“Fuck you!”
“No, thank you,” Parker says pleasantly.
Dante scowls and stomps over to stand in front of me. He takes my shoulders in the palms of his hands and shakes me a little. “Just when you leave the house, okay? If somethinghappens to you, I’ll cut off Parker’s nuts, fry them, and make him eat them. So he will make sure no one touches you.”
“No one but you,” I say with a smirk.
Dante grins, pleased. “No one but me.”
“No ball frying,” Hayden orders just before disappearing back upstairs. There’s a slam of a door, a shout, a tussle, then Parker sighs loudly and takes a large bite of his apple.
“Let’s go. I have to write a paper while I sit outside your class,” Parker says grumpily.
I watch as he trudges out the garage door, then Dante gently cups my face to turn my gaze back to his own. Dante’s eyes are always so hard, but they’re softer when he looks at me. I should hate it, should bite him for it, but a small part of me likes it. For Reid, the snarling twink.
“I’ll be waiting here for you.”
“I’m not going to war,” I point out.
Dante hums, kisses my cheek, then shoves me toward the door that Parker just escaped through. The car is idling with the garage door open and Parker leans against the passenger side door, waiting for me to join him. Without a word, I climb in, pleased to know that it’s cool enough outside to warrant the heater blasting. Parker fiddles with the stereo for a moment, before pulling out to make the annoying fifteen-minute drive to school. All of the lights, pedestrians, and hunting down a parking spot make driving an outright headache if you live as close to campus as we do. But I guess it’s easier to protect me in the car than walking down the street.
“Can I smoke?” I ask while tugging the carton of cigarettes out of my pocket.
Parker grabs them, rolls the window down, and tosses them out with no fanfare. It all happens so fast that I can’teven scream. I stare blankly out the window, then slowly shift my gaze to land on an unapologetic Parker.
“What the actual fuck?”
Parker rolls his eyes so hard I think they might get stuck. “They’ll kill you.”
“A meteor could hit right now and kill me.”
“Yeah, well, that’s out of your control,” Parker says with all the patience of a parent explaining why their child can’t have dessert. “No cigarettes while I’m on protection duty.”
“I’m going to tell Dante.”
Parker shrugs, uncaring. “Do it. I’m not scared of you or him.”
Well, he should be scared of me. Anger threatens to boil over inside me the remainder of the drive to school, but I press it down as best I can. I’ll just buy a new carton of smokes when I’m out of Parker’s sight. I scramble out of the car the moment it’s in park, ignoring Parker’s hastily yelledhey!A few people turn to look at us as I hustle toward the math building with what I’m sure is a very annoyed-looking Parker racing to catch up with me.
I shove through the math building doors, not bothering to hold it open for him. A swear echoes through the front of the building and I grin in celebration as I climb the stairs two by two. The door to the classroom slams shut behind me. When I glance over my shoulder, Parker is absolutely seething, nostrils flared as he glares at me through the window. I send a wave over my shoulder, blow him a kiss, then pick my way through the desks to find my usual seat.
A few moments before class starts, my phone buzzes.
Dante
don’t be a little shit
this is who i am
Dante
he’s there to keep you safe
he threw away my cigarettes. tell him to replace them and I won’t make his life miserable.
Dante
fucking hell
