Page 27 of Darling Venom
Kellan constantly straddled the edge of disaster, and I was done watching from the sidelines, hoping he didn’t take the leap.
One day, I strode over to Kellan during lunch break.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and watched. I was a nerd, and he was a freak, and that was the sort of fraternization that was even worse than popular kids and losers.
He read a wrinkled paperback, frowning at the pages. I planted myself in front of him, fists curled over my hips, and cleared my throat.
“Hey.”
He ignored me.
&nbs
p; Panic rose up my chest, and my cheeks heated.
“I said hi.”
Still nothing.
Some people whispered.
Others chuckled.
Cressida recovered from the shock of seeing me speaking to him, took out her iPhone, and recorded the whole thing in my periphery.
I raised my voice a notch. “I’m talking to you, Marchetti.”
Giggles ricocheted against the walls.
Kellan lifted his eyes from his book, then stared right through me, yawned, and got up, walking away.
Though my pride screamed at me to quit, I chased him out of the cafeteria. I was making myself look ten times more pathetic than I already felt.
I placed my hand on his shoulder.
He didn’t stop.
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Everything,” he said, point-blank. “And you know that firsthand. You’re breaching a contract, Venom.”
Venom?
But I didn’t have time to dwell on the small stuff.
Like why the hell he called me that.
Why he’d called me that the night we kissed.
“I don’t care about the stupid contract.”
“Shame, because I do.”
“You’re not okay.”
“No shit, Sherlock.”
“Kellan!” I stopped in the middle of the empty hallway.
