A little voice in the back of my head wanted to ask what happened, but I had a feeling he wouldn’t tell me, even if I mustered up the nerve to do so.
When I stopped in front of him, his gaze swung toward me. The weight of it slammed into me, hard and irritated, as if my whole existence added to his frustration.
“What happened to your eye?” I blurted out before I could stop myself.Damn it.All I could do was brace for the backlash of my own stupidity.
“Got into a disagreement with someone over money,” Maverick snapped. “Not like you’d know anything about that, would you, princess?”
I didn’t reply. Money problems weren’t something I knew anything about, and he knew that. My family’s wealth was just a target at this point.
“Are you okay?”
“I don’t need your pity,” he said. “What the fuck do you want?”
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.What did I want?At least, what did I want that I could put into words that made sense to him? I couldn’t exactly say that my curiosity was getting the better of me where he was concerned.
“I…” I shrugged. “I just… just thought I’d come say hi.”
It sounded stupid the second it left my mouth. His gaze narrowed. The dangerous edge in how he looked at me sent my pulse skyrocketing. Anxiety weaseled its way through my chest. I forced my shoulders back and drew in a careful breath. I refused to spiral in front of everyone.
“Right,” he drawled while he slowly pushed away from the locker. His movements were fluid and deliberate as he stalked closer. I should’ve been intimidated. If he took a swing at me, I’d go down in a heartbeat. I didn’t know the first thing about throwing a punch or fighting. Still, I refused to back down because I didn’t believe he wanted to fight me. Not really. I had a feeling Maverick was angry at the world, and I was an easy target for him to put that on.
He fisted the front of my shirt and hauled me forward until we were nose-to-nose. The hallway vanished around us.
All I could see was him.
The fury in his eyes consumed me whole, hot and punishing. But beneath, buried down deep, was something far worse.Pain. The kind of pain I understood. The kind that bled into every part of you and changed you until you didn’t recognize yourself anymore.
The same kind of pain I saw whenever I looked in the mirror.
“I don’t know what game you’re playing at, Harley, but we’re not friends,” Maverick growled. Wintermint and smoke washed over me, a fast reminder of the last time we’d been this close. “You and me? We’ll never be friends.”
I swallowed hard against the lump rising in my throat. Not because of his attitude. It was the way every single person in the hallway had stopped to stare at us as if we were on display for their judgment. Everything I did and said mattered even more. I had an image I had to maintain, one that my family demanded I protect.
“What?” He arched his brow. “Nothing smart to say now?”
I couldn’t fight him. If I pushed back, he’d only shove harder. We’d end up in a losing battle that we’d both get in trouble for.
“I’m sorry you’re mad,” I whispered so softly that only he could hear me. My words made him frown. Confusion cracked through his anger. I had a feeling kindness wasn’t something Maverick was used to.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Whatever happened to make you mad… I’m sorry it happened.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Maybe not,” I said. “But I know what it’s like to have the world shit on you. It sucks, and I’m sorry.”
I didn’t need the specifics to understand him. I knew what it was like to just hurt. I knew what it was like to live with it so long that it became the foundation of your identity. Surviving it became easy once you gave it a home rather than fighting it.
