Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 111089 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 555(@200wpm)___ 444(@250wpm)___ 370(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111089 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 555(@200wpm)___ 444(@250wpm)___ 370(@300wpm)
As James continued navigating his way to my place, I decided to break the silence, hitting one of his music station selections. A female voice played as the artist’s name flashed across the screen. Made me smirk.
“Who the hell is Hailee Seinfeld?”
“It’s Hailee Steinfeld.”
I laughed at his correction. “Oh, wow. So you know who this is even? I take it you’re a big pop-music guy.”
“I didn’t use to be, but I’ve needed mindless and fun recently.”
His words suggested his life wasn’t so mindless or fun.
That first day, it had been impossible to tell anything about him really, considering it seemed he was mostly anxious about the predicament he was in, but I could sense it in class, every day—a sort of…sorrow, maybe.
He was a bundle of questions, and I wanted answers, but he got one in first. “You mind if I ask what you were doing in town tonight?”
“Yes.” The word shot out of my mouth. Quick. Forceful. Rude as hell. For actually thinking this teach was cool, I sure had a fucked-up way of showing it. But I was embarrassed that I’d been there because of him, when I should have taken up Ben on his offer for some ass.
Although, just thinking I could have been balls-deep in Ben while some stupid motherfucker had his knife in James’s gut made me glad I’d made the right choice. If I hadn’t gone into town, if I hadn’t chickened out and ended up at Finley’s, if everything hadn’t gone down exactly as it had, I wouldn’t have been there to help him.
What if he’d been hurt? Would have been the fucking case, I was sure. That was how life worked, wasn’t it? The good people were the ones who got hurt the most.
“Sorry,” I forced out nearly as harshly as my dismissive yes.
“What?”
“I’m not good at…this.”
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
“Talking. Everything always comes out wrong, or I say something stupid or that comes across mean or too harsh. My friend Taryn calls me Scowl when I get this look on my face. Says it reminds her of a greyhound her family had when she was little. It would sit there, wanting to rip someone’s face off, but wouldn’t do more than growl through its teeth. Judging by your expression, you don’t disagree.”
“You had a reaction to that cop that probably made him feel similarly. But it’s not a bad thing.”
“It’s not a good thing either. Trust me.” Again, my words came out more severely than I’d intended. I figured it was at least partly due to all that energy still surging through me from the night we’d had.
“Your father’s a pastor?”
“Another thing I’m not interested in talking about.”
I kept the memories at bay, fighting against them as I had for so fucking long. Between my reaction, the cop’s comment, and that assignment I’d done in class, he must have figured there was more to that, but I wasn’t going there.
“So, to answer your question about why I was downtown,” I went on, since it was the only thing I was willing to talk to him about, “I was going to that dumb extra-credit thing you mentioned.” I practically mumbled the words.
“Well, then at least I know I wasn’t lying to a cop back there,” he said, sounding relieved. “What happened? Were you late?”
“I changed my mind. Went…somewhere else.”
“Can you get into a bar?”
“If I answer that, don’t you feel like you might be liable for something?”
“I feel like the way you answered it might make me liable anyway.” He turned from the windshield a moment to wink at me.
God, he was too nerdy to be so sexy too.
“I was surprised that cop went there, though. I never would have assumed some kid was at a bar.”
“I don’t have a problem getting into bars, Mr. Warner.” I said Mr. Warner instead of James intentionally, to remind him we weren’t friends. He was my teacher, and I was his student.
“And here I feel like I still get ID’d at the grocery store for some bottled wine.”
It made me laugh, like one of his silly jokes in class might have.
“Wherever I was, let’s just say, from where I was sitting, I could see that guy hanging out on that street, looking around as if waiting for trouble.”
I’d been able to see James through the café window, and I’d watched him like some fucking stalker. No idea why. Maybe because I wasn’t even sure what had really drawn me out tonight.
In some ways, it was like fate had pulled me to that moment so I could be there for him. Of course, I knew that was total bull, since fate had never been there for me.
The only one who’d ever been there for me was Tex.
“So when you came out of the café and he started following you, I figured you might need backup, so I think we should both be glad it worked out as it did.”