“Well, based on the way she kissed me today, she isn’t begging for it now, is she?” I smile right back at him, flames racing across my skin, fingertips tingling. He just pisses me off so damn bad, I can’t explain it. Everything about him bothers me, like how he gets out of the shower and leaves his bedroom door open on purpose, just so that I have to stare at his bare torso. “What do you even want from me right now?” I continue, because it hasn’t escaped my notice that not only did Parrish track me down, but also that he seems weirdly preoccupied with the idea that Lumen and I might actually be into one another.
“I want to know what game you’re playing at,” he breathes, and the intensity in his eyes scares the shit out of me. He isn’t smiling anymore. Instead, he’s staring at me like he could break me apart with his gaze alone, find every little hidden piece of me and memorize its shape. “You ruined my entire life, you know that? I had to wait until I was sixteen to spend the night at a friend’s place. Seventeen before I was allowed to drive to school by myself. I’m still not allowed to drive my car anywhere else.”
“Again, not my fault,” I repeat, trying to ignore the way our uniforms are brushing up against one another, the fabric rustling in just such a way that it seems overly loud, like I can imagine each fiber tangling together and drawing us closer. “I was two, Parrish. Two. Tell me how much you can remember from age two. Now, leave me the fuck alone, I have plans tonight.”
“All I have to do is send that pic of you and Lumen kissing to Tess, and you won’t be going anywhere,” he replies, cool as a cucumber even while he has the audacity to threaten me. “Then maybe you’d understand how it feels to be suffocated because of someone else’s mistake.”
“You mean Saffron’s mistake?” I query back, using the righteous anger in me to crush down those pesky hormones. “You’re right. I’m sorry that you suffered because of a mentally ill and extremely sad woman. But don’t take it out on me: it’s petty and pathetic and it doesn’t suit you.” This time, when I go to elbow him out of my way, he leans in even closer.
“You already ruined my life once, and here you are, out to do it all over again. Whatever this crap is that you’re pulling with Lumen, call it off. Break up in front of the school. Do it online, I don’t care. Just end it.”
We stare at each other for so long that I can’t help but wonder what everyone else is thinking. From anyone else’s perspective, this probably looks like a romantic moment. Our faces are that freaking close.
“Newsflash: you don’t get to tell me what to do. You might have Kimber so afraid that she won’t speak up when you trash her phone—which was really fucked up by the way—but not me. I don’t want my time at Whitehall to suck, but I’m not bowing down to some pouty rich boy who thinks he owns the school and everyone in it.”
Parrish grits his teeth, but whatever it is that he was planning on saying goes out the window when Danyella appears on my left side. She looks decidedly ticked off.
“Are you quite finished, Mr. Vanguard?” she asks, pulling her hot pink glasses down her nose to look at him. “Because as far as I’m concerned, your behavior is troubling and inappropriate. Did Dakota consent to having you push her into a bank of lockers?”
He says nothing, standing back up and staring down at me with an intensity that’s hard to describe. It’s similar to the way he looked at me during the party, like I’m nothing and everything at the same time. An impossible dichotomy, that’s what his gaze is. I can’t even begin to pick it apart.
Danyella grabs my arm and drags me away, casting an angry glare over her shoulder as she steers me toward the entrance to the parking garage.
“You shouldn’t let him get away with things like that,” she chastises as I let out a huff and slide my phone from my pocket. God forbid I forget to call Tess. According to Kimber, if you miss one required check-in text or call, Tess will show up with Paul in tow and drag you back home for a lecture. “He’s a bully, Dakota.”
“He sure does act like one sometimes,” I say with a sigh. Parrish’s motivations make zero sense to me. Why does he care if I kissed Lumen? Well, if Lumen kissed me. What’s it to him? Also … does that count as my second kiss? There was no tongue, but it was on the mouth. That counts, doesn’t it? “Mostly, I think he’s an insecure asshole who needs a spanking.”
