I’d heard enough to know that her past wasn’t anything that I’d experienced with my two loving parents, but I’d still been affected by my best friend Julian being dealt a shitty hand at life. Making both of us grow up way too fast. The amount of times Julian had shown up at my house after being beaten by a foster parent was unreal.
To see the pain in his eyes, knowing he was trying to be strong for my parents who had to watch him go through so much bullshit because he was part of the system. They loved him like a second son, and my father being a lawyer had to get involved with the courts to constantly change his housing environment. Not that it mattered. He went from one shitty situation to the next. My parents wanted to adopt him, but Julian refused, saying they did enough for him.
My mom did the only thing she could. She made one of our guest bedrooms into his room, just so he’d feel like he had a home to come to when he needed it. I hated seeing all the shit he went through. He didn’t deserve it. He was a good person, a great friend, someone I could count on no matter what. We were seven the first time Julian showed up at our house with a bloody nose from his foster dad.
At first, I didn’t understand what had happened or why it was happening to him. By the time I was ten, I realized the severity of what he’d gone through, and I started having night terrors that he’d be beaten to death. I had to go to therapy. Julian didn’t know that, though. My parents thought it was best, and for a while, it helped. My therapist said I was suffering from associated trauma, and it was normal to have the fears I was facing.
From that point forward, I made sure to do whatever I could to help my best friend. Fearing if I didn’t, I’d lose him.
The sadness in Kinley’s eyes mirrored Julian’s even though she was smiling at me. It was like staring into my best friend’s eyes, sparking this need inside of me to want to be there for her in any way I could. It was immediate, the desire to want to help her.
Protect her.
The second I saw her start walking into the woods alone, my feet moved on their own. I’d developed a protective quality to watch over those I loved, and there was a gravitational pull to protect Kinley at that moment. I was surprised Jax had left her alone long enough to get lost in the woods. He was by her side all the time. It was really fucking annoying, and since we were by ourselves for the first time since she’d walked into my science class all those years ago, I was going to use it to my advantage and kiss her.
Be her first kiss.
The longer we stood there, the more I craved to be in her life. It was the weirdest thing. I’d never experienced anything like it before. Maybe that was why I wanted to kiss her, knowing that to a girl like her…
It would mean something.
The truth was I was over it not meaning anything to me as well. There were only so many times I could hook up with a random chick. I was born and raised in this small ass town where everyone knew each other. I was almost sixteen, but felt much older. Wiser.
“Want to touch me?” I teased, smiling. “Make sure you’re not dreaming?”
“So is this how it works?” she asked with amusement in her tone. “You save girls from assholes and then make your move?”
“Don’t mind Frank. He’s not much of a gentleman.”
“And you are?”
“I mean, my mom did raise me right, and I have a little sister I need to protect.”
“From guys like you?”
I placed my hand over my heart. “Ouch.”
“Oh please … you don’t fool me with your witty comebacks and amazing cheekbones. I know all about you too.”
“Oh, so you’ve been asking around about me, Kinley?”
“Hardly, but everyone knows about you, Christian.”
“I don’t care what everyone knows. I want to know what you know.”
“I know that you’re one of the most popular guys at our school.”
“Yeah, that doesn’t mean shit to me.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“Wow. You must think very highly of me?”
“I don’t think anything about you.”
I touched my heart again, looking down at my hand. “Am I bleeding? Or do you want to dig that dagger a little deeper?”
She giggled in that girly way that usually annoyed me, but coming from her it didn’t. It was cute.
“So what else do you know?”
“That you’re with a lot of girls.”
“Oh, so you know that my dick is huge?”
Her eyes went wide. “Not as big as your ego!”