Glancing back toward Aria, he saw she still hadn’t looked in their direction, and it was pissing him off. Did he have to get fucking naked to get her attention?
“What do our girls have to do about anything?” Chris asked.
“You were only at the lake an hour last night, but you couldn’t take your eyes away from Aria. What is going on?” Branson asked.
“She’s mine. Aria’s mine.”
Silence fell between them.
“Yours?” Chris spoke the word slowly.
“Yeah, she’s mine, as in I couldn’t think of anyone else in the past year. The only reason I promised to behave is to be around her. No one is going near her. No one touches her. She’s mine, and I expect you guys to have my back on this.”
Chris and Branson stared at the girls.
“It’s about time,” Chris said. “Rachel has been bugging the shit out of me with this.”
“Whatever, come on, let’s go.”
“Hey,” Branson said, grabbing his arm. “Does she know?”
“She doesn’t have a clue.”
Moving around the car, he draped his hand around Aria’s shoulders. “You coming with me to the office? I’ve got to go and see Redgrave before I can start my day.”
“He want to give you a rant about being a good boy?” Aria asked.
“Yep. I’ll give him his five minutes, and I’ll do whatever I can to stick around.”
“It’s going to be one hell of a final year.”
“Yep, it is.”
They walked across the parking lot, and he stared at Wayne, and anyone he recalled who’d talked shit about them. He always dealt the punishment out for the fuckers that thought they could get away with shit like that.
Entering the front doors of Blythe Ridge High, he took Aria’s hand once again. He wanted her to get used to him touching him, and being close.
“Can you believe this is going to be our last year here?” she asked.
“Unless we have kids, and then we’ll be dropping them off every day.”
She laughed. “You thinking of having kids already?”
“You’re not.”
“Hell no. I’m eighteen in a couple of weeks. You’ve got no chance of me thinking about kids. Unless…”
“Unless what?” he asked.
“You know we were talking last night. My dad can be overbearing. I’d consider getting knocked up to get to him, which is the totally wrong reason to have kids.”
“Yeah, it is.” He’d help her though.
Eli wanted her, and he’d take her any way he could get her.
Standing outside of the principal’s office, he watched Miss Fox get some paperwork.
“It’s nice to have you back, Mr. Waters, but I expect you to be on your best behavior.”