“Maybe.”
“Well, maybe that just drives them all a little crazy. Guys always want what they can’t have. It’s biology.” I wasn’t sure about that but he seemed convinced. “You’ve been off limits. They thought you were better than them.”
“Sure, okay, say all this is true. Why now?”
“Justin Blackwood broke you. They all feel like they could have a shot now.”
“Gross. Broke me?” This conversation was equally fascinating and repulsive at the same time.
“Justin is good-looking and popular. If you didn’t shoot him down then they think they may have a chance. Like Jackson and the party.”
“If he thinks something is happening between us there, he’s wrong. I already made that party foul once.”
He smiled and it took my breath away. “Jackson’s no fool. He’s probably had his eye on you for a while. I mean, he did ask you before Oliver stepped in.”
“Huh.” I found this hard to believe.
“Yeah. Look, I’m not trying to sell out my brothers or anything, but you know Jackson and Anderson don’t date much. He was probably trying to get up the nerve to ask when shit hit the fan and he got his opportunity.”
The thought of Jackson or Anderson being nervous to ask someone out seemed ridiculous. Who wouldn’t say yes?
“Whatever,” I deflected. “I’m pretty sure he’s just trying to get in my pants.”
He nodded. “Oh, definitely.”
I stared at him for a minute, mesmerized by his dark eyes and wanting to run my fingers across the ink of his tattoo. These boys…they’re too much, and frankly just enough. They’re perfect. Funny. Strong, and well…if everything they’re telling me is true, quite possibly mine.
“What about you, Hayden?” I asked, well aware of the way his eyes kept dropping to the visible cleavage pushing out of my shirt. “Were you too intimidated to ask me out?”
He swallowed and leaned in close to my ear. “You and I? We’re not ready for each other yet. Once you’ve had some fun with my friends come and find me. Then we’ll do it our own way.”
He straightened and to my shock, brushed his lips across my forehead. I gripped the wall, willing my knees to hold me up right. His words came out less like a threat and more like a promise.
A promise, I realized as I watched him walk back into the school, I was determined to make him keep.
Chapter 8
I was lying on my bed when the photo came through my feed.
Hayden and I in the school garden in the exact moment he leaned in to kiss my forehead. You couldn’t see that though, the chasteness of it all. No, it looked like we were full on kissing. Plus, his hand is down by the hem of my skirt and it looked like he was feeling me up. The photo had been tagged with, “Heaven Bags One Of The Four. Who’s Next?”
It only takes a moment for the comments to start. They fill up the screen of my laptop, flooding the page.
Fucking whore
Stupid skank
In public? Gross
Shady as hell.
Hayden Pierce? I’d do him.
Heaven Reeves? I’d do her.
Hope he gets tested.
Who does she think he is?