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“Boyfriend?” I asked, my tone harder than I meant for it to be.
Ethan also told everyone that this girl had claimed to have a boyfriend. Something no one had believed since we’d all witnessed his pathetic attempts to get her attention over the years. Something I hadn’t believed until just before she’d left the table.
“It’s complicated,” she began again.
“It doesn’t have to be,” I argued. “But I’d like to know what I’m up against, and I’d like to know if you’re in danger from someone other than me.”
A sad laugh tumbled from those lips and her eyes met mine. “Of course not.”
True.
She let loose a slow breath. “You know, most girls would probably scream when some stranger grabs them and kisses them too. If not the first time, then the second. Or third.”
She was trying to change the conversation again, but I had a feeling she would continue to no matter how many times I pushed to understand what had happened with her tonight.
So instead of trying to get inside her mind one last time, I let my mouth pull into a smirk. “I’d hardly say we’re strangers, Firefly.”
That same confusion from before settled over her face. “Are you calling me—why are you calling me that?”
Because it’s exactly what she was.
I dipped my head closer to hers and asked, “Have you ever tried to catch a firefly?”
“What? No.”
I lifted a hand to cradle her face, and tried to contain the urge to pull her closer when she relaxed into my touch. It’d been so long since I’d had this, and the sickening sense of fear that crawled through my veins almost made me wish I’d never found it again.
I was afraid of losing the electric hum I felt everywhere I touched her. I was terrified of losing the only person who had made me feel in so long. But I didn’t know how to keep it. How to contain it.
Goddamn firefly.
I swallowed roughly as I forced that unwanted fear back. “You wait for them to light up in the dark, then try to catch them before they stop glowing,” I explained. “You’re the first light that has appeared after many very dark years. After tonight, I know I would chase you, just for you to keep slipping away week after week. But I also know I would willingly do it just to keep seeing you light up the dark.”
She stared at me in awe for a few moments before realizat
ion settled over her, and she tried to pull away from my hold. “I have to go.”
“My point exactly.”
“Right,” she huffed, her hazel eyes narrowing on me. “And how many girls have you used that ‘firefly’ thing on before?”
Her question stunned me for a second, but before I could give her a response, Johnny was suddenly there.
“Dare.”
I whipped my head toward him, ready to make him leave, but my demand died on my tongue when he said, “Time to go.”
There was nothing special about his words, but it was the tick of his eyebrow that meant everything, and a sudden surge of adrenaline and hatred pounded through my veins at the possibility of what was waiting for us.
I dipped my head in a nod. “Coming.”
Looking back at the girl in front of me, my sudden aggravation poured through my tone. “Before tonight? I’d never said those words to anyone. Before tonight? I hadn’t kissed anyone in years. I told you, my life has been dar—”
Her head was shaking and she hurried to speak over me. “You’re someone who kissed a stranger for all the wrong reasons. You can’t tell me it isn’t something you do.”
I met and held her stare, noting the hurt she was trying to cover with pride.
I saw it, and it was adding to the frustration that Johnny’s arrival meant for us all.
