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“Don’t apologize. If you have to go, I understand. Just think about it, okay?”
Her gaze meets mine, and I see the anxious remorse on her face. She wants what she can’t have, and I wish I could just set her free.
“I will,” she mumbles.
And with that, she’s out the door and scurrying down the steps toward her house. Even after she’s gone, I find myself smiling. I meant for that to tempt her, but I can’t help but feel like it may have had the same effect on me.
Sixteen
Caleb
21 years old
Briar is sitting on a chair at my desk in my bedroom, holding an index card with the wordchiaroscuroscribbled on the front. I let my eyes narrow as I stare at the word, biting my bottom lip.
“Come on, Caleb,” she says with an eye roll. “We’ve gone over this one.”
“It’s something about paint, right?”
She drops the card in her lap with an exasperated sigh. “You’re doing this on purpose.”
“Why would I act like an idiot on purpose?”
She’s grinning to herself as she looks down at her lap, and I love the way it creates little dimples in her cheeks. She curls her wavy hair behind her ear like she always does when she has something to say, and I wait patiently for her to say it.
“I don’t know,” she replies. “To get me to stay and help you study.”
I feign offense as I place my hand on my chest. “You think I’m that clever?”
With a giggle, she shakes her head. “You are smarter than you let people believe.”
I give a shrug, trying to appear innocent. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
We have our semester midterms next week, and it’s true that I’ve been using them as an excuse to spend more time with Briar. We’ve been meeting outside of classalone, and I’m running out of reasons to need her help. I’m dreading the end of the semester when I know I’ll see her so much less.
But I’m not trying to be manipulative. Briar and I have fun together, and I swear she looks forward to these study sessions as much as I do. She just seems to relax more when that dickhead boyfriend of hers isn’t around.
“You know what?” I ask without answering the question on her flash card. “I’m getting hungry. You hungry?"
“Caleb!” she shouts at me while hiding a grin. “Answer the question!”
“I’m gonna order a pizza. You like pizza?”
Laughing, she picks up the calculator on my desk and flings it at me. I catch it in my hand as I climb off my bed, ruffling her hair before I set the calculator back on my desk.
“You get mean when you’re hungry,” I tease her.
Biting her bottom lip like she is right now drives me absolutely crazy. She’s trying not to flirt with me, but she can’t help it.
When I pick up my phone from the desk, she moves to snatch it from my hand, but I hold it out of her reach. She’s pressed against my chest as we start to wrestle over control of the phone.
My free hand rests on her lower back, and she doesn’t move away. Not even when I use it to press her body against mine. She’s giggling and standing on her tiptoes, although she’s nowhere near being able to reach my phone as I hold it over my head.
“You’re such a jerk,” she teases, shining those pearly whites at me.
“Come on,” I mumble softly. “Let’s get some food, and then we’ll get back to studying.”
Her struggle starts to die down, but my hand remains on her lower back, and her body is still flush against me. When her gaze lands briefly on my lips, my heart rate starts to pick up. The air in the room grows thick, and I find myself gazing down at her perfect pink lips with that little Cupid’s bow between her nose and top lip.
